Day: October 4, 2021

Vietnam’s largest steelmaker Hoa Phat Group has said its steel exports in September doubled compared to the previous month, hitting a record high of nearly 50,000 tonnes.

Its major markets included the US, European and Southeast Asian nations.

In the first nine months of 2021, Hoa Phat shipped over 273,000 tonnes of galvanised steel sheet abroad, rising 2.6-fold against the same period last year. The amount made up 64 percent of the total steel sheets sold in the period.

Hoa Phat was among the five largest steel sheet producers of Vietnam, holding about 6.5 percent in the market.

This year, its affiliate Hoa Phat Steel Sheet Company has bolstered exports to expand its coverage in world’s leading consumption markets, including the US, Mexico, European nations and the UK, especially ones with stringent origin tracing requirements.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The shortage of high-quality workforce is a “bottleneck” faced by domestic support industry enterprises, said economists.

Firms operating in the support industry now account for nearly 3.4 percent of all those working in the manufacturing and processing sector. They generate jobs for over 600,000 workers and generating over 900 trillion VND in revenue, or 8 percent of the workforce and about 11 percent of the total revenue of the manufacturing and processing industry, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) reported.

Among spare part manufacturers in Vietnam, many are capable of producing mold of various kinds, motorbike, bicycle and mechanical spare parts, electronic cable lines, plastic and rubber products, and tyres. Some of them are supplying for not only domestic firms but also foreign investors in the country. Their products are also exported worldwide.

Over the past years, the Government along with ministries, agencies and localities have issued a host of policies and mechanisms to develop the support industry.

In Resolution No.115/NQ-CP issued by the Government last year, a number of detailed measures were laid out to develop the industry till 2025 and 2030.

The MIT also held regular business-to-business meetings to connect domestic and foreign firms together in the country. At the Vietnam – Japan teleconference on support industries held in June this year, 21 Vietnamese firms had a chance to link up with 48 Japanese counterparts.

Akutsu Michio, member of the Japan Association of International Business Consultants, said productivity of the Vietnamese firms in the field remains low, adding that they must meet demand for regular supply, because when just a part out of thousands of components is missing, the whole production line will be suspended.

To improve their supply capability, Vietnamese support enterprises are advised to attract high-quality workforce apart from enhancing output and quality.

Boosting the development of the support industry is one of the important solutions for Vietnam to improve the quality of the economy, ensure sustainable development, avoid the middle income trap and enhance the country’s capacity of attracting foreign investment.

The efforts are also expected to encourage and assist domestic firms to join deeper into the supply chain of foreign-invested companies as well as the global supply chain.

Especially in 2025, the domestic support sector is expected to meet 45 percent of the basic demands for domestic production and consumption with about 1,000 businesses capable to directly supply supporting products to assembling companies and multinational groups in the Vietnamese territories.

With the same purpose, in late 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Trade launched the Vietnam Technology Advice and Solutions from Korea Centre (VITASK) and a mold technology centre.

The establishment of these facilities showed the desire to boost the growth of the support industry in a strong manner as well as promote cooperation and investment to enhance the capacity of Vietnamese firms in engaging deeper into the global supply chains, meeting the demand for seeking high quality human resources or promising partners from the Republic of Korea in Vietnam.

Experts held that the Industry Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to expand technical support centres across the country, while holding activities to assist industrial production firms as well as relevant industrial service providers.

Such centres will not only focus on introducing technologies and supporting businesses in accessing advanced technologies through international cooperation and the Government’s policies but also help them in research and development activities, creating new added values for domestic supporting products.

So far, Vietnam has engaged in many free trade agreements, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Therefore, the demand for cooperation and partnership among domestic and foreign firms is very high, along with the demand to develop investment and production.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The 13th Party Central Committee opened its fourth session in Hanoi on October 4 under the chair of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

Participants observed a minute’s silence in commemoration of people, officers and soldiers who died during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At this session, the Party Central Committee will focus on discussing COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control and the viewpoints and policies on this work in the new situation; socio-economic situation in 2021 and socio-economic development plan in 2022; the implementation of the state budget in 2021, the state budget estimate in 2022 and the financial-state budget plan for 2022 – 2024; and the policy on delaying the implementation of salary policy reform under Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW of the 7th Plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee.

This session also seeks to intensify Party building and rectification and the fight against degradation of political ideology, morality and lifestyle, and internal “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” manifestations.

The Central Committee will make adjustments and supplements to the regulations on things that Party members are not allowed to do, and consider several other important issues.

The session will last until October 7.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnamese ICT enterprises have benefited greatly from the fast digitalisation trend, with their revenues rising despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Google’s e-Conomy SEA 2020 report said COVID-19 has led to an acceleration of digital consumption as users tried new digital services for the first time.

According to the report, among users of digital services in Vietnam, new users accounted for 41 percent, higher than the Southeast Asia’s average. Notably, 94 percent of them intend to continue with the service post-pandemic.

Before the pandemic, Vietnamese spent an average 3.1 hours per day online. During lockdown, the figure rose to 4.2 hours per day which is expected to stay at 3.5 hours daily post-pandemic.

Vietnam is among countries with the fastest growing digital economies in Southeast Asia. By 2025, the Philippine digital economy’s compound annual growth rate is forecast to reach 30 percent, followed by Vietnam with 29 percent, Thailand 25 percent, Malaysia and Singapore 21 percent.

Benefiting from the trend, Digiworld JSC earned over 12.5 trillion VND (543 million USD) in revenue and more than 333.8 billion VND in pre-tax profit last year, up 47.6 percent and nearly 59 percent annually, respectively. The respective figures this year are forecast to grow by 58.5 percent and over 84 percent.

Experts from the Bao Viet Securities Company said laptops and tablets in Vietnam hold the potential of strong growth thanks to the work-from-home trend and online schooling till the end of the first academic year.

They added that the mobile phone market will rebound in the fourth quarter thanks to the re-opening of retail outlets nationwide, pent-up demand following lockdown, and launch of new products during peak season.

According to the Mobile World Investment Corporation and the FPT Digital Retail JSC, demand for laptops in August also doubled annually.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines is finalising steps to get its fleet ready to return to the sky when many domestic flights are to be resumed in early October.

With top priority put on safety, Vietnam Airlines has made careful technical examination and maintenance on the airplanes, which have been kept at airport without operating for months, before taking off.

Special attention has been paid to ensuring smooth and safe operations of the aircraft’ engines to ensure utmost safety of flights.

Meanwhile, Vietnam Airlines will continue to strictly apply pandemic prevention and control measures throughout the flights. All land staff as well as pilot and crewmembers of Vietnam Airlines have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

According to the airline, its fleet is ready for flights.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The fourth session of the 13th Party Central Committee will focus on sketching out policies, targets, tasks and solutions to strengthen Party building and rectification, stop and drive back the degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle as well as signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” among members, stated Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the opening of the session on October 4.

In his opening remarks, the Party leader stressed that Party building and rectification has always been the key task of special importance and vital significance to the Party and regime.

The 13th National Party Congress set out a number of major tasks on the building of the Party and political system, affirming the determination to continue persistently and resolutely implementing the resolutions adopted by the fourth session of the 11th Party Central Committee and the fourth session of the 12th Party Central Committee regarding Party building and rectification, he said.

Party General Secretary Trong suggested the combination of Party building and rectification with the construction of the political system in line with the spirit of the 13th National Party Congress.

He underlined the need for active preventive measures as well as strict handling of the degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle as well as corruption and negative phenomena among Party members.

Party Central Committee’s fourth session focuses on Party building, rectification hinh anh 3

The Party chief said that during this session, the Party Central Committee will also give opinions on issues related to COVID-19 prevention and control, socio-economic development, finance-budget,and the time to make adjustments in salary reform in the context of complicated developments with more serious challenges and difficulties than expected.

He noted that 2021 is the first year the country implements the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, creating a new motivation and new encouragement for the successful implementation of the socio-economic development plan for the next five years and the strategy for socio-economic development in the 2021-2030 period with a vision to 2045.

All the issues on the agenda of this session are very important to the realisation of the 13th National Party Congress, including the implementation of the major tasks of boosting the socio-economic growth as well as Party building and rectification, he stated.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Authorities of the central city of Da Nang has spent over 20.7 billion VND (900,000 USD) to support 824 fishing vessels since 2019 in accordance with the Resolution No. 255/2019/NQ-HÐND dated July 11, 2019 by the municipal People’s Council, reported the municipal Fisheries Sub-Department.

Under the resolution, owners of fishing vessels in the city will receive financial assistance to buy insurance for bodies of fishing vessels, journey monitoring devices, and fishing and preservation equipment between 2019 and 2025, apart from other State support.

As of October 1, the municipal authorities approved six aid packages worth nearly 2.7 billion VND for 265 vessels.

About equipment used in fishing and preservation of aquatic products, the city will fund half of expenditure, no more than 500 million VND per vessel.

To prevent and mitigate illegal, unreported and undocumented fishing (IUU), expenses for purchase of journey monitoring devices and first-year subscription for all offshore fishing vessels will be wholly funded by the municipal authorities.

So far, a total of 565 fishing vessels with a length of over 15m in the city have been equipped with journey monitoring devices. Over 17.8 billion VND have been approved for 557 devices while eight others are waiting for payment.

According to the sub-department, no IUU activity has been discovered since the installation of such devices in early 2021.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The northeastern coastal province of Quang Ninh has identified that maintaining COVID-19-free zones, dubbed ‘green zones’, serves as a prerequisite condition for tourism and services recovery in the new normal.

The province will gradually ease COVID-19 restrictions inside its boundary and only resume tourism activities once it is safe to do so.

In October, Quang Ninh will resume some tourism services serving only visitors from inside the province, while applying stringent preventive measures towards a pilot programme of welcoming tourists from other localities next month.

It is to set up links with its neighbour Hai Phong port city to open safe tours.

Under the plan, Quang Ninh will build safe multi-day tours to Tuan Chau island and the three islands of Co To, Van Don and Hai Ha, Mong Cai coastal city, as well as to mountainous communes in the province’s Binh Lieu district.

Local authorities also encourage overnight tours in Ha Long Bay and closed-loop services.

The province will soon join hands with Central Highlands localities that have brought COVID-19 under control to study the launch of ‘one route-two destinations’ tours in the time to come.

The Party delegation of the Quang Ninh People’s Committee has been asked to instruct localities and relevant agencies to study plans of setting up points of sale for products in the ‘One Commune, One Product’ (OCOP) programme and OCOP fairs at provincial and district levels, in an effort to increase visitors’ spending while travelling in the province.

During the 2021 – 2025 period, it is set to develop 300 new OCOP products, at least 250 of which will be rated three to five stars, with the participation of at least 50 economic organisations.

Between 2017 and 2020, the local OCOP programme had its focus switched from quantity to quality as more than 200 products were rated three to five stars, which is said to have helped improve rural residents’ living conditions and contributed to the building of new-style rural areas.

Quang Ninh, one of the three nuclei of the northern key economic region, has implemented the OCOP programme since 2013, and it is now taking the lead nationwide in this regard.

At present, Quang Ninh has 456 items in the OCOP programme, 236 of which have been granted ratings of three to five stars. To be given star ratings, those products have met basic, even advanced, standards, been made in modern and professional manufacturing processes, and had their packages and labels perfected.

A campaign has been rolled out to call on local people to prioritise ‘Make-in-Quang Ninh’ products and services in a bid to bolster consumption and contribute to the gross regional domestic product.

Since the fourth wave of COVID-19 outbreaks hit Vietnam in late April until October 1, Quang Ninh has basically kept the pandemic under control. It had gone through 94 days without new infections in the community by October 1 and administered the first COVID-19 shot for most of local residents.

People entering the province must be fully vaccinated and test negative for COVID-19 using Real Time RT-PCR method within 48 hours.

Quang Ninh set a target of welcoming 1.9-2 million tourists and earning 4-4.5 trillion VND (175.6 – 197.5 million USD) from tourism services in the last quarter of 2021.

It is home to Ha Long Bay, around two hours from Hanoi, which has earned a permanent spot on the global tourism map, with travel bloggers and filmmakers hailing its emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone pillars topped by rainforests.

The bay helped Quang Ninh welcome 14 million tourists, including 5.7 million foreigners, in 2019, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year.

Ha Long Bay, literally ‘descending dragon’ bay, was twice recognised as a World Natural Heritage site by UNESCO in 1994 and 2000. The bay spans 1,553 square kilometres and includes 1,969 islands of various sizes. It features thousands of limestone karsts and islets in various shapes and sizes.

Source: Vietnam News Agency