Day: October 31, 2021

So far, Hanoi authorities have help those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with more than 3.086 trillion VND (about 134.6 million USD), with over 2.69 trillion VND coming from the State budget.

Besides, localities in the capital have provided financial assistance to eight groups of beneficiaries with its specific policies.

As for the groups of the poor, near-poor, and needy, authorities have completed the provision of assistance totally more than 282 billion VND to the over 282,000 recipients.

Municipal and local authorities are still mobilising donations from various sources to help those in need.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh landed at Prestwick airport on October 31 morning (local time), starting his trip for the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) and a working visit to the UK at the invitation of his counterpart Boris Johnson.

During his stay from October 31 to November 3, the leader is scheduled to address the conference and have bilateral meetings with leaders of countries, international organisations and funds, and others.

His participation in the conference will extend a strong message on a responsible, proactive and active Vietnam that is joining hands with the international community in settling global challenges on climate change; and demonstrates determination, efforts as well as difficulties and challenges facing Vietnam in coping with the phenomenon.

The PM’s visit to the UK will help consolidate the political trusts and further deepen multi-faceted cooperation; thus making the bilateral relations become more practical and effective.

The Vietnam-UK strategic partnership have, over the recent past, developed strongly and positively. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries have still maintained the exchange of high-level delegations and contacts.

The UK is now Vietnam’s third largest export market in Europe, and its 13th largest foreign investor.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The trip to the UK by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) and visit this country will be a chance for Vietnam to show its responsible engagement in settling global climate change challenges and enhance the strategic partnership with the UK.

As Vietnam is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, the Party and State have always prioritised climate change response during socio-economic development.

The PM’s participation in the COP26 is an occasion for the country to demonstrate its responsible, proactive, and active participation in settling global climate change challenges, while helping the international community understand its policy, determination, and efforts, as well as the difficulties and challenges facing the country in response to the phenomenon.

This is also a rare chance amid the COVID-19 pandemic for leaders of countries to increase bilateral activities. Within the COP26 framework, PM Chinh is set to have meetings with leaders of some countries, international organisations, and important partners.

The Government leader of Vietnam will also pay a working visit to the UK.

The two countries set up a strategic partnership in 2010 and have cooperated closely and effectively with each other when Vietnam served as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2008 – 2009 and 2020 – 2021.

Vietnam ranks 38th among the 241 trade partners of and 25th among the 233 countries exporting to the UK, which in turn is the third largest European trade partner of the Southeast Asian nation.

The two sides officially signed the UK – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA), developed basing on the EU – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), in London on December 29, 2020. This deal is hoped to create a comprehensive, long-term, and stable framework for bilateral economic and trade ties.

They have also worked closely with each other in various areas, including defence – security, human trafficking combat, democracy and human rights issues, development cooperation, education – training, and science – technology.

Regarding COVID-19 response, the British Government presented 415,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Vietnam. The Vietnamese Ministry of Health and the Vietnam Vaccine JSC signed a contract with the AstraZeneca group to purchase 30 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in November 2020. Nearly 15 million vaccine doses under this contract had arrived in Vietnam as of September 27.

On August 21, Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son sent letters to British Foreign and Development Secretary Dominic Raab and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, asking for the provision of as-many-as-possible continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines for Vietnam.

The UK is also expected to recognise the COVID-19 vaccination certificate of Vietnam in the time ahead.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon right after landing at Prestwick Airport on October 31 morning (local time).

The Government leader is staying in the UK to attend the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and pay a working visit to the country.

Talking to the host, PM Chinh affirmed that Vietnam treasures and wishes to enhance the effective and substantive cooperation with the UK and its regions, including Scotland.

Highly valuing the potential of Vietnam – Scotland relations, he called on Scotland to share experience, help with human resources training, grant scholarships for Vietnamese students, and send experts to assist the Southeast Asian country.

He also asked Sturgeon to facilitate Vietnamese goods’ access to the Scottish market, assuring that Vietnam encourages and creates favourable conditions for British businesses, including those from Scotland, to expand investment in important sectors of the Vietnamese economy.

Welcoming PM Chinh and the Vietnamese delegation to the COP26 held in Scotland, First Minister Sturgeon expressed her belief that Vietnam will contribute to the success of this event. She also hailed the country’s significant contributions to common efforts in climate change response.

She voiced her support for PM Chinh’s proposals, noting that Scotland is ready to share its experience and cooperate with Vietnam in developing inshore wind power.

The official added she hopes for stronger ties in human resources development and welcomes Vietnamese students to Scotland.

At the meeting, the two sides agreed on the necessity of cooperation in ensuring equal access to vaccine sources in the COVID-19 fight.

PM Chinh proposed Scotland to assist Vietnam in vaccine supply and essential medical supplies.

He also took this occasion to invite the First Minister and enterprises of Scotland to visit and explore investment opportunities in Vietnam.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Country Strategy Dialogue on Vietnam, held on late October 29, came to a success, demonstrating the WEF and global enterprises’ attention to and trust in the Vietnamese economy, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu has said.

In an interview granted to the press, Vu elaborated that the WEF’s first-ever Country Strategy Dialogue on Vietnam gathered WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab, President of the forum Borge Brende, and nearly 70 leading enterprises and investors who have invested or are planning to invest in the country.

Leading enterprises in the region and the world highlighted the prospect of and their trust in the investment and business climate in Vietnam. They also straightforwardly pointed out the difficulties and problems facing them while operating here and put forth proposals to help the country quickly recover its economy and realise long-term targets, Vu said.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh repeated to businesses his message of “harmonising interests, sharing risks” and “win-win cooperation” between the Government and the business community in the current context.

Particularly, he underlined the Vietnamese Government’s commitment and resolve to make reforms, transform the economy, and create new opportunities for the sustainable, inclusive, and innovative development of the Vietnamese economy and domestic and foreign enterprises.

Besides, the open and straightforward dialogue reflected enterprises and investors’ trust in the Vietnamese economy, as well as the business and investment prospect here. It also showed their trust in the Government’s unceasing efforts to reform and improve the business environment so as to promote the public – private partnership between international enterprises and the Vietnamese Government and people, Vu noted.

He expressed his belief that this trust will lead to new investment and investment expansion decisions in mutually beneficial areas in the country.

Many participants, including the WEF leaders and major groups, spoke highly of the Government’s resolution which identified the right direction of shifting to the production and business recovery period with the pandemic under control, enabling them to restore normal operations.

They held that the recent difficulties they have faced in Vietnam just lasted for a short period of time while the country’s prospect and advantages are still outstanding. Vietnam has a critically important geo-economic position in a dynamic economic region, it is an economy with a large market of nearly 100 million people and also part of the network of regional and global free trade agreements, and it also boasts numerous advantages for attracting and keeping foreign investors, according to the Deputy Minister.

He cited the WEF and business leaders as saying that the difficulties and challenges are common, but the Vietnamese Government has displayed an open-minded attitude and readiness to accompany enterprises in tackling difficulties and challenges, thereby helping enhance investors’ trust.

The international business community made highly positive assessment of Vietnam’s economic outlook, which will open up a number of new chances for cooperation between the country and foreign enterprises in the time ahead, the official added.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) posted a record loss of over 856 billion VND (37.3 million USD) in post-tax profit in the third quarter, blaming the poor performance on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the biggest quarterly loss since the firm’s initial public offering in 2016. That compared to the loss of over 356 billion VND in Q2 last year, when airlines had to suspend almost their entire networks.

The net revenue from sales and service provision stood at around 370 billion VND in Q3, down 74.3 percent year on year. The firm suffered from a loss of more than 1 trillion VND in core business activities, according to its consolidated financial statement.

Although its net revenue dropped strongly under COVID-19 impacts, the ACV has still had to carry out policies supporting airlines.

The ACV earned nearly 500 billion VND in profit in the first nine months of 2021, but the sum plunged by three times from 2020.

By September 30, its total asset value had dropped by over 1.5 trillion VND from the start of this year to 55.36 trillion VND.

The corporation looks to gain more than 10.56 trillion VND in revenue and 2.36 trillion VND in pre-tax profit in 2021. However, after nine months, it had fulfilled just almost 36 percent and 26 percent of the respective targets.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vinamilk, Vietnam’s largest dairy maker, posted a quarterly record-high consolidated revenue of over 16.2 trillion VND (706.57 million USD) in the third quarter of 2021, up 4.1 percent year-on-year.

Its Q3 consolidated after-tax profit edged up 3.4 percent from a year earlier to over 2.96 trillion VND.

However, consolidated profit margin reached 42.9 percent, a slight decrease against the first half of the year, largely due to surging prices of input materials caused by global supply chain disruption and anti-dumping taxes imposed on some materials.

The company’s revenue from exports topped 1.55 trillion VND, equivalent to last year’s figure.

Its consolidated revenue and post-tax profit totalled nearly 45.18 trillion VND and 8.42 trillion VND, respectively, in the first nine months of this year, representing 73 – 75 percent of the yearly plan.

Vinamilk has been running a network of 17 dairy factories both in Vietnam and overseas, and 15 dairy farms with a total of close to 160,000 milch cows.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A photo exhibition on popular landscapes in Algeria and Vietnam was launched in Algiers on October 30 to mark the 59th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations (October 28, 1962 – 2021).

The function was co-held by the Vietnamese Embassy in Algeria and the Algerian Federation of Vovinam Vietvodao (Vietnamese martial arts) (FAVV).

On display were about 60 photos depicting magnificent landscapes in Vietnam and Algeria and capturing beautiful moments of daily life in the two countries. The event also featured Vietnamese martial arts performances by FAVV members and popular Vietnamese traditional dishes.

In his welcoming remarks, Ambassador Nguyen Thanh Vinh highlighted the history of the bilateral relations which was established even before Algeria gained independence.

Vinh expected that with strong political ties and determination of the two countries’ leaders, their multifaceted cooperation will thrive further in the coming time.

He also said he hopes via the event, visitors will have a better understanding of the beauty of the two nations’ natural landscapes and peoples as well as Vietnam’s Vovinam.

The Trade Office of Vietnam in Algeria took the occasion to set up a stall introducing various Vietnamese products in agriculture, fisheries, handicrafts, electric appliances and others, to local enterprises and organisations.

It also popularised a list of reputable Vietnamese exporters and announced a plan to invite Algerian companies to a webinar on logistics in Vietnam to be held on November 3 – 4.

Source: Vietnam News Agency