Day: August 19, 2022

Vietnam’s economy has recorded spectacular development across fields in recent years, especially in trade, according to scholars from the European Institute of Asian Studies (EIAS).

CEO of EIAS Axel Goethals and Senior Advisor of the institute Xavier Nuttin made the remarks during a meeting with Vietnamese  officials at the Vietnamese Embassy in Brussels on August 18.

Deputy head of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)’s Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations Ngo Le Van briefed participants on Vietnam’s political and socio-economic situation in recent times.

Vietnam is working hard to turn industry into the driving force for its economic development, contributing to realising the goals of industrialisation and modernisation by 2030 and 2045, he said.

Van also emphasised Vietnam’s commitment to protecting the environment, adapting to climate change, promoting sustainable development, and achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

Nuttin highlighted that the European Union (EU) is currently the 6th largest investor in Vietnam, and Vietnam is an important economic and trade partner of the EU.

Vietnam is a potential market for raw materials and semi-finished goods, and Vietnamese agricultural products are popular in the European market, Nuttin said, adding that the country should focus on developing technology, especially technologies for processing farm produce for export.

The scholars said Vietnam also attracts European businesses for its abundant and creative human resources, affirming that the EU – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement is a driver of the growing cooperation and investment relationship between the two sides.

According to Goethals, Vietnam holds an important position for Europe in Asia-Pacific, and the Southeast Asian nation has built trust with many countries worldwide. This is the strength of Vietnam in establishing partnerships, especially with the EU.

He advised the country to concentrate on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because they are the driving force in the economic-trade ties between Vietnam and the EU, he said.

During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on regional and international issues of common concern. They also discussed ways to further expand cooperation between EIAS and Vietnam’s research institutes and universities./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam is now ranked 7th and 5th worldwide in terms of tea production and exports, respectively.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the nation has 123,000ha under tea trees, capable of producing 1,02 million tonnes of fresh tea buds.

Vietnamese tea products are exported to 74 countries and territories, including Pakistan, China, Russia, and Indonesia. The shipments to China account for 12-15% of the country’s total export volume.

In the first six months of this year, Vietnam shipped abroad 54,000 tonnes of tea for 94 million USD, down 6.4% in volume and 1.3% in value compared to the same period last year.

The country has over 170 tea varieties, with local production areas moving toward organic farming for sustainable growth and meeting the market demand./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho aims to raise per-capita gross regional domestic product (GRDP) to 9,400-11,000 USD by 2030.

Under a plan of the municipal People’s Committee, the city will strive for an annual GRDP growth of 7 – 7.5% during the 2025-2030 period

The service sector will account for 56.5-56.7% of the GRDP while the industry and construction sectors will make up 34-34.3% and the agricultural sector 3.4 -4%. The urbanisation rate will reach 80%.

By 2045, Can Tho will become an ecological and modern city with special characteristics of the Mekong Delta, ranking in the group of well-developed cities in Asia.

To this end, the city has set a number of solutions, including restructuring the economy in association with transforming the growth model towards strengthening the application of science and technology and innovation. Attention will be paid to the e-government system, smart city, digital economy and society as well as green and night economy.

Priority will be given to the development of high-tech and supporting industries with high-added value which are capable of deeply participating in the global production network and value chains.

The city will work to improve the quality of traditional service industries and develop new ones with great potential and added value, facilitating the formation of centralised logistics service providers in terms of warehouses, transportation and large-scale airports.

The city will also fulfill its role as the scientific and technical service centre for production and processing of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products of the Mekong Delta.

Can Tho recorded an 8.04% growth in GDRP in the first six months of this year, the highest in the past three years. It is the second highest among the five centrally-run cities in the country./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the north-central province of Thanh Hoa has taken a series of measures to strictly handle organisations and individuals that broker and bring fishing vessels to illegally exploit seafood in foreign waters as part of its efforts to combat combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The move also aims to ensure the safety of local fishermen and fishing vessels.

According to a report by the provincial Fisheries Sub-Department, in the first eight months of 2022, the province recorded eight accidents at sea caused by high waves and strong winds, electric shock and fires, damaging six ships with a total loss of about 3.3 billion VND (over 141,000 USD).

Le Ba Luc, from the sub-department, said to ensure the safety of people and fishing vessels engaged in fishing activities, the sector has paid attention to strengthening management of fishing vessels, including strictly controlling ship-building and the lease and purchase of fishing vessels in accordance with quotas of fishing licenses in coastal and maritime zones.

The vessel monitoring systems (VMS) are operated 24/24 hours to monitor and promptly provide information and warnings related to the weather to fishing vessels operating at sea, contributing to guiding fishermen to find safe shelters for vessels to avoid storms, and connect with and ask for support from relevant authorities in case of emergency.

Technical safety inspection of fishing vessels will be strengthened, ensuring 100% of fishing vessels are granted technical safety certificates, Luc said.

Owners and captains of fishing vessels have been advised to follow safety rules in operating vessels as well as strictly performing annual technical safety inspection, he added.

According to Luc, a project is being implemented to help nearly 400 seafood exploitation groups improve the efficiency of production and fishing at sea, and their response to relevant accidents and risks.

The sub-department, border force and coastal localities, and Lach Hoi, Lach Bang and Hoa Loc fishing ports, are intensifying their inspection of ships operating at sea, and controlling over fishing vessels entering and leaving ports.

Fishing vessels are required to be registered, and fully equipped with safety fire prevention and fighting equipment, and those for crew members.

All fishing boats with a length of 15m and more must be installed vessel monitoring systems (VMS) devices.

Vietnam is intensifying the long-term efforts that it has made over the past more than four years to combat IUU fishing for a sustainable fishery sector and the lifting of the European Commission’s “yellow card” warning against the country’s seafood products.

Stopping IUU fishing has been defined as the responsibility of not only fishermen and fishery firms, but the whole political system with an aim to increase the prestige of the fishery sector and Vietnam in the world arena.

Therefore, raising fishermen’s awareness of legal fishing has been seen as the first and foremost task, especially when traditional practices have been entrenched in them for generations.

Over the year, the Ministry of National Defence has taken the lead in educating fishermen on sustainable fishing by coordinating with other forces, sectors and localities to popularise related legal regulations to fishermen.

The ministry’s steering committee on IUU fishing combat has guided relevant units to continue with the work this year in collaboration with authorised agencies.

As part of efforts to combat IUU fishing, 28 coastal provinces and cities have taken prompt measures to implement tasks given by the national steering committee for 2022.

They intensify educational activities to ensure that all local officials and residents thoroughly understand regulations and laws related to sustainable fisheries development and IUU fishing./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Tourism Authority of Thailand will propose the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration on August 19 to extend the maximum stays for holders of tourist visas and visas on arrival to encourage them to stay longer in the country.

TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn said that the authority would propose tourist visas be valid for 45 days instead of 30 days and visas on arrival for 30 days instead of 15 days and the measure should continue until December 31, 2022.

According to him, TAT will also propose to end the requirement for visitors arriving by land from Laos and Malaysia to fill in the TM6 immigration form to facilitate their visits and prevent crowding at immigration checkpoints.

The country has welcomed nearly 5 million visitors so far this year, basically meeting the government’s target of 5-10 million visitors for the whole year. Most visitors came from Malaysia, followed by India, Laos, the US and the UK./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The capital city of Hanoi ranked third among cities and provinces nationwide in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first seven months of this year with 979.7 million USD, affirming its attractiveness to foreign investors.

According to local authorities, this is the result of the city’s efforts to ensure an open and smooth investment and business environment and administrative procedures.

Vice Director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Ngoc Tu said that since the beginning of this year, the city has applied various measures to speed up socio-economic recovery and development.

As a result, it has seen increases in many economic indicators in the January-July period, including budget collection of 213.16 trillion VND (9.11 billion USD), fulfilling 68.4% of its yearly target, and equivalent to 116% of the figure recorded in the same period last year.

At the same time, the city’s export revenue reached 9.84 billion USD, up 17.2% year on year, including 5.43 billion USD from the domestic sector and 4.4 billion USD from the FDI sector.

Meanwhile, the city’s index of industrial production (IIP) rose 7.2%, with the processing-manufacturing sector increasing 7.5%.

Total retail sales of goods and services in the city reached nearly 397 trillion VND, up 22% year on year.

In the first seven months of this year, the capital city welcomed 337,000 foreign visitors, doubling that in the same period in 2021.

Since 1987, the city attracted about 67.81 billion USD in FDI. In the 2016-2019 period, Hanoi enjoyed a breakthrough growth in FDI attraction with 26.5 billion USD, becoming the leading locality in the field in 2018 and 2019.

In 2020, the city managed to lure 3.83 billion USD of FDI, ranking third among 63 cities and provinces nationwide, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, due to strict social distancing measures induced by a serious wave of COVID-19, Hanoi only attracted 1.52 billion USD, ranking sixth.

But FDI flows into the city recovered strongly in the first seven months of this year, with 979.7 million USD poured into 201 new and 109 underway projects as well as 242 capital contribution deals. In the period of extensive international economic integration, the city has defined the business community in general and FDI firms in particular as an important motivation for the city’s development.

Tu said that in the time to come, Hanoi will continue to take strong actions to improve its business and investment environment, making it more transparent and fair to ensure successful and sustainable development of enterprises, contributing to the development of the city and the country as a whole.

Last year, the city issued a plan on the completion of institutions and policies to enhance the quality and effectiveness of foreign investment cooperation until 2030.

Under the plan, the city aims to attract foreign investment in line with sustainable development targets.

The city will prioritise high quality projects with products having high added value and high competitiveness, focusing on urban infrastructure development, smart city building, information technology, development research, tourism, financial-banking, human resources training, high-tech agriculture, and safe food.

Investment promotion work will be reformed for better effectiveness in association with promotion of trade, tourism, external relations and culture activities. The city has defined targeted markets to introduce its potential and advantages,.

At the same time, Hanoi will strengthen the application of information technology in processing administrative procedures related to business and investment registration, tax, insurance and land.

It will make public all planning of sectors and regions as well as land use plans through various forms, thus ensuring that all businesses can easily access information necessary for making investment decisions./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Cambodia and China plan to resume their largest annual joint military exercise, dubbed “Golden Dragon”, next year after a suspension over the past two years due to serious floods and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cambodia’s Khmer Times reported that during a four-day visit to China which concluded on August 16, Cambodian Minister of Defence General Tea Banh and General Xu Qiliang, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, co-chaired a meeting on military cooperation between the two counties in Guangdong province.

The two sides discussed collaboration across areas, including the resumption of joint military exercises.

The “Golden Dragon” military exercise, which began in 2016, aims to exchange experience and enhance the capacity of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in humanitarian operations, disaster rescue and counter-terrorism in the UN framework in accordance with the cooperation between both countries’ defence ministries.

Its most recent edition took place in Cambodia in 2020 with the participation of 2,542 Cambodian and 252 Chinese troops.

Last year, the drill was postponed as Cambodian soldiers were mobilised in the response to the pandemic and floods in several provinces. The pandemic continues to disrupt the joint military exercise this year./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The 13th Foreign Office Consultations and 4th Strategic Dialogue between India and the Philippines took place in Manila on August 17 and 18, respectively.

According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the events were co-chaired by its Secretary (East) Shri Saurabh Kumar and Theresa P. Lazaro, Under Secretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs at the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs.

Reviewing the multi-faceted relations between India and the Philippines at the Foreign Office Consultations, both sides expressed their desire to advance bilateral ties and expand engagements in areas including agriculture, trade, pharmaceuticals, fintech, education, defence and security, and people to people exchange.

They also agreed to team up in other fields which are space, development cooperation and civil aviation.

During the Strategic Dialogue, the two sides discussed the countries’ defence and security cooperation and exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest as well as ASEAN-related matters./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency