Day: November 21, 2022

An official visit to the Philippines by Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Vuong Dinh Hue is expected to help reinforce the two countries’ strategic partnership.

 

The trip from November 23 to 25, made at the invitation of President of the Philippine Senate Juan Miguel Zubiri, is the first official visit to the country by a key leader of Vietnam in 2022 and by an NA chairperson of Vietnam after 16 years. Hue is also one of the first foreign parliamentary leaders to visit the Philippines after the country successfully held the general elections in May 2022 and elected new leaders to its House of Representatives and Senate in July.

 

The visit demonstrates the importance Vietnam attaches to the new leadership of the Philippines and the countries’ strategic partnership after they celebrated the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations last year.

 

Thriving strategic partnership

 

Despites difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides have effectively maintained contact at all levels. During the visit to the Philippines from June 29 to July 1 by Vice President of Vietnam Vo Thi Anh Xuan to attend the oath-taking ceremony of President Ferdinand  Romualdez Marcos, both the President and Vice President of the Philippines affirmed that they highly attach importance to the friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam, and agreed that the two sides should evenly promote fields of cooperation in line with the strategic partnership.

 

Trade cooperation is a highlight in bilateral relations. Trade reached a record 6.8 billion USD in 2021 and over 6 billion USD in the first nine months of 2022.

 

However, investment ties remain modest. By the end of December 2021, the Philippines had 82 valid projects worth 615 million USD in Vietnam, ranking 28th among the 140 countries and territories investing in the latter. Meanwhile, Vietnam had only five investment projects worth 4 million USD in the Philippines.

 

Defence, security and ocean partnerships have developed substantively and effectively. Besides, there remains much room for agricultural cooperation, especially when Vietnam is a leading exporter of farm produce in the region and the Philippines is the second most populous country in ASEAN. Collaboration in other areas like education, tourism, and people-to-people exchange has also been bouncing back after a hiatus caused by the pandemic.

 

In addition, the two countries have also shown timely and effective coordination in many issues of common concern at regional and international forums.

 

Elevating parliamentary ties

 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the parliaments of Vietnam and the Philippines have had few chances to hold mutual visits over the last two years, and they also haven’t signed any cooperation agreement. However, bilateral meetings have still been maintained on the sidelines of international and regional inter-parliamentary conferences.

 

According to Chairman of the NA Committee for External Relations Vu Hai Ha, Vietnam is one of the three strategic partners of the Philippines, apart from the US and Japan. In the coming visit, NA Chairman Hue and Philippine leaders will discuss measures for fostering bilateral cooperation and strengthening the strategic partnership.

 

Philippine Ambassador to Vietnam Meynardo LB. Montealegre noted bilateral relations are years-long friendly and cooperative ties. In 2021, the countries marked 45 years of their diplomatic links, which were upgraded to the strategic partnership in 2015.

 

The current relations are oriented by the action plan for implementing the strategic partnership for 2019-2024, which covers areas such as politics, defence, security, healthcare, economics and tourism.

 

He added aside from attending parliamentary cooperation activities, the top legislator of Vietnam will also meet local senior leaders and enterprises, which will also contribute to the strategic partnership.

 

The diplomat expressed his belief that there will be several opportunities for enhanced collaboration, especially in economy, healthcare, food security, climate change response and tourism./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The Ho Chi Minh City-based Tre (Youth) Publishing House has signed an exclusive copyright deal with well-known historian Nguyen Dinh Dau, writer of many books and documents on Vietnamese history and culture.

 

The deal grants the printer exclusive rights to publish and sell all of Dau’s works.

 

The publisher will soon release four books written, compiled and edited by Dau.

 

These books feature the history of the South’s development in different periods from the 19th century until the 20th. Southern people, particularly farmers, and their contributions to the fight against the French colonialists, are featured.

 

Tre Publishing House has released eight publications by Dau, including Tap Ghi Su Dia Viet (Records on History and Geography of Vietnam) in 2020.

 

The 232-page book is on the history and geography of Vietnam.

 

It consists of historical events and characters as well as geographical documents from the 20th century which Dau collected for several years.

 

Dau’s articles about Sai Gon, now Ho Chi Minh City, and on Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) are also included.

 

Dau’s books help readers, particularly young people, learn more about Southern culture and lifestyle through the region’s history, according to the publisher’s director Phan Thi Thu Ha.

 

Born in 1920 in Hanoi, Dau graduated from the Bach Nghe (Polytechnic) School in 1941 and Sorbonne University in Paris in 1953.

 

He returned to HCM City in 1955 and worked as a high school teacher of history and geography.

 

Since 1960, he has focused on research on the history and geography of Vietnam, and published several articles in local newspapers and magazines.

 

Dau released more than 40 books, including Viet Nam Quoc Hiuu và Cuong Vuc – Hoang Sa, Truong Sa (Vietnam’s Official Names and Territories – Hoang Sa, Truong Sa) in 2013.

 

He won the Tran Van Giau Prize in 2005 and Phan Chau Trinh prize in 2008, the country’s prestigious awards for research works in different fields such as history, geography and culture.

 

He owns a collection of many maps of Vietnam, especially more than 3,000 ancient maps of the country’s sovereignty rights over Truong Sa and Hoang Sa./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The race to lure deposits among banks is becoming fiercer as more customers are selected medium- and long-term savings to get higher interest rates.

 

Deposits at banks are mainly from customers’ payment accounts. Previously, due to low interest rates on medium- and long-term deposits, a number of customers did not pay much attention to transferring idle money in their payment accounts to term deposit accounts. Banks therefore benefited significantly from the low-cost capital source.

 

However, the trend has changed after interest rates for medium- and long-term deposits have sharply surged to hit nearly 10% per year.

 

VPBank last week continually increased interest rates for deposits under 10 billion VND (402,536 USD) with terms of 12, 24 and 36 months by 0.2-0.4 percentage point per year. The highest savings rate at VPBank is currently 9% per year, applied to online 18-month deposits.

 

VietinBank also raised the highest deposit interest rate to 8.2% per year for online deposits from 12 months to under 36 months. With a rate hike of 0.8 percentage point per year for online deposits against those at the counter, VietinBank is becoming the bank to offer the highest interest rate among State-owned banks.

 

Notably, though SCB had listed the highest interest rate in the banking system, it last week continued to sharply increase interest rates to approach the 10% threshold per year for terms of more than six months. The highest deposit interest rate at this bank currently increased to 9.75% from 9.3% per year for 13, 15, 18, 24 and 36 month deposits. Interest rates for terms from 7 to 12 months range from 9.4-9.65% per year and 9.35% per year for six-month term.

 

According to industry insiders, demand deposits, or current account savings account (CASA), of many banks has started to decline since the second quarter of 2022. They said the sharp interest rate hike for medium- and long-term savings has caused a large amount of demand deposits in current accounts to shift to savings accounts to enjoy higher interest rates.

 

Q3 2022 financial statements of banks showed the average CASA ratio of 27 listed banks by the end of the third quarter of 2022 decreased by 1.6% to 16% against the beginning of the year. Eighteen out of 27 listed banks recorded a decrease in demand deposits.

 

Though Techcombank and MBBank topped the list with demand deposits at 135.43 trillion VND and 171.39 trillion VND, the two banks’ CASA ratios declined by 8.4% and 13.8% to 42.4% and 39.1%, respectively.

 

Notably, some banks recorded a sharp drop in CASA ratios, such as KienlongBank (-51.5%), VietABank (-51.2%); LienVietPostBank (-32.5%) and SaigonBank (-22.6%).

 

For banks, attracting a high proportion of demand deposits is very important, because it creates a cheap source of capital. Normally, the interest rates of demand deposits are much lower than term deposits, being only 0.1-0.3% per year.

 

According to experts, the high CASA ratio will create a premise for banks to improve their net interest margin (NIM) while keeping the lending rates at competitive levels in the market.

 

High CASA ratio is considered a remarkable achievement for banks. For example, MSB recorded NIM of 4.34% in the first nine months of the year, the bank’s most effective rate in recent years. The bank’s NIM growth has partly come from effective CASA attraction strategies in recent times such as promoting digitalisation, launching various utility products and services.

 

ACB also flexibly deployed many solutions to mobilise CASA, helping the bank’s NIM grow. ACB’s CASA is forecast to reach about 27% by the end of 2022, which is a relatively high rate in the banking system.

 

Banking expert Nguyen Tri Hieu said competition among banks to lure demand deposits, or increase the CASA ratio, is becoming fiercer amid sharp interest rate hike of medium- and long-term deposits. Despite banks’ efforts to increase CASA, it will be hard for them to keep CASA ratios as high as previously, even offering the highest rate for demand deposits.

 

Before September 2022, most banks listed the demand deposit interest rate at only 0.02-0.2% per year. However, many banks have recently increased sharply interest rates for demand deposits, even hitting the cap of 1% regulated by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), to lure customers.

 

Under Decision No. 1812/QD-NHNN dated October 24, 2022 on the maximum interest rate for deposits in Vietnamese dong of organisations and individuals at credit institutions and foreign bank branches, the SBV allowed banks to increase the maximum interest rate for demand deposits with terms of less than one month from 0.5% to 1.0% per year.

 

Techcombank, for example, earlier this month increased the interest rate on demand deposits to 1% per year. Previously, despite other banks raising demand deposit rates since the end of September, Techcombank still maintained the rate at 0.03%, among the lowest in the banking system.

 

VPB, Techcombank, ACB, Bac A Bank, OCB, Sacombank, SCB, NCB and Kienlongbank currently also list the demand deposit interest rate at 1% per year.

 

Besides the rate hike, banks have also introduced many policies to attract demand depositors, such as exemption of transaction, money transfer and withdrawal fees.

 

Notably, according to Hieu, as CASA is characterised by instability as customers can withdraw their demand deposits at any time, banks, especially small-sized ones, must focus on improving their services to lure demand depositors so as to increase their CASA rate.

 

“If a bank does not focus on developing digital services to enable it to connect with more ecosystems to serve the diverse needs of customers, they will either automatically choose another bank with better services, or withdraw their money to invest in other channels. At that time, the bank’s CASA will decline,” Hieu said./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam has claimed a bronze medal at the 15th Asian Airgun Championship in Daegu, the Republic of Korea.

 

The trio of Phan Xuan Chuyen, Phan Cong Minh and Lai Cong Minh finished third in the men’s team 10m air pistol event at Daegu International Shooting Range.

 

Indian marksmen took the gold while the host athletes secured the silver.

 

Vietnam sent a team of six athletes and two coaches to the tournament, which closed on November 19.

 

They competed in the women’s individual air rifle and men’s individual and team air pistol events.

 

This is the first championship that will be counted towards the new Asian Ranking System.

 

The Vietnamese athletes will next take part in the Southeast Asian championship from December 1-10 in Thailand./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

An international scientific conference was held in Hanoi on November 21 to discuss 30 years of relations between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) and development orientations.

 

The event, held by the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, the RoK Embassy, and the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA), was among activities marking the 30th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties (December 22).

 

In his opening remarks, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thang, Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, said bilateral relations have been developing unceasingly, become a model for ties between two East Asian countries, and recorded unprecedentedly successful cooperation results. Less than 10 years after the diplomatic relationship establishment, their ties were elevated to a comprehensive partnership in 2001, and then a strategic cooperative partnership in 2009.

 

Upholding the enormous achievements over the last 30 years, Vietnam and the RoK now have a solid foundation, favourable conditions, and great potential for lifting their relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, he affirmed.

 

RoK Ambassador to Vietnam Oh Young-ju said the two Governments have consistently viewed each other’s countries as important partners. The solid political stance on the development of bilateral ties, shared by the countries’ leaders, has become a driving force for their development and their 30-year partnership, and a basis for setting up a highest-level relationship.

 

KNDA Chancellor Hong Hyun-Ik said the two countries are holding many favourable conditions, including cultural similarities, for enhancing bilateral cooperation, so they should exert more efforts to develop their ties to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

 

He also expressed his hope for further cooperation and mutual understanding between the two peoples, adding his expectation for cooperation initiatives created by the young./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency