Day: April 5, 2022

The central city of Da Nang will offer the most favourable conditions for Samsung to expand cooperation and investment in the city and central Vietnam.

The city’s Party secretary Nguyen Van Quang made the remarks in a meeting with the General Director of Samsung Vietnam Choi Joo Ho during a visit to Da Nang on April 1.

Quang said Samsung Vietnam had invested in the north and south of Vietnam but not yet in central provinces and cities.

He expects Samsung Vietnam to eye investment in high-tech and information technology and software parks in Da Nang, where infrastructure is available for investors.

Choi Joo Ho said Samsung Vietnam had built six plants, including two smartphone factories in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen provinces, and an RandD centre and a home electronic appliance manufacturing factory in Ho Chi Minh City since it set up investment in Vietnam in 2008.

He asked Da Nang to support Samsung Vietnam’s trading activities in the city, including the 5G network project.

Local telecommunication developer Viettel, in cooperation with Samsung Vietnam, launched a pilot 5G network project in Da Nang last December – a base for building Da Nang as a ‘smart’ city by 2025.

Da Nang has been calling for investment in information and communications technology (ICT) from the Republic of Korea – one of five top foreign investors in the city – with 233 projects worth 378 million USD.

The city had made ICT infrastructure available to Korean investors for post-COVID-19 economic recovery.

The RoK’s LG Electronics began construction of its RandD centre – the second in Vietnam – in Da Nang last year.

The leading Korean hospitality corporation, Shilla Hotels and Resorts, debuted the Shilla Monogram Quang Nam-Da Nang resort on the beach of Quang Nam and Da Nang, with a total investment of 50 million USD.

Before the pandemic, local and Korean airlines hosted 214 direct and chartered flights and carried 1.5 million tourists to the central city (50 percent international visitors) per week.

Flights between Da Nang and the RoK are planned for reopening in the second quarter of 2022.

In 2020, the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea was opened in Da Nang, boosting investment and trade between the RoK and central Vietnam.

The Korea Trade and Investment Agency also opened its office in Da Nang to promote investment and connection among Korean investors.

Six industrial zones and a high-tech park in Da Nang drew 503 projects, including 130 FDI worth 1.8 billion USD and 27.56 trillion VND (1.2 billion USD), respectively, from domestic investors./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A conference took place in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang on April 5, spotlighting the delta’s implementation of a national target programme for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for 2021-2025.

According to Politburo member and Vice Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Tran Thanh Man, the national target programme, approved by the Prime Minister in October last year, targets to reduce the number of communes and hamlets with special difficulties by 50 percent by 2025; and basically put the percentage to zero percent by 2030. Its first stage is being rolled out from 2021-25.

The NA has approved more than 137 trillion VND (5.98 billion USD) to implement the programme from now to the end of 2025, Man said.

At the conference, participants discussed the programme’s tasks, solutions, planning, and conduction. They clarified that in addition to upgrading essential infrastructure, regional socio-economic development should pay more attention to promoting the organisation of commodity production following value chains, taking care of people’s spiritual lives, and supporting start-ups. In his conclusion, Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh stated the Party, State and Government always care for ethnic minorities and people living in mountainous areas.

The sum of 137 trillion VND approved for the programme during 2021-2025 is expected to create breakthroughs for growth in these areas, he said.

He ordered preparations to begin in April.

On the occasion, the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) presented gifts worth 4.5 billion VND to poor households in nine localities in the delta./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) aims to attract 1.1 million tourists from Southeast Asia this year, given that residents in the region can now largely travel without restrictions, according to Thanet Phetsuwan, TAT deputy governor of marketing for Asia and the South Pacific.

The TAT is actively promoting tourism as airlines are resuming international flights, borders are being re-opened, and people are learning to live with COVID-19, he said.

Besides Southeast Asia, the goal for Australia is around 200,000 tourists, and 450,000 for India, Thanet said.

The official said TAT has partnered with Thai AirAsia (TAA) to boost international visitors by launching joint promotions in different countries to attract at least 18,000 inbound package tours between April and July.

It set the goal of attracting 11,000 package tours from Vietnam, mainly targeting independent travelers and families with children, and 3,000 tours from Singapore, made up of young people and young couples.

The campaign is also targeting medical and wellness visitors from Malaysia and Cambodia, with around 1,000 package tours from each country.

Thailand has prepared a roadmap to define COVID-19 as an endemic disease in the coming months to accelerate the country’s economic recovery and attract more foreign visitors.

The country hopes to welcome 7 million foreign tourists this year after gradually easing restrictions, but given the current situation, some research units have reduced their foreign tourist arrival projection to 5.7 million, bringing revenue of 300 billion THB (about 9 billion USD)./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency