Da Nang promotes the development of Science and Technology | ANT Consulting

According to a report by the Ministry of Science and Technology, in 2019, the Science and Technology industry has achieved GDP growth of 46.11% and the labor productivity growth rate of 6.2%, these are achievements of Science and Technology of Vietnam in 2019. To continue the development of Science and Technology, Da Nang has set a goal of developing science and technology, focusing on the goal of improving the capacity of innovation by attracted the domestic and foreign investors to set up company in this fields in Da Nang.

In recent years, with efforts in Science and Technology development, Vietnam has achieved certain achievements in the fight against epidemics and bringing the economy back to stability. At the same time, Science and Technology achievements have been flexibly applied, promoting the basis of the digitized Vietnamese knowledge system in developing epidemic maps using Vmap, detecting people at risk of infection at tourist destinations, construction of medical declaration software. In the meantime, Vietnam has been effectively mobilizing science and technology representative networks in countries to connect research groups, exchange and test equipment, technologies and products for prevention and control of epidemic; promote public-private cooperation in conducting research tasks.

In addition, according to the content of Resolution No. 50/NQ-CP dated April 17, 2020 on the Government’s action plan to implement Resolution No. 52-NQ/TW dated September 27, 2019 of the Politburo on number of guidelines and policies actively participated in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the Prime Minister has issued the policies to improve national innovation capacity.

In particular, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Science and Technology to conduct research, review and propose a comprehensive restructuring plan for the system of public scientific and technological research facilities. Building and developing national innovation centers, focusing on the key technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Developing a national innovation system in the direction of being enterprise is the centered, higher education institutions and research institutes as strong research subjects. At the same time, assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with units in joint research and development, propose special and breakthrough mechanisms and policies for the construction and operation of innovation centers. Beside, Vietnam has encouraged domestic and foreign universities, businesses and organizations to set up innovation centers in Vietnam.

In Da Nang City, the Department of Science and Technology issued Plan No. 28-KH/SKHCN dated May 12, 2020, focusing on the content of improving the capacity of innovation.

In the coming time, the city Department of Science and Technology will deploy 23 contents on the topic of innovation. In which, 03 contents are implemented in the period of 2020 to 2025 and 16 contents are implemented annually.

In the period of 2020 to 2025, the Department will coordinate with the Ministry of Science and Technology to promote the development of national creative start-up ecosystem to strongly develop startups in the city.

In addition, the Department will advise the implementation of the Projects to build Da Nang into a national innovation and innovation start-up center in the Central region and Highlands of Vietnam. In particular, in the immediate future, the city will focus on building and deploying activities of innovation centers, focusing on the core technologies of the Fourth Technology Revolution. The City People’s Committee issued a plan to implement the City’s Program on “Developing high-tech industry, building Da Nang into a national-level startup, innovation and innovation center, as an urban area in creativity – science – technology of the global and highly competitive”, and plan to implement the Project” Supporting national innovation start-up ecosystem to 2025″ in the Da Nang city.

With the efforts of Science and Technology development with the city’s FDI attraction goals, Da Nang hopes that it will become a destination for Science and Technology investors to set up company doing business in Vietnam.

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Why Market Research and Risk Evaluation Are Important for Foreign Investment? | ANT Consulting

Market research and risks assessment before investing or having any business cooperation, especially in the period of integration, trade between countries, have become very popular. When entering Vietnam, the new market with different cultures, market mechanism, the first and indispensable step is to do market research, evaluate the risks to know the strengths, weaknesses of business, in order to bring the best profit on investment.

Market research and risk evaluation require a high level of expertise and a deep knowledge of a particular market. The team of research and risk evaluation services are also people with professional capacity, good research, analysis and judgment ability. Consulting service companies have also been established with an increasing number and quality are also specialized and professionalized to meet the high requirements of foreign investors.

There are many areas to look into for market research and risk evaluation, i.e. general market research services, customer research services, buying behavior, supply and demand rend, reputation of company being buyer or seller, reputation of the individual managing the company, reputation of key employee for hiring, work records of employee, criminal record of individual stakeholders. These diverse research fields have solved the obstacles of foreign investors and become an effective channel to exploit information in a reputable, fast and accurate way.

Today, with the development of information technology, a foreign investor can access information and data of a market, of an enterprise or information of a business or production field which are not too difficult. However, it is not easy to use data and link information together to make an accurate assessment for investors’ purposes. Many investors have decided to do their own research. However, participating in a completely strange field and market is a risky decision. Accordingly, in addition to the information collected, foreign individuals and organizations need to have realistic analysis reports, in-depth research enough to grasp the potential and risks of that market before choosing to invest in.

Besides the cost, the research and risk evaluation service of professional consultant have helped investors to know the information of the market and the expected business field without having to spend time and money to go in person to the country in other to research. Moreover, the research and risk service can provide results from the measurement that make an assessment of the prospects, potential, and suitability of the investment orientation thanks to the understanding of the characteristics and business practices… It will therefore be possible to give useful and reliable advice on investment opportunities.

Research and risk evaluation services also help investors narrow the vision and effective investment scope to avoid risks. From there, investors can work towards a specific goal and plan the next steps. As a consulting channel, the research and evaluation service also provides useful information such as the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, the risks they have encountered, and the trends they are deploying so the investors can consult and note. Based on that information to create for a suitable strategy such as a unique promotion tactic, a special, impressive product, hiring strategy…

Research and risk evaluation services also help analyze the legal matters that have significant impact that investors gain more legal knowledge in the expected field and have the most general picture of the field. On the other hand, it helps investors when implementing launch programs and entering the market to comply with the provisions of the law, as well as in accordance with the local culture.

It can be seen that in today’s investment market, research and risk evaluation services are not only useful, but it is an initial factor to determine the possibility of success. Therefore, foreign investors do not forget to choose for themselves a reputable and experienced research and risk evaluation service provider to successfully implement investment projects together in Vietnam.

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Thai Billionaires and M&A Activities in Vietnam | ANT Consulting

The billion-dollar acquisitions of Thai billionaires have brought Thailand to become a formidable force in M&A activities in Vietnam and Asia.

Big C Vietnam has fallen into the hands of billionaire Tos Chirathivat – the boss of Central Group (Thailand) from Casino Group (France) for 1.05 billion USD. In 2015, this group also spent about 100 million USD to acquire Nguyen Kim – the leading retailer in the electronics market. Recently, the Group also spent 10 million USD to acquire the business segments in Thailand and Vietnam of Zalora (belongs to Global Fashion Group of Rocket Internet Corporation).

Previously, billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi – owner of TCC Holdings (Thailand) spent 655 million Euros to buy 19 centers and relating real estates of Metro Cash & Cary Vietnam. Also, Berli Jucker (BJC), a subsidiary of TCC Holdings also acquired Family Mart Vietnam. Especially, along with the acquisition of Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam, billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi also through the Singapore Beverage Group – Fraser & Neave (F&N) became the 2nd largest shareholder in Vinamilk with 11.04% share. Currently, Thaibev which also belongs to this billionaire is racing to buy 40% share in Saigon beer (Sabeco), with a value of 1 billion USD.

In fact, the trend that Thai businesses acquired businesses outside their national borders is not new. In 2012, Siam Cement Group (SCG) of Thailand signed an agreement to buy 85% share in Prime Group JSC (Vietnam) at the price of 7.2 billion Baht (nearly 5,000 billion VND). This is also the biggest M&A deal in the field of building materials in Vietnam so far.

In the plastic industry, currently, SCG has invested in more than 20 Vietnam plastic enterprises. Particularly, the most significant investment is to buy 80% share in Tin Thanh Plastic Company, a top enterprise in the field of plastic packaging of Vietnam. SCG also holds large shares in 4 companies specialized in manufacturing plastic household – packaging in Vietnam, which are Vietnam – Thai Plastchem Joint Venture, TPC Vina Plastic and Chemical, Minh Thai and Chemtech Plastic Materials.

Currently, SCG is also the 2nd largest shareholder in Tien Phong Plastics and Binh Minh Plastics, just after State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC). Moreover, SCIC planned to divest from this two plastics companies. This will create opportunities for Nawaplastic Industries to increase its shares in Tien Phong Plastics and Binh Minh Plastics. SCG continues to seek opportunities to invest in Vietnam’s plastic industry.

Most recently, the Ton Poh Thailand Fund has spent 130 billion VND to buy 5.9 million shares of Hoang Huy Investment – Service Company, equivalent to 5.32% of the charter capital of the company. In addition to Hoang Huy, Ton Poh Thailand Fund also owns nearly 6% share of Cotec Construction Company.

An open economic space will create significant opportunities for investment flows. The formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), which expected to take effect from 2018, is the impetus for investment flows into the country in this area. The race has just begun for the countries, investors and Thailand businesses seem to hold this game.

The billion-dollar acquisitions of ambitious billionaires brought Thailand to become a powerful force in M&A activity in Asia. According to experts, the deal with the presence of Thai companies in the M&A market in Asia has increased rapidly, just behind China, Korea and India.

In particular, the market of more than 600 million people of AEC is considered as a more stable market than most emerging markets in the world. The growth opportunities for businesses here will be very attractive, regardless of Thailand, Vietnam enterprises or from other economies.

To sum up, according to economic analysts, the increase of M&A activities will be the obvious result due to the free trade between the countries in goods, services and human resources.

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The US Increased Imports of Vietnamese Goods | ANT Consulting

Vietnam could become the seventh largest exporter to the US in 2019 if it can maintain the growth rate of 40.2% as in the first quarter.

According to the data announced by the US Bureau of Statistics, in the first three months of 2019, the export speed of goods from Vietnam to the US increased by 40.2% over the same period last year. This is the fastest growth rate among the 12 largest exporters to the US in 2018. Behind Vietnam is Korea with a growth rate of 18.4%. On the other hand, Chinese goods to the US fell 13.9% amid increasing trade tension between the two countries.

If maintaining the growth rate in the first quarter for the rest of 2019, Vietnam could surpass the big ones like France, England, Italy and India to become the 7th largest commodity exporter for the world’s largest economy, with an estimated value of nearly 69 billion USD. Last year, Vietnam ranked 12th with the value of goods exported to the US reached more than 49.2 billion USD.

According to the statistics of the General Department of Customs, in the first 4 months of this year, the US continued to be the largest importer of Vietnamese goods such as textiles and garments with value of 4.42 billion USD, increase by 9.1% compared to the same period last year; footwear (2 billion USD), increase by 13.5%; machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts increase by more than 54% (1.3 billion USD); wood and wood products (1.42 billion USD), increase by 34.7%.

In early May, US President Donald Trump also mentioned that producers could choose Vietnam as a destination after leaving China. According to the Fitch credit rating agency, there were signs that Vietnam could benefit from the impact of trade tension from the flow of trade out of China.

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