Day: April 15, 2022

Six teams from Vietnam, Laos and Thailand will compete at the E-Sports Mobile Legends: Bang Bang tournament titled ‘MSC Mekong Qualifier 2022’, ahead of the upcoming 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 31) scheduled for May, the Vietnam Recreational E-sport Association (VIRESA) announced on April 15.

The competition will take place from April 19-24, with prizes totaling 10,000 USD. The top team will also win a berth to compete at the MSC 2022.

The squads will play in the Best of 2 (BO2) match type in the first stage, BO3 in the final round, and BO5 at the final.

At the SEA Games 31, e-sports consists of eight games and 10 events, including League of Legends: Wild Rift-Mobile, PUBG Mobile, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

SEA Games 31, themed “For a Stronger South East Asia”, will be held from May 12-23 in 12 cities and province. The regional biennial event will see the participation of almost 10,000 athletes, coaches and officials of 40 sports.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Authorities of the northern province of Quang Ninh have taken a wide range of measures to ensure security, order and traffic safety in a bid to successfully host sport events of the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 31) in May.

The local police will mobilise maximum resources and vehicles to patrol, control and strictly handle violations of traffic order and safety; and effectively use monitoring systems in handling violations, especially in the localities where sport events will be organised such as Ha Long, Uong Bi and Cam Pha cities.

Quang Ninh police are coordinating with relevant units to inspect accommodation facilities for athletes, and competition venues in the locality.

Attention has been also paid to communication activities to raise awareness of traffic safety amongst local residents.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Qualcomm Incorporated has presented 2,400 laptops with 4G/LTE connections to schools in far-flung areas across Vietnam in response to the Government’s ‘Internet Connection and Computers for Students’ programme.

The information was released at an event held by Qualcomm and the Dariu Foundation in Hanoi on April 14 to review their collaboration on the Vietnam Forward program, which aims to advance digital literacy and competencies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among youth.

Vietnam Forward is a programme that provides students with access to Always On, Always Connected computers powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon® compute platforms and equipped with mobile LTE capabilities to ensure a continuous connection to the Internet with 4G/LTE.

Approximately 100,000 primary-level and secondary-level students at 80 rural schools have been equipped with the technical building blocks to develop workplace skills needed for economic self-sufficiency. Students are learning to code in class and with a code club membership, they take devices home to work on collaborative computer programming-based assignments.

The support has helped prevent disruption in students’ learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and contributed to the digital transformation process in Vietnam’s education sector.

ST Liew, Vice President of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and President of Qualcomm’s business in Taiwan and South East Asia, said, “At Qualcomm, we believe that providing access to wireless technologies can significantly improve people’s lives. This is particularly relevant in Vietnam where we recognize the goals of advancing the country’s digital transformation and we see the role that we can play in doing so.”

The ‘Internet Connection and Computers for Students’ programme was launched on September 12 last year, when students in many localities had to switch to online learning due to social distancing measures triggered by spreading COVID-19.

The program aims to mobilise 1 million computers, and ensure mobile service coverage at all 283 points without mobile Internet connection in localities that are applying social distancing regulations, and 1,910 other places nationwide.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam exported 1.14 million tonnes of rice worth 715 million USD in the first quarter of 2022, up 24 percent in volume and 10.5 percent in value year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The traditional markets of the Vietnamese food crop such as the Philippines, Malaysia and China still recorded stable growth in the period.

According to the ministry, the food demand in the world is forecast to continue increasing, with many signals showing that businesses can make good use of opportunities from the markets as well as free trade agreements (FTA) to help boost Vietnam’s export.

The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) reported that the export price of Vietnamese rice on April 13 was the top among the large major rice exporting countries.

In the last quarter, Vietnamese businesses mainly delivered rice to the Philippines under contracts signed last year, but many signs show that the demand is positive.

Since the European Union – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into effect, the export price of Vietnamese rice to the EU has increased by 10 – 20 USD/tonne. According to the EU statistical office Eurostat, among the supplies for the bloc, rice from Vietnam saw the highest price with an increase of more than 20 percent.

Vietnamese rice exporters are advised to pay attention to improving the quality of rice in order to maintain a competitive advantage in thi EU market.

Rice market analyst Nguyen Dinh Bich said that the price of rice increased due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine tension. In the world market, prices of agricultural products such as corn, wheat, and soybean have also increased sharply.

The VFA forecast that the rice export in the second quarter will be more stable as importing countries are stepping up their purchases, and more countries are interested in food stockpiling due to political tensions in a number countries.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai has signed a decision approving the public debt strategy until 2030, which sets a target of keeping it at under 60 percent of the GDP and Government debts not exceeding 50 percent of the GDP in 2030.

The strategy aims to control the State budget overspending that has been approved by the National Assembly in the State budget estimate and national financial plan for the 2021-2025 period, ensuring debt safety.

Government’s direct debt obligations are expected to not exceed 25 percent of the annual total State budget collection and the national foreign debt obligations, to be below 45 percent of the GDP, according to the scheme.

Governmental bonds will be issued regularly with standard terms, focusing on at least five years in terms, while bonds with terms of less than five years will also be issued flexibly, along with foreign-currency bonds in the domestic capital market to meet the capital mobilisation demands and to complete targets in developing Government bond market.

International bonds will be issued to make up for the annual State budget overspendings on development investment and restructure the Government’s debts in favourable market conditions.

At the same time, efforts will be made to disburse ODA capital and foreign soft loans that Vietnam had borrowed until the end of 2020. New loans will be borrowed for major sectors, prioritising projects that directly promote growth and sustainable development.

Local administrations’ loans will be kept within the scope of local budget overspendings approved by the National Assembly, and within the outstanding loan limit in line with regulations of the Law on State Budget.

Meanwhile, contingent debt obligations will be tightly controlled, while the growth rate of Government guarantee loans will be managed to not exceed the GDP growth rate of the previous year. Alongside, foreign debt of enterprises and credit institutions will be strictly managed at reasonable limits.

The decision took effect from April 14, replacing the decision issued by the Prime Minister on July 27, 2012.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Two decrees on the extension of deadlines for payment of taxes and land rental fees will take effect immediately after the Government’s approval, according to Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Finance (MoF)’s General Department of Taxation.

MoF has submitted the draft decrees to the Government and expect them to be ratified this month, Minh said.

According to the draft, the payment of value added tax (VAT), corporate income tax (CIT), personal income tax (PIT) and land and water surface leasing fees in 2022 will be extended.

Regarding VAT, it proposes a six-month extension for VAT from March to May 2022 and the first quarter of 2022; five-month extension for VAT in June 2022 and Q2 2022; four-month extension for VAT in July 2022; and 3-month extension for VAT in August 2022.

If the plan is approved, the total extended VAT will be 53.3-54.3 trillion VND. However, the State budget collection in 2022 won’t decrease because businesses will have to pay tax prior to December 31, 2022.

For CIT, MoF proposes extension of the tax payment that enterprises have to pay temporarily for the second and third quarters of 2022. The extension time is three months. It’s estimated that the total amount of tax to be extended is 51-52 trillion VND.

As for business households and individuals, MoF proposes the extension of VAT and PIT in 2022. They will have to pay taxes no later than December 31, 2022. The amount of tax to be extended is 15.304 trillion VND.

In addition, MoF has proposed a six-month extension for the payment of fees for leasing land and water surface in 2022, starting from May 31, 2022.

Beneficiaries of the policies include enterprises, organisations, business households and individuals operating in agro-forestry-fishery, construction, entertainment, crude oil extraction, food production, transport vehicles production, waste water treatment, logistics, hospitality and catering services, education, healthcare and real estate.

Credit institutions and branches of foreign banks in Viet Nam providing support for enterprises and customers affected by the pandemic could also be subject to extension of tax payment deadline under the decree.

Since 2020, MoF has proposed a number of support solutions related to tax and fees with the total value of 477.25 trillion VND, of which 134.454 trillion VND was tax exemption and 342.8 trillion VND was tax payment extension.

The tax payment extension is seen as an interest rate-free loan provided by the State, which helps enterprises and individuals have more financial resources.

Many economists believe that extending taxes and land rents benefits companies since enterprises have a substantial flow of cash that they may invest in manufacturing and business, therefore promoting growth.

According to Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc, the extension of deadlines for payment of taxes and land rental fees is part of the Government’s efforts to support businesses and people to overcome difficulties to recover and develop in the context of declining State budget revenue.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The People’s Committee of Ba Dinh district has submitted a proposal to the Hanoi People’s Committee on the organisation of two night-time pedestrian spaces around Ngoc Khanh lake and Dao Ngoc-Ngu Xa peninsula on Truc Bach lake.

The pedestrian space around Ngoc Khanh lake in Ngoc Khanh ward is about 340m in length, comprising Pham Huy Thong Street and eight branches linking Ngoc Khanh Lake with Kim Ma, Nguyen Chi Thanh and La Thanh streets.

More stalls as well as entertainment and street art activities will be arranged at weekends and during festivals.

The space will be opened between 9am and 10pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Local authorities would then consider opening the street for the whole week.

Meanwhile, the Dao Ngoc-Ngu Xa area, covering seven streets in Truc Bach ward, will be closed off from 7pm to midnight to serve as a food zone every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

In the long run, the district will consider opening the food zone every day and banning vehicles from 7pm to 5am on the next day.

The area has long been a popular food hub for domestic and foreign visitors, drawing about 400 people in day time and up to 600 people at night.

Local authorities plan to organise more fairs introducing specialties of localities as well as street cultural and art activities at weekends and festivals.

Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ba Dinh Ta Nam Chien said that almost all households in the project areas have supported the organisation of the spaces.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Border guards of the northern province of Lao Cai and Hekou border management force of China’s Yunnan province discussed measures to intensify cooperation in law enforcement in the border areas during their talks on April 15.

Despite complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past time, the two sides have maintained their close, effective coordination in the implementation of signed cooperation mechanisms.

They have exchanged information via the hotline, conducted joint patrols over law observance, and joined hands in crime combat and the pandemic fight. Both sides have made efforts to build a common border of peace, friendship and development.

At the talks, they agreed to consolidate such cooperation mechanisms, increase the sharing of information about cross-border crimes, and enhance cooperation in the investigation work.

They will also step up the communication work to promote achievements in the crime combat, and raise capacity for cooperation in drug prevention and control.

Source: Vietnam News Agency