Day: August 13, 2022

The 27th South-Central and Central Highlands Fine Art Exhibition kicked off in Da Nang city on August National Day (September 2).

This is a major annual cultural activity of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association (VFAA) and visual artists from provinces and cities in the regions.

On display are 167 fine art works spotlighting the love for the homeland, the daily life, festivals, customs and natural landscapes across the country.

These are new works created from August 2021 to the present by 156 authors who are members of the VFAA and members and collaborators of the literature and arts associations of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak and Da Nang.

According to the organisers, each work introduced at the event is a message of life from the soul, feelings and responsibility of artists and soldiers on the cultural front, contributing to building and developing Vietnam’s contemporary fine arts, and to the development of an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity.

The exhibition will last until September 5.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The real estate market of Vietnam showed signs of recovery and more balanced development in the second quarter of this year with increases in the number of successful transactions of apartments, houses and land, according to the report of the Ministry of Construction.

The absorption rates were high in most product segments while there were no new inventories, and the vacancy rate of office and commercial space for rent gradually decreased.

The ministry said there were almost no affordable apartments with prices from 25 million VND to 30 million VND per sq.m at commercial housing projects in central areas. Apartments at these prices were only available in a few projects in areas away from the city centres.

Some projects at this price range were xpHomes in Dan Phuong district, Gemek Premium in Hoai Duc, Xuan Mai Complex in Ha Dong, Hanoi; Dream Home Riverside in District 8, Ehome S in District 9, HCM City; and FPT City Da N?ng in Ngu Hanh Son, Da Nang.

Mid-end apartment segment, with prices of about 30 million VND to less than 50 million VND per sq.m, was still the main product in the market. In Hanoi, Keangnam in Nam Tu Liem, Molody Residences in Hoang Mai and Vinhomes Smart City in Nam Tu Liem were some at this price range while in HCM City, there were Sunrise City in Distict 7 and CityLand Park Hills in Go Vap and in Da Nang, the Sang Residence in Ngu Hanh Son.

High-end apartments with prices of over 50 million VND per sq.m were mainly located near centres such as Heritage West Lake in Tay Ho district, T-Place in Hoan Kiem, Grand Marina Saigon in District 1, Vinhomes Golden River Ba Son in District 1 and Landmark Residence in Hai Chau district.

The ministry said housing prices were higher than the end of 2021, but the increase rate slowed.

In the second quarter, more than 69,000 transactions and 27,160 housing units were put on the market.

In general, the housing supply remained limited compared to the demand in the second quarter. There were no new inventories of apartments, houses and land plots as most projects opened for sale had good liquidity.

The limited housing supply in the first half of this year is due to the move to tighten legal procedures for real estate projects. Besides, the capital flow in the real estate market was narrowed down from the tightening of control on credit and corporate bond issuance as well as the decline of the bond market.

The ministry’s statistics showed that only 29 commercial housing projects with 6,753 apartments were licensed in the past quarter, equivalent to 42% of the same period last year.

Mid-end apartments and land plots had the highest demand.

Sixteen land plot projects were completed in the second quarter with a total of 7,324 plots, 78% higher than the first quarter. More than 200 projects were underway with 66,596 plots, and 10 new projects with more than 4,000 plots got licences in the quarter.

The inventories are mainly high-end apartments and houses, tourism property and especially projects with poor infrastructure conditions.

To promote the healthy and sustainable development of the real estate market, the ministry said that it was necessary to speed up the drafting of the amended Law on Housing and Law on Real Estate Business to submit to the National Assembly for review.

Policies of investment, planning, construction, land, tax, credit, and auctioning real estate business must also be completed to remove difficulties and create favourable conditions for the development of the real estate market.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Trade between Vietnam and Laos rose 24.2% in the first seven months of this year to nearly 949 million USD, with Vietnam’s export value of nearly 586 million USD, reported the Vietnam Trade Office in Laos.

The office said that the major products Vietnam shipped to Laos included petrol, vegetables, fertilizers, clinker and cement, electric wires and cables, paper and paper products, ceramics, and garment products.

Meanwhile, Vietnam mostly imported from Laos fertilizers, rubber, wood and furniture, ore and other minerals.

In July alone, two-way trade hit 125 million USD, a surge of 54.1% year on year, including Vietnam’s export revenue of nearly 53.2 million USD, up 33.9%. This was the third consecutive month that Vietnam enjoyed an increase in exports to Laos, helping reduce the fall in the turnover to minus 1.6% from minus 6% in the first half of this year.

In August, Vietnam expects continuous rise in exports to Laos thanks to the stable conditions of the Lao economy, the reduction in petrol prices in the world and the rising number of Vietnamese investors in Laos.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Some qualified commercial banks are forecast to get higher credit growth quotas from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) in the next few months.

According to the Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), the SBV is expected to announce a credit expansion for commercial banks at the end of Q3 2022 or at the beginning of Q4 2022 as most banks have so far used up most of their assigned credit quota.

However, as the SBV has so far decided to keep the credit growth target unchanged at 14% in 2022, the selection of banks to get a higher credit growth quota in the remaining months of this year will be tightened.

According to the SBV’s rules, the granting of credit growth quota will be based on the asset quality and operation scale of each bank according to Circular 52/2018/TT-NHNN. Specifically, the SBV will rank banks according to six criteria, including capital, asset quality, governance, business performance results, liquidity and sensitivity to market risks.

The SBV will also consider a number of other criteria related to the banks’ implementation in meeting policies and orientations of the Government and the SBV, such as reducing lending interest rates to support firms and people, focusing loans on business and production, and participating in supporting the handling of weak banks.

According to the criteria, MB, Vietcombank, VietinBank, BIDV and Agribank are forecast to get higher credit expansion than others in the next quota allocation as the banks were the strongest supporters of the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, MB and Vietcombank are also participating in restructuring weak banks in the form of mandatory transfer. Therefore, the two banks will get higher credit growth quota not only in H2 2022, but also in the following years.

MB has been implementing a plan to receive a mandatory transfer of OceanBank. The bank’s vice chairman Luu Trung Thai said the cooperation with OceanBank is both a political task and an opportunity for MB to expand its operational scale. MB will coordinate with OceanBank to check their data system before developing a plan to submit to the Government.

Meanwhile, Vietcombank is also working on a mandatory transfer of Construction Bank (CB).

Meeting the SBV’s criteria, BVSC estimates Vietcombank can be allowed to expand its credit room to about 19% in 2022, while the number for MB will be about 25%.

Besides the above banks, VPBank can also get a higher credit quota as the bank has considered a plan to receive a mandatory transfer of a weak bank.

After a period of overheating growth which caused interest rates and inflation to accelerate in Vietnam, the SBV decided to grant an annual credit growth quota for each bank to control the credit growth ceiling in 2011. Currently, very few countries in the world still use a credit growth granting tool like Vietnam.

According to experts, removing the credit growth limit is necessary, but not immediately, and should be placed on a roadmap. For instance, the SBV announces within five years it will remove the credit limit. During these five years, the SBV will tell commercial banks how to do a stress test and solve the bank’s weaknesses, and deal with weak banks as well, with regulations on checking data and responsibilities. If there is no specific schedule set, no bank will do it.

Instead of controlling the credit growth ceiling, the SBV should control credit growth through capital standards according to Basel, combined with modern banking management tools such as periodic checks. This still creates a credit limit for banks, but on a more quantitative, objective and transparent basis.

Dr Can Van Luc, member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, told Viet Nam News that the SBV should remove the mechanism of granting credit room and managing credit growth through the capital adequacy ratio of banks.

“This credit limit granting mechanism should only be a temporary solution for the next one or two years,” Luc said.

According to the latest data released by the SBV, credit growth of the entire banking system as of July 26 reached 9.42%. With a credit growth target of 14% in 2022, credit can increase by nearly 4.6% in the last five months of this year, equivalent to about 478 trillion VND.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Bamboo Airways Joint Stock Company on August 13 successfully held an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (EGMS) with the additional election of Le Ba Nguyen, Nguyen Manh Quan, Le Thai Sam and Doan Huu Doan as members of the Board of Management (BOM) in place of resigned members.

The BOM discussed and approved the election of Nguyen Ngoc Trong to the position of its Chairman, and Doan Huu Doan to the position of Executive Vice Chairman for the term 2019-2024.

Nguyen Ngoc Trong has been one of Bamboo Airways’ leaders since its inception and the first Deputy General Director of Bamboo Airways since 2018. He has held the position of Vice Chairman of Bamboo Airways since April 2022.

Hence, the BOM of Bamboo Airways will have five members including Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Trong, Doan Huu Doan, Le Ba Nguyen, Le Thai Sam, and Nguyen Manh Quan.

In addition, the EGMS agreed to elect three members of the Supervisory Board, including Tran Anh Tuan – head of the board, Pham Van Phung and Nguyen Dang Khoa – members.

The additional election of senior personnel is part of Bamboo Airways’ management apparatus consolidation plan to gear up the restructuring process and optimize the interests of shareholders and stakeholders, thus aiming to achieve greater goals sustainably in the new development phase.

The five members of the the Board of Management (BOM) of Bamboo Airways

Along with the impressive recovery momentum of the Vietnamese aviation market in general, Bamboo Airways has reached many historic development milestones in the post-pandemic period.

Constantly ranking among top airlines with optimal operational capacity, Bamboo Airways’ domestic flight network has been resumed and expanded in the peak period of summer 2022. Earning the trust of numerous passengers, load factors of many routes are continuously recorded at high rates, frequently exceeding 80%.

Bamboo Airways’ international flight network also witnesses an impressive growth rate. Shortly after Vietnam officially reopened its international flight network in mid-February 2022, Bamboo Airways constantly launched nine new international regular non-stop routes while increasing the frequency of pre-pandemic operated flights.

Bamboo Airways’ total revenue in the second quarter is estimated to increase by 50% compared to the first quarter.

Bamboo Airways operates an average of 170 flights per day, covering the domestic flight network with nearly 40 routes to 21/22 airports in Vietnam, and 12 regular international nonstop routes to Asia, Europe, and Australia.

As of July 2022, Bamboo Airways continues to maintain its leading position in terms of punctuality since its establishment, with an absolute safety rate of 100%. The customer satisfaction rate has always remained at an excellent level. Recently, Bamboo Airways was honoured as Most Improved Airline in Asia 2022, Best Cabin Crew in Asia 2022, Asia’s leading regional airline…

In the coming time, Bamboo Airways will continue to promote and launch new international routes to markets in Asia, Europe, Australia, and further to America. In particular, it will focus on developing long-haul nonstop international flights connecting major continental gateway airports, thus gearing up the process of making Vietnam an aviation gateway of Southeast Asia in particular and Asia in general, and enhancing Vietnam’s competitiveness. Additionally, Bamboo Airways targets an increase to 35 aircraft by the end of 2022, 42 by 2023, and 100 by 2028.

Along with efforts to promote operational scale, Bamboo Airways persistently pursues the goal of providing international-oriented services, thereby leveraging quintessential values of Vietnamese culture and people further on the international map.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with T&T Group and SHB Bank; and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with T&Y SuperPortTM – a joint venture between T&T Group and YCH Group of Singapore.

The agreements are expected to not only boost business efficiency and affirm the position and competitiveness of the signatories but also contribute to expanding the strategic cooperation between Vietnam and Singapore.

Under the deals, the parties will prioritise using each other’s products and services and jointly exploit the potential and strengths of each party to create outstanding synergistic values for the Vietnamese businesses and economy.

Vietnam Airlines will provide international standard air transport services on the basis of promoting its strength as a modern fleet of over 100 aircraft , and its network of more than 100 air routes around the world.

T&T Group – a Vietnamese leading multi-sector corporation operating in many countries, and SHB – one of the Top five private joint stock commercial banks in Vietnam, will provide preferential products and services for employees and customers of Vietnam Airlines, in terms of finance, real estate, logistics to commerce, consumption, education and sports.

According to Do Quang Hien, Chairman of the Board of Directors cum CEO of T&T Group, promoting partnerships to connect supply chains, innovate technology, better governance and competitiveness through improving the efficiency of logistics services is considered “key” for businesses to overcome difficulties and boost sustainable development in the future.

Dang Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Airlines said setting up the partnership with T&T Group and SHB will add strength and development momentum to the carrier’s aviation ecosystem.

Meanwhile, as the investor of Vinh Phuc ICD Logistics Centre project – the first “super-port” of the ASEAN smart logistics network, T&Y SuperPortTM will cooperate with Vietnam Airlines in logistics and air freight.

The two sides aim to coordinate in building synchronous products and services, and taking advantage of each side’s strengths in terms of infrastructure, trade and service systems, and customer networks in Vietnam and around the world, thus tapping new business opportunities, promoting multimodal freight transport, and improving the efficiency of supply chains and logistics in Vietnam and the region.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Viettel Cambodia (Metfone) and Mineski Global on August 12 signed a cooperation agreement on organising e-Sport events in the neighbouring country.

The signing of this cooperation agreement is the first and largest cooperation ever in Cambodia in terms of business but also promotes the development of eSports in Cambodia and gradually professionalising the eSports industry in Cambodia.

ESport, which has become popular globally, has been a sports at the Southeast Asian Games recently.

However, it is still new in Cambodia. Professional tournaments have gradually appeared and created a certain resonance, with a large number of existing players, accounting for more than 80 percent of GenZ.

International Olympic Committee 2017 also acknowledged the presence of eSports and concluded that video games can be considered as sports activities when players are trained and prepared with as much intensity as traditional athletes.

Meanwhile, Metfone has millions of players. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which accounts for a 90% market share in Cambodia, with hundreds of thousands of daily players on the Metfone network. Metfone is also currently a Presenting Sponsor of Moonton’s MPL tournament, which has the highest interest and viewership in Cambodia.

With the strengthening of cooperation between Metfone and Mineski Company, Metfone and Mineski promises to be an important base to gradually professionalize the e-Sports industry in Cambodia, bringing interesting and positive experiences to users and contributing to promoting the development of eSports industry in Cambodia.

In addition to cooperating in consulting and implementing event organization activities, Mineski also provides eSport solutions to access GenZ insights in Cambodia. With this cooperation, Mineski hopes to support Metfone to become the core choice for eSports experience on mobile devices in Cambodia.

With the contribution of the leading units in the eSport industry. Mineski and Metfone hope to professionalise e-Sports by bringing positive experiences in areas like Gamertainment, Gameducation and gamification.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam logged an additional 1,815 COVID-19 cases on August 13, according to the Ministry of Health.

The new infections raised the country’s total caseload since the pandemic broke out to 11,364,355.

A total 5,186 COVID-19 patients were given the all clear on the day, bringing the number of recoveries so far to 10,014,637. There are 137 patients in serious conditions needing breathing support.

One death from COVID-19 was recorded in the past 24 hours. The total fatalities stood at 43,097.

On August 12, 582,931 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered, raising the total number of shots given out to 250,992,746.

The ministry said its advisory council is yet to give recommendations regarding the vaccination against COVID-19 for children under 5.

Source: Vietnam News Agency