Foreigners Rushing to Buy Real Estate in Vietnam

                                                            Real Estate business consultant in Vietnam

Hundreds of millions of dollars are waiting to pour into Vietnam real estate market in most segments. The real estate market attracts a lot of foreign investors, mainly through M&A activities.

According to the newly announced report from Savills Vietnam, in quarter 2 of 2017, housing development projects received strong attention. China Fortune Land Development Group has bought shares in VinaCapital’s Lotus Dai Phuoc project for 65.3 million USD. Dai Phuoc Lotus is a residential area project with a total area of 198.5 million hectares in Dong Nai province, bordering Ho Chi Minh City.

In addition, VinaCapital’s Times Square project (Hanoi) worth 41 million USD is also transferred to Elite Capital Resources Limited.

Japanese investors are also active in the market. Nishi Nippon and Hankyu cooperate with Nam Long to build a 26 hectares Mizuki Park residential project in Binh Chanh district, Ho Chi Minh City with total investment capital of 351 million USD.

In addition, Aeon Mall – the famous Japanese retailer has officially co-operated with BIM Group to develop the second shopping center of Aeon in Hanoi with an area of 16.7 ha, the estimated investment capital is 200 million USD.

In the field of industrial real estate, Hemaraj Land & Development (Thailand) and Cienco 4 (Vietnam) have officially confirmed the joint venture to establish 1 billion USD industrial park on 3,200 hectares of land in Nghe An province.

In recent years, the real estate market of Vietnam has witnessed the strategic moves of investors, including mergers – acquisitions and development – cooperation. Some typical deals include Gaw Capital’s acquisition of a series of high-value commercial properties from Indochina Land, Gamuda Land’s acquisition of stake of local investors in the Celadon City project.

At the same time, the M&A market happened on a large scale in all different segments, such as the joint venture between Chau Tai Phuc and Suncity Group into the large resort and casino project in Nam Hoi An with total investment of up to 4 billion USD or the deal that Lotte acquired Diamond Plaza.

The market is expected to continue to be active in 2017 with a series of acquisitions and mergers.

According to JLL Vietnam, in the first half of 2017, Vietnam has attracted about 19.2 billion USD of foreign investment capital, increase by 54.8% over the same period last year. This shows that Vietnam is still one of the potential markets for investment in Southeast Asia.

There are hundreds of millions of dollars waiting to be poured into the domestic market in most segments, including housing, offices, retail, hotels and industrial parks, according to JLL. Investors come from different countries like Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the growth of investor groups from China.

Joint ventures are becoming more popular among foreign investors – with strong financial strength and experiences, they will work with local corporations – investors who holding land in the market and also has close relationships with local authorities.

The hotel segment has always attracted the attention in the recent time with a lot of foreign capital poured into Vietnam. Forecasting this trend will continue to grow, while other markets such as industrial park and education are also growing constantly. The affordable housing market is seen as attracting much investment capital, largely due to the rise of the middle class.

Lastly, according to Savills Vietnam, M&A will continue to be the form that the vast majority of investors will use to enter the Vietnamese market in order to realize their goals.

ANT Consulting assists clients with Market Entry, Legal Advice, Tax Advice and Outsourcing Services in Vietnam.

We are located in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.

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Hemaraj (Thailand) Builds Billion-Dollar Industrial Park in Nghe An

Builds Industrial Park in Nghe An

Nghe An – a province located in the central region of Vietnam always has a lot of attractive incentives for foreign investors who come and set up business in Vietnam. In which, Nghe An has a number of solutions to support infrastructure enterprises to quickly implement large-scale industrial parks, including the Hemaraj industrial park – which is preparing to start construction.

According to the plan, at the end of October 2017, Hemaraj industrial park project in the South East Economic Zone will be started construction by Hemaraj Group (Thailand). construction work. The project has a total area of about 3,200 hectares, total registered investment of about 1 billion USD, divided into 7 phases, in which phase I has an area of nearly 500 hectares.

According to leaders of Nghe An province, the provincial leaders are providing maximum support to Hemaraj so that the project can started construction as soon as possible.

Prior to that, in September 2015, a joint venture between Sembcorp Group (Singapore) and Becamex IDC have kicked off the VSIP Nghe An project with an area of 750 hectares. Currently, the project has leveled and built synchronous infrastructure for about 100 hectares of industrial land phase 1A.

More than 90 companies from many countries and territories have come to seek information and investment opportunities at VSIP Nghe An and 10 companies have signed investment commitments with total investment capital of over 400 billion VND. By the beginning of September 2017, some companies was handed over land and started to build the plant.

In order to attract investment, leaders of Nghe An province will be more drastic in reforming administrative procedures. Accordingly, if foreign enterprises want to complete the investment license application, they should only go through the one-stop department of the Investment Promotion Center of Nghe An province.

ANT Consulting assists clients with Market Entry, Legal Advice, Tax Advice and Outsourcing Services in Vietnam.

We are located in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.

Talk to our consultants at +84 28 3520 2779 or email us ant@antconsult.vn

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FDI in Real Estate Reached 1 Billion USD in 2016

The area of real estate business attracted total FDI capital reached 1 billion USD in the first 9 months of 2016.

Foreign Investment Department (Ministry of Planning and Investment) has announced FDI report for the first 9 months of 2016. Accordingly, there were 1,820 newly licensed projects with total registered capital of 11.02 billion USD, increased by 1.1% over the same period. Meanwhile, there are 851 projects registered to adjust capital with the added value of 5.3 billion USD, decreased by 13.9% over the same period.

Generally in the first 9 months of 2016, total newly registered and additional capital reached 16.4 billion USD, decreased by 4.2% over the same period in 2015.

In 9 months, foreign investors have invested in 19 sectorsin which the field of processing industry, manufacturing is the sector attracting more attention of foreign investors with 767 new projects and 608 respectively adjust capital projects.

In 9 months, foreign investors have invested in 19 sectors, in which the field of processing industry and manufacturing are the sectors attracting more attention of foreign investors with 767 new projects and 608 projects register to adjust capital.

Total new and increasing capital to processing industry and manufacturing reached 12.15 billion USD, accounting for 73.9% of total registered capital in 9 months.

In particular, the field of real estate business ranks 2nd with 34 newly registered projects, total capital reached 1 billion USD. The field of professional activities, science and technology ranks 3rd with 649 million USD, accounting for 3.9% of total investment capital…

In the first 9 months of 2016, there are 65 countries and territories have investment projects in Vietnam. Korea leads the way with a total investment capital reached 5.58 billion USD. Singapore ranked 2ndwith total investment of 1.84 billion USD. Japan ranked 3rd with total investment capital of 1.7 billion USD.

Foreign investors have invested in 54 provinces and cities in which Hai Phong attracted the most investment capital with 37 new projects and 28 projects register to adjust capital, corresponding to 2.74 billion USD. Followed by Hanoi and Dong Nai with total investment capital of 1.97 and 1.89 billion USD respectively.

Some large projects that are licensed in the first 9 months of 2016 including LG Display Hai Phong with total registered investment capital of 1.5 billion USD, invested by LG Display Co., Ltd (Korea). The goal of the project is producing and processing plastic OLED display products for mobile devices such as cell phones, smart watches, tablets.

LG Innotek plant project in Hai Phong with total registered investment capital of 550 million, invested by LG Innotek Co., Ltd. (Korea) with the goal of producing camera modules.

Amata City project in Long Thanh has a total investment of 309.3 million USD, invested by Thai investor with the goal of building service urban in Dong Nai.

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TATA Build Instant Coffee Factory in Vietnam

Vietnam has always been an attractive market for foreign enterprises to come and set up business in Vietnam and most recently, TATA Coffee Ltd – a subsidiary of TATA Group has become the first company in India building instant coffee factory in Vietnam.

TATA Coffee is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TATA Global Beverages (TATA Group) – Asia’s largest coffee company and one of the largest instant coffee exporters in India.

The ground-breaking ceremony of instant coffee factory in Vietnammarked the beginning of a coffee factory project with capacity of 5,000 tons of instant coffee per year of TATA Coffee Ltd in VSIP II Industrial Park (Binh Duong).

TATA Coffee Factory is set to start production in 2019, aiming to serve its global clients with a new mix of instant coffee.

According to CEO of TATA Coffee Ltd, TATA Group has a close relationship with Vietnam in various fields such as automobile, steel, trade, energy and watches. With this investment, the beverage industry will also become a major area of TATA’s participation in the investment here. Although TATA’s products have been exported to more than 40 countries around the world, instant coffee so far has only been produced in India.

Vietnam has marked TATA’s first breakthrough outside the Indian borders as a manufacturer, so this is TATA’s milestone on the journey to become a global company specializing in coffee. TATA Coffee will make every effort in coffee processing operations with a special focus on safe working conditions. The project will contribute positively to foreign exchange earnings and create more local jobs.

It is reported that Vietnam is currently the world’s largest producer of Robustas, which is conducive to providing a favorable raw material for the plant.

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Can Gio – The Potential Land for Tourism Investors

According to the plan of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), by 2020, the number of visitors coming to Can Gio will reach 6 million. That is really a good sign for the Vietnam tourism industry.

HCMC welcomes 30 million tourists a year. Just to find out how to bring these visitors to Can Gio as Pattaya attracts visitors from Bangkok, Can Gio will boom over Nha Trang, Vung Tau, Phan Thiet to become the leading tourist center of Vietnam.

Located only 50 kilometers from the center of Saigon, the four sides are covered by rivers and sea, and owns more than 30,000 hectares of mangroves that have been recognized by UNESCO as the world biosphere reserve. Can Gio is considered to have the potential to become a leading tourist center of the area.

If compared to the leading paradise of the Thai region such as Pattaya, Can Gio is not inferior in terms of natural conditions, such as the quality of the beach, the area of forest, river and mountain… Even Can Gio has more advantages in geographic location: While Pattaya is 100 km far from Bangkok – Thailand’s largest tourist center, Can Gio is just 50 km from Ho Chi Minh City.

However, to date, the “billion dollars” potential of Can Gio has not been awakened. As if every year HCMC welcomes about 30 million visitors, Can Gio attracts only 3% of visitors from HCMC (1 million visitors).

Starting from 2017, the obstacles of Can Gio real estate and tourism have begun to be resolved.

On traffic, Can Gio Bridge started construction will solve traffic congestion connecting HCMC with Can Gio. When the two bridges were completed, the time to travel from the center of Saigon to Can Gio was only about 30 minutes instead of 1.5 – 2 hours as before.

In terms of entertainment, the two billion-dollar entertainment complexes of Vingroup and Tuan Chau with a scale of up to thousands of hectares with five-star resorts, golf courses, casino, entertainment area… will become two destinations attracting millions of tourists from HCMC to visit and spend money. In addition, there is La Maison De Can Gio project of Phuoc Loc Company.

We can see that the number of visitors coming to Can Gio as planned in 2020 will be up to 6 million guests. But the number of large scale hotels in this area is not available now, so investing in resort complexes is seen as an opportunity for investors.

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Benefits of Setting Up Business in Danang

What are the benefits of establishing a business in Danang?

Da Nang – one of the strategic economic centers of Vietnam’s central region

The Vietnam prime minister has established central region’s strategic economic center, including 05 provinces and cities: Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh to promote potential, geographical location and competitive advantages and step by step develop this economic region to become one of the most dynamic economic region in the country. In particular, Da Nang is defined as the role of nuclear motivation for promoting the development of the central region and the highlands.

Da Nang – eastern gateway of east – west economic corridor (EWEC)

EWEC is one of five economic corridor developed by the initiative of the Asia development bank in the greater Mekong sub – region.

Currently, the road system in Laos, Thailand and the road line from Da Nang to Savannakhet are completed. The second international bridge spanning the Mekong river was completed in the end of  2006 to facilitate the circulation of goods and passengers by road line from Da Nang to the northeastern provinces of Thailand and vice versa. East-west economic corridor not only provide an opportunity for the country on the path of promoting regional cooperation and improve living standards for the people but also enable businesses better access to the raw materials market services, capital, labor and technology with the purpose of creating favorable conditions for investment and trade across the border and diversifying economic activity and exports and promoting tourism development

Da Nang – entrance of the cultural heritage and natural wonders of the world

Da Nang is located in the heart of the “world heritage road”, stretching from the central coast of Vinh city to Da Lat city. From Da Nang, along the national highway 1A, visitors can access quickly and conveniently four of five world heritages in Vietnam, including Phong Nha – Ke Bang national park (about 300 km from the north of Da Nang), the ancient capital of Hue (about 100km from the north), Hoi An (about 30km from the southeast) and My Son (about 70 km from the southwest).

With the advantage of geographical location and potential economic development in tourism, Da Nang is an ideal destination for tourists as well as investors.

Infrastructure is step by step improved

Da Nang is an important traffic hub of the central  – highlands and country with system of international airports, deep sea ports, roads, north-south railways  developed conveniently.

Da Nang port is the third largest commercial ports in Vietnam after Saigon port and the port of Hai Phong. With a depth of 11m wharf, warehouse systems and equipment upgraded by capital funds of the government of Japan, Da Nang port can receive ships with a capacity of 45,000 dwt and others such as container ships, passenger ships, cargo ships. Da Nang is the international shipping route enabling to go to Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

Da Nang international airport is one of the three best airports in Vietnam. In addition to domestic flights, there are weekly international flights directly from Da Nang to Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei. In the near future, the airport will open more routes to Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. Da Nang international airport is currently being upgraded and expanded to meet the needs of increasing passengers and cargo.

The system of roads in and out of the city are constantly being expanded and newly constructed

Telecommunication systems: Da Nang is one of three major telecomunication centers of the country, international transmission speed with good quality of  Southeast Asia. Da Nang post provides various and modern telecommunication services and be capable meeting the needs of customers.

The other services supporting investment (financial, banking, insurance …): most banks and finance companies of Vietnam have large branches in Da Nang. Some branches of foreign banks and international insurance companies are operating effectively in the city. These services have increasingly been improved better to meet the needs of investors.

Trained and abundant human resources

Da Nang has abundant human resources (over 50% of the population of the city), mostly young labor. Number of employees with technical expertise trained account nearly a quarter of the labor force. Labor costs in Da Nang are lower than some other cities in the country.

Da Nang is one of the provinces in the country with the high educational development index which create a favorable platform for the development of human resources of the city to perform the goal of improving the quality of human resources, quality of life. The city has about 14 universities, 15 colleges and professional schools with nearly 140,000 students. This system performs training in most areas of science, engineering, information technology, economics, business administration, language and pedagogy… Danang university also cooperates with universities of countries with an advanced education such as France, US, Japan, Australia, Canada, New Zealand …

Software technology center in Da Nang is one of the leading software producers in Vietnam and is the leading training center of the central region. Over the years, the software technology center  has cooperated closely with companies of India (aptech) and Japan (aots) to train programmers, technicians and engineers reaching the international standard. Many IT company has chosen Da Nang to set up company in da nang to hold their talents for international projects.

In addition, the city also has about 55 vocational training centers which often provide short-term training courses in computer science, sewing, mechanics, electricity – electronics, construction techniques, etc …

Quality of life

Along with the process of urbanization, economic growth in recent years has helped to material life and spirit of the people of Da Nang continuously improved.

Unlike other large cities in Vietnam, next to the bustle of urban development, living in Da Nang always bring a sense of peace, comfort and closeness to nature. Da Nang is one of the very few cities in Vietnam having a harmonious combination between high mountains, deep forests, long beach, deep river. After work, you can easily find space to relax beside the river or on beautiful beaches.

Da Nang today is a city with a healthy cultural environment, with urban civilized lifestyle, literacy levels elevated, beautiful natural scenery. It can be said that Da Nang is an exciting place to live, work, travel  and invest in Vietnam.

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Potentials in Vietnam – Poland Agricultural Cooperation

Both countries have strength in agriculture sector, opening up many prospects for Poland enterprises to set up business in Vietnam and vice versa.

Vietnam is one of 14 important markets in the world for enterprises in the Polish food and agriculture sector. Moreover, Vietnam has been identified as a priority market for Poland’s future cooperation with wide open opportunities for both sides.

Statistics show that from 1993 up to now, two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Poland has increased continuously and rapidly. From 2001 to 2006, two-way trade increased about three times, from 117 million USD to 330 million USD.

By 2016, this figure has reached nearly 790 million USD. It is forecast that two-way trade turnover between the two countries in 2017 can reach 1 billion USD, because in the first nine months of 2017, imports and exports between the two countries has reached nearly 700 million USD.

Poland is now Vietnam’s number 1 customer in Eastern Europe. In particular, Vietnam imported dairy products, meat and poultry products, apples and other agricultural products from Poland.

According to the Vietnamese ambassador to Poland, if compared to other sectors, agriculture is an area in which Vietnam and Poland are more promising.

In particular, when Poland becoming an important link in Europe, with the approval of the Europe – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Vietnam’s goods may pass through Poland to penetrate Europe. The prospect of cooperation of both sides in the coming time is very positive.

Recognizing the opportunities for cooperation between Poland and Vietnam in the field of agriculture, according to Activ Company, Vietnam is one of the markets for apples and apple juice that Activ wants to concentrate in the coming period.

Accordingly, Activ is setting up business with partners in Vietnam to expand the distribution channels of apple and apple juice products in Vietnam. This is also Activ’s strategy movement to catch the market when EVFTA officially comes into effect. EVFTA will be a trade agreement that brings together many opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in the field of agriculture, the sector that the two countries have strong advantages.

Therefore, in order to promote cooperation between the two sides, the two countries must strengthen the information connection so that the two sides can grasp the market and seize the partnership to build for future connections.

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Highlights in Real Estate Investment in Vietnam

Vietnam is attracting interest of investors in both domestic and foreign market. Overall, investor confidence was returning to the Vietnam real estate market. Both buyers and sellers have enhanced activity in recent months.

The real estate market of Vietnam has overcome the recession period within 4 or 5 years ago but in the last 12 months, the market has recovered and noted positive signs as well as confidence in the market in general.

Law on housing and real estate business Law takes effect in July 2015 and has acted quickly and positively on the real estate market in Vietnam. The changes in the Law on housing have significantly eased the regulations on home ownership for foreigners, although there are still some limitations.

“Hot spots” of FDI inflows

According to a recent report of Jones Lang LaSalle Vietnam (JLL), a series of free trade agreements such as TPP, EU and ASEAN will further promote the medium and long term development. Interest rates and inflation rate have declined significantly and became more stable in the past two years, helping the investment activity to occur more positive in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. With some domestic and foreign investors such as CapitaLand and Keppel Land, they have spurred the construction activities thanks to the growing revenue in the last 12 months.

Accordingly, the amount of disbursed FDI in the period from January to September of 2015 rose by 8.4% compared to the same period last year, reaching 9.7 billion USD. This is the strongest growth since the late 1980s, contrary to the slowdown of the Chinese economy. The amount of registered capital of new investors also rose even more sharply with 11 billion USD, focused primarily on the manufacturing industry, in which the energy and electronics industries are the sectors with the highest registered capital investment in the year, followed by the real estate sector.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, FDI investment in the industrial park in Vietnam accounted for 67% of total FDI in Vietnam with 11 billion USD and accounting for 59% of the total 1,400 projects in the first 9 months of 2015. A notable transaction is the event that Amata Corporation acquired the land worth 279 million USD in Long Thanh (Dong Nai) for the purpose of building residential and industrial areas valued of 500 million USD.

According to JLL, the residential real estate prices in Vietnammaintained an average rate with 2 bedroom apartments, 70 m2, 10 – 15 minutes to reach the central area of Ho Chi Minh City, which are sold at the price of 1,600 – 2,000 USD/m2, equivalent to 112,000 – 140,000 USD/apartment. When compared with the big cities in the region, the price is believed to increase significantly.

Who dominated the real estate market of Vietnam?

JLL’s report showed that domestic investors are boosting investment activity in the real estate market of Vietnam. The largest real estate investors in Vietnam are Vingroup and Novaland Group.

Vingroup is Vietnam’s largest real estate development and management with market capitalization of about 3.4 billion USD. Vingroup’s investment portfolio includes 45 real estate projects spread across many sectors of the real estate market, including Vinhomes luxury apartments and villas; Vincom Center and Vincom Mega Mall; Vincom Office; 5 star Vinpearl resort; Vinpearl Luxury resort….

Novaland Group has participated in the real estate market in 2007 with the first project is Sunrise City with investment capital of 500 million USD located on Nguyen Huu Tho road, district 7. The real estate business of Novaland focused on the apartment complex segment from mid to high classes and the segment of house land with 25 projects that are being implemented throughout the downtown districts.

Vietnam is becoming an attractive place for foreign investment in the medium term than many other countries in Southeast Asia. Data from Real Capital Analytics (RCA) recorded that there are more attention from a number of private investment funds that are allocated foreign capital into Vietnam in an attempt to increase their market presence in Vietnam.

In the 2nd quarter of 2015, a joint venture of Warburg Pincus – a US investment fund, has invested 100 million USD into Vincom Retail, the Vietnam’s largest trade center ownership and management in Vietnam. Also in this quarter, Gaw Capital Partners has received the transfer of 4 real estate projects under various segments from Indochina Land with a total value of 106 million USD. Gamuda Land has also receive the transfer of 40% shares (equivalent to 64.1 million USD) in the Celadon City project, a modern urban area with initial investment by a joint venture between Sacomreal, Thanh Thanh Cong (TTC) and An Phu Gia.

The current real estate profit margin is high

JLL’s analysis shows that investors are now enjoying 6 – 7% profitability rate for residential real estate and 9 – 11% for commercial real estate, depending on location, completion time, quality of the project and the signing time of the tenants.

According to General Director of JLL Vietnam, real estate investmentin emerging markets has always been seen as risky investments but with higher potential profits. Investors are willing to engage in joint venture projects in these markets, where they will combine with local investors who wish to have capital supporting – in order to have a foothold in the market before and also experience the exponential growth in the future when the economy of these market growing fast.

Moreover, the emerging markets such as Vietnam will have the potential growth factors, including population growth and high urbanization rate. Investors and project developers can take advantage of these factors.

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Sustainable development in Vietnam

Achievement of sustainable development in Vietnam

The sustainable development objectives including economic, social development and environment protection have been integrated into national priority development together with economic growth objective.

With a stable GDP and economic growth, improvement of education, Vietnamese citizens have gained more knowledge about gender quality, environmental and other social issues, thus, creating campaigns to support collective action. For example, the campaign collecting garbage along beaches in Vietnam attracted more than 1000 students to participate in which indicated collective action to mitigate effect of disaster and climate change.

Vietnamese government has significantly improved the rate of hunger eradication, poverty reduction, population, job creation, education and healthcare. Particularly, in 2014, total state budget for hunger eradication and poverty reduction were more than 34 billion VND. Thus, the poverty rate took a nosedive from 14.2% in 2010 to 1.8-2% in 2014, proving average reduction of 2% per year national wide.

The state fund for environmental protection has been increased, thus the policies for environmental protection has put into regular operation. By executing tax exemption for environmental friendly enterprises, businesses in Vietnam have been more aware of coordinating environmental protection policies into long term vision and mission.

Vietnam takes part in international agreement to show commitment to sustainable development such as: WTO, United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change, United Nation Convention to combat desertification, the convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora…

Challenges of sustainable development in Vietnam

There have been some challenges in Vietnam when implementing sustainable development policies. An increase in natural disaster, degenerated natural resource (water and biodiversity resources), wasteful and ineffective production and consumption are causing huge destruction to various local communities.

Even though there have been some supporting policies for enterprises in Vietnam to implement sustainable development policies, they have not obtained full awareness of the link between good environmental, social, and governance performance and the ability of companies to be profitable and survive in turbulent times. Therefore, most of the firms succeeded in promoting sustainable development practices are international businesses.

Sustainable development in business

Since Vietnam takes part in international trade agreements, there will be more international and institutional investors need the information of material environmental, social and governance information about company performance to decide whether to make investment decision.

Sustainable development of the business should be proven by social factors (employee compensation, benefits, staff turnover, safety practices, diversity and local community) and environmental factors (energy efficiency, GHS emissions, biodiversity conservation, water usage, natural resource use, waste to energy and recycling practices). These factors are crucial for investors as they indicates how the company takes into account risks, opportunities, management approach, stakeholder value and long term development.

Sustainability report has been strongly recommended by Vietnamese government. Vietnam Brewery Ltd is one of a few leading companies taking this report seriously. Their report in 2014 stated that the company switched from diesel to biomass as boiler fuel, reducing direct CO2 emissions as a result. In addition to reducing our carbon footprint and mitigating the effects of global warming, the local community has also benefitted from the programme with an additional income from the sale of rice husks. The company also highlighted the code of conduct which allowed the employees to voice their opinions. There have been also other big cooperation taking part in the trend for example Bao Viet Corporation, Vinamilk, Hau Giang Pharmacy…

In conclusion, in order for enterprises in Vietnam to actively engage in sustainable development and voluntarily adopt sustainability as common practice, Vietnamese government should take more urgent actions.

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Potentials of Vietnam Logistics Industry

When Vietnam joins the TPP, Vietnam logistics industry has many opportunities to develop and engage more deeply into the world’s logistics centers…

According to the report of World Bank, the forecasted growth rate between 2015 and 2020 is 12%/year and import export turnover reached 623 billion USD in 2020, Vietnam is a promising destination for investors.

According to the statistics from the Vietnam Logistics Business Association (VLA), Vietnam’s logistics costs accounted for about 25% of GDP per year, much higher than countries such as the US, China or Thailand.

In the coming time when TPP agreement takes effect with many tariffs equal 0%, the export-import operations in Vietnam will promise to develop strongly. This is considered a great opportunity for the logistics industry to “boom”.

As an important link of the economy, the logistics activities help the goods to reach consumers and ensure the materials for the production process.

Despite facing strong competition from foreign rivals, many experts still appreciate the future prospects of the domestic logistics enterprises, especially in the context of free trade agreements (FTAs, TPP) boosted FDI inflows pouring into Vietnam industries.

On the other hand, the increasingly improved infrastructure in Vietnam will strengthen connectivity between logistics facilities and production areas; planning and supporting from the State, along with customs procedures are gradually improving in a positive direction.

In the recent two years, a series of key infrastructure projects have been started and completed as Long Thanh – Dau Giay  highway, Noi Bai – Lao Cai highway, Ha Noi – Hai Phong highway, Ben Luc – Long Thanh highway Highway 51 connecting industrial park with the ports and Soai Rap channel dredging works (in Hiep Phuoc port) and Thi Vai – Cai Mep channel…

In addition, the Government and the Ministry of Transport have launched a number of policies to guide, support and stimulate the sustainable development of the domestic logistics industry such as: policy to control road loading, preferential policies for Vietnam ships on domestic routes, the draft to establish port authorities to develop ports and port services, Decision No. 1037/QD-TTg on the port development plan till 2020…

Moreover, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam is also actively developing and implementing the ASEAN Single Window mechanism. The implementation of this process will benefit the business community, including logistics businesses such as reducing the time taken for administrative procedures and also cost reduction.

However, in order to develop logistics industry, the State should build and complete the legal framework, standardized service processes, upgrading infrastructure and human resources for the field of logistics.

Government should also take measures to guide and promote logistics companies to link together, formed the company with strong capabilities, able to compete with foreign companies.

With the above subjective and objective elements, Vietnam’s logistics industry still have great potential to develop and first of all, they will have conditions to advance to move towards to same level with foreign logistics businesses in the region.

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Is Apple About to Set-up Company in Vietnam?

In the August 2015 work plan of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, it has been recently revealed that a section to review the registration of a company named Apple Vietnam company limited. Is it the American multinational teconology company with its famous products i.e. Mac, Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, Apple watch…about to set-up company in Vietnam to promote and distribute its own products i.e. the upcoming Iphone 6s, and Iphone 6s plus?

According to the information from the official dealer of Apple in Vietnam, Apple has already had a representative in Vietnam and began contacting with agents in the country from early 2015. The current business activities of Apple with domestic partners are done through Apple Thailand. Therefore, Apple’s representative in Vietnam will help to smooth out this arrangement because of the better understanding the local market and no language barrier.

Although Apple has not had their representative office or official company in Vietnam but they have many authorized dealers to sell its products. Apple products like the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have always led the top 10 selling phones in many domestic retail systems since its launching in late 2014. According to the statistic of IDC, in the first quarter of 2015, Apple ranked 2nd in value in the largest smart phone manufacturers in Vietnam; in the tablet market, Apple accounted for 16.6% of the market – ranked 2nd in the market – but accounted for 29.1%, the highest in terms of market value.

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