Day: February 14, 2023

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien has hailed the US as one of the top trade partners and importers of Vietnam during a recent reception in Hanoi for US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

Tai has been on her first visit to Vietnam and the first visit at the economic ministerial level of President Joe Biden’s administration.

The visit marks the start of activities in celebration of the 10th founding anniversary of the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership this year.

Dien underlined the two countries’ potential of cooperation in climate change response, energy transition, digital transformation and green growth.

Vietnam supports efforts to deepen the bilateral relations, as well as multilateral cooperation mechanisms and initiatives led by the US that are beneficial to ensuring global and regional peace, stability and development, including the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), he said.

The minister suggested Tai continue upholding her role as an important bridge between the two governments to strengthen the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership.

He also proposed the US soon materialise its commitments to supporting Vietnam and countries in delivering on international agreements on climate change response, including the Declaration on the Just Energy Transition Partnership.

Vietnam is ready to partner with the US to successfully hold the APEC Year 2023, he said.

Tai, for her part, said there will be more activities in the US-Vietnam relations this year. She vowed to work closely with Vietnam on e-commerce and spoke highly of Vietnam’s participation in regional economic connectivity over the past years.

The US will give priority to strengthening cooperation frameworks to build efficient and sustainable economic and investment ecosystems, thereby creating a new driving force for regional economic development, she said.

The major priority of the US Government is to promote sustainable, resilient and inclusive trade recovery and economic growth on the basis of lessons learned from the recent COVID-19 response, she said.

Tai also shared priorities and plans for the APEC Year 2023 hosted by the US and mentioned basic contents of the IPEF.

The host and guest discussed bilateral cooperation within the APEC framework, basic contents of the IPEF, sub-regional cooperation and joint work in climate change response, energy transition and digital transformation.

They highlighted the significance of promoting free, open, fair trade in accordance with international law as well as sustainable and inclusive growth in the region in which ASEAN countries play a central role.

Last year, two-way trade between Vietnam and the US surpassed 123 billion USD, up 11% year on year./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Ministry of Finance has called on e-commerce platforms to pay tax on behalf of sellers, but online traders insist the suggestion is impractical.

A representative of the Vietnam E-Commerce Association revealed three obstacles in the way of e-commerce platforms that make it impossible to pay tax in sellers’ stead.

The first obstacle is that e-commerce platforms, in most cases, have little knowledge of all the tax codes and tax rates applicable to sellers’ items. The platforms cannot calculate sellers’ taxes properly without this tax information.

The second obstacle involves the absence of a digital system that enables e-commerce platforms to declare and pay tax on sellers’ behalf and allows tax authorities to check whether a specific transaction generates revenues.

The third obstacle centres around the payment method that is preferred by buyers in Vietnam – cash on delivery. Buyers paying in cash make it difficult for e-commerce platforms to monitor the revenues realised by sellers, adding complexity to tax calculation.

Nguyen Tran Hung, head of the Economic Information Systems and E-Commerce Faculty at the University of Commerce, remarked that it is not easy to tax sellers who operate on multiple digital platforms.

If the sellers use sale management software on those platforms, the platforms could rely on revenue data stored in the software to calculate sellers’ taxes. Otherwise, tax authorities must make it mandatory for sellers to disclose their data to the platforms to enable tax calculation.

“If sellers do not use sale management software, data sharing needs to be made mandatory to enable tax calculation”, said Hung.

According to Hung’s suggestion, data disclosure should include sellers’ revenue, profit, number of transactions, and items sold to help e-commerce platforms monitor sellers’ cash flows more closely.

Bui Ngoc Tuan, deputy director of the Tax Advisory Service at Deloitte Vietnam, held that tax deduction at source is only possible as long as e-commerce platforms are given the authority to collect tax from sellers.

The deputy director called for a digital system that allows e-commerce platforms to monitor sellers’ sales on a real-time basis to check their taxable income better. He also urged tax authorities to tighten the legal framework to prevent new tax avoidance and evasion practices.

Nguyen Minh Cuong, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank, shared Tuan’s view, saying that digital technology holds the key to effective e-commerce taxation.

He took the search engine for tax classification as an example. The engine enables tax authorities to quickly detect fraudsters online, effectively curbing illegal practices among e-commerce taxpayers.

He also said Vietnam could learn from the Republic of Korea’s experience before developing their e-commerce taxation.

The RoK has established an independent department in charge of e-commerce tax, tasked with collecting and analysing revenue data declared by e-commerce enterprises and imposing fines on those involved in tax frauds.

On December 15, 2022, the General Department of Taxation launched a national portal through which e-commerce taxpayers are required to disclose their data to the tax authority.

By 13 February, 258 e-commerce platforms, 14,883 organisations, and 53,212 individuals have registered on the portal to comply with the requirement./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Republic of Korea (RoK) is one of the favourite destinations of Vietnamese tourists, especially young people, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Ha Van Sieu has said.

He made the statement at a workshop held in Hanoi on February 14, aiming to introduce tourism potential of the RoK province of Jeollabuk-do. The event attracted the participation of leaders of VNAT, Hanoi’s Department of Tourism and representatives from more than 50 travel companies as well as airlines in Vietnam.

Last year, 185,000 Vietnamese tourists visited the RoK after the country reopened its borders. Meanwhile, Vietnam received 965,000 Korean visitors, accounting for 26% of the total foreign arrivals.

With its long-standing historical values, unique culture, beautiful nature and being recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a Creative City for Gastronomy, the province will definitely be a potential destination for the Vietnamese market in the future, Sieu said.

Vietnam is also a market that Jeollabuk-do is targeting, because the province’s tourism promotion website has a Vietnamese version, which is friendly for Vietnamese users.

This event will be an opportunity to connect travel firms of the two countries, help popularise images and potential of Jeollabuk-do tourism to the business community and Vietnamese people, promote tourism cooperation and contribute to the further development of the Vietnam-RoK strategic partnership, the official said.

In December last year, the VNAT and the Korea Tourism Organisation signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Vietnam-Korea tourism promotion cooperation for 2023-2024, creating a foundation for the two sides to foster tourism cooperation and visitor exchanges, especially at a critical time when tourism needs to be revived quickly and effectively after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing the workshop, Kim Kwan-young, Governor of Jeollabuk-do, said he hoped that Vietnamese travel companies and tourists will know more about the province and choose Jeollabuk-do as a destination for their upcoming travel schedules, noting that this year it will host Asia Pacific Masters Games 2023 and Saemangeum World Scout Jamboree 2023.

The signing ceremony of a MoU between Jeollabuk-do province and Vietravel Hanoi and Saigontourist of Vietnam was held within the framework of the event. The two sides committed to jointly promoting and building tourism products in the near future./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) – Vietnam has great potential and advantages to develop oyster production chains, experts said at a conference on aquaculture technology organised in Ho Chi Minh City on February 14 by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Speaking at the conference, Dinh Xuan Lap, an expert from International Centre for Aquaculture & Fisheries Sustainability (ICAFIS) said that Vietnam’s aquaculture in general and mollusk farming in particular has changed positively from self-sufficiency, small-scale production to export-oriented commercial production.

Vietnam’s mollusk products are exported to 50 markets around the world including the EU, the US, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, and Australia.

With more than 3,260 km of coastline and many areas that are favourable habitats for bivalve mollusks, Vietnam has advantages to raising oysters.

Currently, the country has about 3,200 ha of oyster farming across 24 coastal provinces and cities, but it is a very modest figure compared to its potential, Lap said.

Increasing demand for oysters in both Vietnam and other countries creates motivation for oyster farmers to invest in their farming, Lap said, adding that however, Vietnamese oyster farmers face limitations relating to farming technology, breeding source, and water management for oyster farming.

Ihara Hidenori, Deputy Chief Representative of the JICA Office in Vietnam, said that from June 2022, JICA and Yamanaka Inc (Japan) have surveyed the feasibility of applying farming technology in raising oyster for raw eating and sanitary management technology to promote oyster farming in Vietnam’s Khanh Hoa province.

Through the project, Japan wants to spread the technology of oyster farming with added value and high productivity, helping to increase income for aquaculture farmers in Vietnam in the future, he said.

Takada Shinji, Director-General of Yamanaka Company, said that Japan has the experience and high-quality oyster farming techniques, and can support Vietnam to develop oyster production chains in the time to come./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Thailand’s Commerce Ministry is scheduled to organise about 450 activities to stimulate exports this year, focusing mainly on four potential markets namely the Middle East, South Asia, China, and the CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam), a senior official has said.

The ministry is also keen to tap new markets such as Central Asia and Nordic countries, Phusit Ratanakul Sereroengrit, director-general of the International Trade Promotion Department, was quoted by Bangkok Post as saying.

According to Phusit, the export promotion activities comprise trade missions, participation in international trade fairs, business matching as well as in-store promotions at leading department stores and in e-commerce.

The export strategy this year is to maintain traditional markets such as the US, Canada, the EU, Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Republic of Korea, ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Latin America.

Specialised units were set up by the ministry last year to spur exports, tackle obstacles to trade and curb the negative impact of a global economic slowdown in 2023, the official said.

With regard to e-commerce, the ministry aims to increase the number of TOPTHAI Store online outlets available via Amazon.com in the US, eBay in the US and Australia, and Lazada in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The ministry is also going to move ahead with plans to organise fully-fledged international trade fairs in Thailand after the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Commerce Ministry has set a target to increase the country’s exports by 1- 2% this year to 290-293 billion USD, up from 287 billion USD last year./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency