Day: April 4, 2022

Vietnam’s real estate industry has developed along with the recovery of the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, and is forecast to see brighter and more positive colours compared to 2021 and gradually return to the pre-pandemic trajectory (in 2019), according to the Vietnam Report Joint Stock Company.

The growth of this industry in the near future is mainly thanks to companies’ restructuring of their operations and their recovery from the negative impact of the pandemic, along with the support of stimulus packages.

Under the Government’s economic incentives, interest rates remain low, the disbursement of public investment is accelerated, foreign investment continue to flow strongly into Vietnam, and remittances stay stable (except for those from Russia and Ukraine).

In the short term, the Government’s economic stimulus package, no matter which area would benefit, will bring positive effects to the real estate market, thanks to the improvement of people’s purchasing power in general as well as their future income expectations, according to the Vietnam Report.

Experts said that the 350 trillion VND (15.3 billion USD) economic support package, which is about to be implemented with nearly 114 trillion VND allocated for the infrastructure sector, will not only have a direct impact on the real estate market in the short term but also work as a driving force for the development of the market in the coming years.

The growth engine for the real estate industry in general, not just in the post-pandemic period, is also affected by the trend of urbanisation and the rise of the middle class. The increase in the number of privately-owned cars also greatly impacts the demand for some segments of high-end apartments, resort real estate and land plots.

Vietnam Report quoted Knight Frank’s latest Prosperity report as saying that in the next 5 years, the growth of the super-rich in Vietnam is forecast to reach 26 percent, on par with China’s Hong Kong and Taiwan. This is the basis for many investors to continue pursuing the high-end and luxury segment in the coming time.

In addition to the supportive push, the real estate industry in 2022 also faces many challenges and obstacles due to outstanding problems in pandemic control work of countries in the world and Vietnam as well as in economic recovery, such as increasing number of new COVID-19 cases, the pressure from inflation and the general instability in geopolitics.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The People’s Committee of Hanoi has agreed with the municipal Department of Education and Training’s proposal to get pupils from first to sixth grades in 30 districts and townships across the city back to school for face-to-face learning from April 6 after a long period of online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts.

Under a document signed by Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Chu Xuan Dung on April 4, on the foundation of consensus of parents, schools are allowed to organise day-long direct learning and provide meals for students at schools.

Schools are requested to ensure safety against COVID-19 in line with the guidance given by the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Health, while making preparations and plans to respond to the situation where COVID-19 infections are detected in schools.

The Steering Committees for COVID-19 Prevention and Control of the districts are authorised to consider the suspension of direct learning to ensure utmost safety for students in case infections are found in classes and schools.

In its proposal, the Department of Education and Training clarified that positive signs have been seen in the COVID-19 situation in the capital city, with a sharp drop in the number of infections among teachers, school staff and students recently. The department said that it directed the Divisions of Education and Training of districts and townships to collect opinions from parents, which showed that more than 75 percent of parents agreed to bring their children from first to sixth grades to school for face-to-face learning.

The People’s Committee of Hanoi assigned the Department of Education and Training to coordinate with the Department of Health to regularly update and provide to localities with information on regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training and Ministry of Health regarding the organisation of education activities, and guiding them on the implementation.

The People’s Committees of districts and townships are responsible for making decisions on the organisation of direct learning in line with their real pandemic situation, while continuing to improving capacity for school medical forces.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The textile and garment industry is forecast to have a bright prospect in 2022, but as share prices have increased sharply since 2021, many stocks may not continue to rise significantly.

As a result, analysts say investors should only prioritise enterprises with good fundamental growth.

At the end of 2021, US President Joe Biden signed a law banning the import of cotton materials produced in Xinjian, China into the US. US Customs and Border Protection estimated that about 9 billion USD of cotton products were imported from China in 2021.

This can be seen as a great opportunity for Vietnamese cotton yarn companies such as Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (VGT), Damsan Joint Stock Company (ADS), and Phong Phu Corporation (PPH) among others.

It is similar to what happened in Europe in March 2021, when a series of major international fashion brands such as Nike, HandM, Uniqlo, and Zara announced they would stop using cotton materials from Xinjiang.

China’s share of textile and yarn exports to Europe fell from 52.4 percent in 2020 to 44.7 percent in 2021.

Vietnam became the EU’s sixth-largest non-regional textile supplier in 2021, accounting for 3 percent in value.

According to the European Textile and Apparel Federation (Euratex), the EU textile industry witnessed a strong recovery after COVID-19. Specifically, the value of textile and garment output had increased back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of November 2021.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) forecast global GDP growth to reach 4.9 percent in 2022, and world textile demand in 2022 will return to 2019 levels, reaching about 740 billion USD.

The recovery of the world textile and garment industry will also help Vietnam’s export turnover to complete the plan set out in 2022, at 43 billion USD, an increase of 4 billion USD compared to the figure of 39 billion USD in 2021.

Large textile companies such as Garment 10 Corporation JSC (M10), Century Yarn JSC (STK), Thanh Cong Textile Garment Investment Trading Joint Stock Company (TCM) have all had enough orders until the second quarter of and the third quarter of this year.

Despite facing many difficulties in the third quarter due to the tight distancing policy amid COVID-19, 2021 will be a successful year for textile and garment enterprises.

According to estimates of VNDirect Securities (VND), total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 of listed textile companies increased by 24.1 percent thanks to the recovery of textile companies in the south. After the end of the lockdown, most southern companies were running at 85-90 percent capacity, compared with 50-60 percent capacity in the third quarter.

Thanks to the fourth-quarter results, total revenue in 2021 of listed textile companies increased slightly by 7.6 percent while net profit increased by 57.4 percent. Companies recording impressive profit growth in 2021 include DamSan Joint Stock Company (ADS), up 303 percent, Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (VGT), up 161.4 percent, and Century Synthetic Fiber Corporation (STK), up 93 percent.

Business results in 2021 showed division among businesses in different regions. Northern garment companies such as Song Hong Garment Joint Stock Company (MSH), TNG Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company (TNG) have high-profit growths in 2021, both with an increase of more than 90 percent.

The reason was that these enterprises had improved their product portfolio, increasing free on board (FOB) orders.

Garment companies in the south saw lower profit growth because their factories only operated at 50-60 percent of capacity during the time of social distancing.

Among them, Thanh Cong Textile Garment Investment Trading Joint Stock Company (TCM) and Viet Tien Garment Corporation (VGG) were the two listed companies that recorded negative profit growth in 2021, down 48 percent and 41 percent, respectively.

According to statistics, the textile and garment stock group has achieved impressive growth since the beginning of 2021, reaching between 48-291 percent.

Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (VGT) up 153 percent, Song Hong Garment Joint Stock Company (MSH), up 126 percent, Century Synthetic Fiber Corporation (STK) up 178 percent, TNG Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company (TNG) up 116 percent, DamSan Joint Stock Company (ADS) up 291 percent.

For this reason, analysts recommend that investors be cautious when investing in textile and garment stocks at present. According to VNDirect Securities Co (VND), although the textile and garment industry is expected to have a bright prospect in 2022, investors need to invest selectively because most of the industry’s shares are no longer cheap. Investors should only prioritise enterprises with plans of factory capacity expansion in 2022-2025.

DamSan Joint Stock Company (ADS), Thanh Cong Textile Garment Investment Trading Joint Stock Company (TCM), and TNG Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company (TNG) have expanded their business further to the segments of real estate and industrial park real estate. It is expected that the new business segments will help these businesses maintain profit growth in the period 2022-2025.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Vietnam International Travel Mart (VITM) 2022 wrapped up in Hanoi on April 3, drawing over 2,000 businesses and 40,000 visitors.

Themed “New normal – new opportunities for Vietnamese tourism, the event attracted the participation of more than 500 firms from 52 provinces and cities nationwide and six countries and territories, in a special context as the tourism industry has experienced a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and is recovering after the country’s full reopening of tourism activities from March 15.

As many as 25 events were held in the framework of the four-day fair, including a forum on Vietnam’s tourism recovery and a workshop on tourism human resources development.

A launch ceremony for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) tourism club of Vietnam and a programme introducing destinations in Vietnamese localities also took place at the event.

In the first quarter of this year, the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam reached nearly 91,000, a year-on-year rise of 89.1 percent. Among them, visitors arriving by air accounted for nearly 90.5 percent of the total international arrivals to Vietnam, an increase of 165.2 percent.

The tourism sector targets to welcome 5 million foreign visitors and 60 million domestic tourists this year, and revenue of about 400 trillion VND (17.5 billion USD).

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said that the Government is considering removing the mandatory requirement of wearing masks for COVID-19 prevention, at least in some provinces of the country.

Speaking at an inauguration ceremony of 38 roads in the tourist province of Siem Reap on April 3, Hun Sen said he was considering lifting the regulation in the first two pilot provinces of Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey. If the pilot is successful, Cambodia could expand the deregulation across the nation.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Cambodia has applied a mandatory mask wearing policy on the streets and public places, with failure to comply resulting in heavy fines.

On April 2, Secretary of State and Ministry of Health spokesman Or Vandine said that the COVAX vaccine distribution mechanism had just decided to increase the amount of vaccine for Cambodia from 20 percent to 30 percent of the country’s total population. So far, 14.8 million people of Cambodia’s 16-million population have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The nation has resumed socio-economic activities, with fully vaccinated tourists allowed to enter without quarantine from November last year.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A total of 48,717 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Vietnam on March 4, marking it the first time the country has reported less than 50,000 daily infections since February 21.

The new transmissions bring the total caseload in the country to 9,867,045 since the start of the pandemic

Out of the new cases, two were imported and quarantined upon arrival.

The capital city of Hanoi still had the highest number of infections, with 5,568, followed by Dak Lak (3,925) and Bac Giang (2,649) provinces.

Also on March 4, 42 COVID-19 related deaths were also announced, raising the total death toll to 42,642.

The same day, 55,873 patients fully recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 7,843,835.

There are currently 1,942 severe cases being treated in hospitals, including 15 on life support.

More than 206.55 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the country so far.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam has been picked by analysts from leading Wall Street banks as one of the three hottest markets in the Southeast Asian region, according to the US’s TV channel CNBC.

CNBC asked the analysts of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Asset Management which Southeast Asian markets were their top picks, and received Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam as the answer.

Desmond Loh, a portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management described Vietnam as a “star performer in the past few years” in economic resiliency and growth. Vietnam is one of the few economies globally to have seen positive economic growth throughout the pandemic, he added.

“To capitalise on the growth, we are positioned in high quality consumer proxies and banks,” he said, without naming specific stocks.

Earlier, in the one-page preview of his forthcoming book, the Time Travelling Economist, Charlie Robertson explains why Vietnam ticks every box required to escape poverty, reach middle income status and converge towards developed market wealth levels.

Why is Vietnam so favoured by global investors, that it accounts for 25 percent of all the global money invested in Frontier equities, when Vietnam is just one (5 percent) out of 22 countries in the MSCI Frontier index? The economist mentioned Vietnam’s investment in education, the country’s leadership and its success in reaping the benefits of the demographic dividend.

Source: Vietnam News Agency