President of Ireland visit Vietnam and Promote Investment

President Michael D. Higgins has begun a State visit to Vietnam to promote cooperation with Vietnam and encourage Irish businesses’s investment and setting up companies in various sectors, including trade – investment, education – training, green technology, wind energy, agriculture, health and sustainable development.

Vietnam and Ireland trade turnover has grown strongly in recent years (particularly for first 9 months of 2016, which reached USD 798 million, more than 3 times compared to the same period of 2015). Vietnam agrees to create favorable conditions and encourage enterprises Ireland to set-up company in Vietnam to promote trading, technology transfer, especially in the areas of investing in renewable (wind) energy projects, agriculture and food processing, information, communication, medical, and aviation…, especially in the context of the free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the EU is about to be signed and implemented. The two sides also agreed to consider education, training as key areas of cooperation in the future and encourages higher education establishments of the two countries.

It is appreciated that Government of Ireland considers Vietnam as a priority partner in development cooperation policy, and that projects funded by Ireland have been effectively implemented, which contribute significantly to the Vietnam social economic development. According to President Michael D. Higgins, Ireland will soon announce the national strategy for development cooperation with Vietnam in the period 2017 – 2020 to support poverty reduction, adaptation to climate change and implementation of the sustainable development objectives.

Wishing to strengthen the friendship and mutual understanding between the people of Vietnam and Ireland, the two sides agreed to promote cultural exchanges, art and promote the role of the Vietnamese community Vietnam in Ireland, contributing to boosting bilateral cooperation in other fields.

The state visit of Ireland President will definitely open a new chapter of economic relationship between Vietnam and Ireland, laying grounds for further investment from Irish investors in various sectors, especially in wind energy investment, aviation, education, technology, medical and many other opportunities, through direct investment i.e. setting up companies, investing in projects in Vietnam in various forms.

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Technology startup in Vietnam is increasingly attractive. Many foreign enterprises are interested in this area and showing their desire to set up business in Vietnam.

According to Mr Mitchell Pham, president of the New Zealand Technology Association (NZTech) – who is known to be the 1st native of Vietnam elected to become the chairman of NZTech, representing for over 400 technology enterprises New Zealand: “All trip participants were impressed with the development of science and technology in Vietnam. We are looking for specific opportunities for cooperation with Vietnam-tech enterprise”.

More information about the members of the delegation, Mr Mitchell Pham said that back to Vietnam this time, accompanied him are 6 young leaders of technology enterprises in New Zealand with a desire to learn and exchange with technology businesses in Vietnam, in order to create connection for long-term investment goals.

In terms of the favorable conditions, according to Mr Mitchell Pham, trade relations between New Zealand and Vietnam have the fastest growth rate in Southeast Asia with 120% in the period 2010 – 2015. Two-way trade of the two countries in 2015 has reached 1 billion USD.

Moreover, Vietnam is known as the country with the booming information technology market and the government is also trying to create more incentives for this sector. Meanwhile, technology businesses in New Zealand have experiences and large operating network, certainly the cooperation and investment in Vietnam will be intensified in the coming period.

According Chicilon Media, Vietnam technology market, especially Ho Chi Minh City is developing extremely powerful. Consumers is having trend to access to communication products and services via smartphones instead of traditional media such as TV, poster… Hence, this Company has strengthened their strategy focusing on channels to access information over the phone and access to a diverse range of partners such as the startup.

In parallel, the growth of mobile devices will continue in the coming years. Therefore, the approach to the users of mobile devices – who are moving to the final stage of the shopping journey and going to buy the product – becomes extremely important. Currently, marketing on mobile devices is evaluated as a simple marketing channels, rapid deployment and easy to access to customers.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/vietnam-technology-startup-attracts-foreign-enterprises.html

Korean Corporation Wants to Build Racecourse in Vietnam

Chairman of the Korea’s Horse Racing Corporation Mr Choi Hank Soo have just had a meeting with the People’s Committee of Bac Ninh province (Vietnam) to explore opportunities for cooperation in this locality by setting up a business.

At the meeting, Mr Choi Hank Soo said that the purpose of this trip to Bac Ninh is to explore investment opportunities to build the racecourse and entertainment complex in Thuan Thanh district (Bac Ninh), with investment capital in the first phase reaches 500 million USD.

When the project goes into operation, it will form the kind of attractive sport and entertainment services for the community, creating jobs for 5,000 – 10,000 labors, making great contribution to the budget and contributing to the economic and social development of Bac Ninh province.

According to Chairman of Bac Ninh province, this highly feasible project has large-scale investment, under conditional business lines that require the approval of Vietnam Prime Minister. Provincial Leaders recommended the Korea Corporation to coordinate closely with the concerned departments to complete the procedures according to Vietnam law, submitting to the ministries and Prime Minister for approval.

Chairman of Bac Ninh province also committed that within 10 working days from the time receiving the approval of Prime Minister, this province will complete the legal formalities for the project to be implemented soon and put into operation in an effective way.

Reportedly, a project to build 27-hole golf course is being implemented in Thuan Thanh district (Bac Ninh).

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/korean-corporation-wants-build-racecourse-vietnam.html

Thang Long II Industrial Zone (Under Pho Noi B Industrial Zone)

Geographical location:

Located adjacent to Highway 5 (Hanoi – Hai Phong); 30 km from Hanoi, 70k m from Hai Phong port, 110km from Quang Ninh deep-water port.

Scale of land area:

345.2 hectares

In which: Stage 1: 219.6 hectares, 154 hectares of land area for rent

Stage 2: 125.6 hectares, 101 hectares of land area for rent.

Industrial zone technical infrastructure:

Stage 1:

Thang Long Industrial Zone II has completed the work of compensation, site clearance the whole land area of the industrial zone and has completed construction of technical infrastructure on an area of 154.4 hectares.

The system of internal road in the industrial zone, water supply and drainage systems, power supply, firefighting system, water supply plant with capacity of 4,500 m3/day and night and wastewater treatment plant with capacity of 3,000 m3/day and night have been completed and put into operation. Investors are actively investing in building infrastructure for the remaining part of the 65,3 hectares area.

Phase 2: In 2011, the Government has agreed to supplement Thang Long Industrial Zone II to the list of industrial zones that are expected to expand in 2015, with an area of 125.6 hectares. So far, investors are carrying out of compensation, site clearance and ground leveling to implement phase 2 according to the registered progress.

The sector attracting investment project:

Projects in the field of manufacturing of electronic products and precision engineering; the electronic engineering industry, transport machinery, light industry; industrial gas production.

Investment project attraction status:

By the end of 2012, industrial zone has received over 36 projects from Japan with a total investment of 1,040 million USD, including a number of projects with large-scale capital: the projects of Hoya Glass disk Company, Hamaden Company, Toyota, Kyocera Vietnam Co., Ltd… Currently, the total land area of Phase 1 is 106 hectares with occupancy rate of 70% of the land area which is capable for rent in phase 1 (106/154 hectares). In total registered projects, there are 21 projects went into operation, creating jobs for about 4,000 workers.

Owner of Thang Long II Industrial Zone:

Thang Long II Industrial Zone Co., Ltd

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

For more information, please contact ANT Consulting.

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Hong Kong Investment Funds Investing in Real Estate, Banking of Vietnam

According to the data from the Foreign Investment Department, total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first 9 months of 2016 reached 16.43 billion USD, equivalent to 95.8% compared to the same period of 2015.

As of September 20th 2016, there were 1,820 new projects were granted the investment registration certificates with total registered capital of 11.165 billion USD, increased by 1.1% from the same period in 2015.

Along with that, there are 851 projects registered to adjust capital, with total additional capital reached 5.265 billion USD, equivalent to 86.1% over the same period in 2015.

Meanwhile, till September 20th 2016, it is estimated that the FDI projects have disbursed 11.02 billion USD, increased by 12.4% over the same period in 2015.

Also according to the report of the Foreign Investment Department, in the first 9 months of 2016, foreign investors have invested in 19 sectors, in which the processing and manufacturing sectors are the sectors that attracting more attention of foreign investors with 767 new investment projects and 608 projects register to adjust capital, the total new and additional capital reached 12.15 billion USD, accounting for 73.9% of total registered investment capital within 9 months.

The real estate business sector ranks the 2nd with 34 new projects with the total new and additional capital reached 1 billion USD, accounting for 6.1% of total registered capital. Fields of professional activities, science and technology rank the 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. In particular, Korean investors led with a total investment capital reached 5.58 billion USD, accounting for 34% of total investment capital in Vietnam.

Singapore ranked 2nd with total investment capital reached 1.84 billion USD, accounting for 11.2% of total registered capital. Japan ranked 3rd with total investment capital reached 1.7 billion USD, accounting for 10.3% of total investment capital.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of setting up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam… to help you shorten the implementation time.

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16 Billion USD of FDI Capital into Vietnam

According to the data from the Foreign Investment Department, total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first 9 months of 2016 reached 16.43 billion USD, equivalent to 95.8% compared to the same period of 2015.

As of September 20th 2016, there were 1,820 new projects were granted the investment registration certificates with total registered capital of 11.165 billion USD, increased by 1.1% from the same period in 2015.

Along with that, there are 851 projects registered to adjust capital, with total additional capital reached 5.265 billion USD, equivalent to 86.1% over the same period in 2015.

Meanwhile, till September 20th 2016, it is estimated that the FDI projects have disbursed 11.02 billion USD, increased by 12.4% over the same period in 2015.

Also according to the report of the Foreign Investment Department, in the first 9 months of 2016, foreign investors have invested in 19 sectors, in which the processing and manufacturing sectors are the sectors that attracting more attention of foreign investors with 767 new investment projects and 608 projects register to adjust capital, the total new and additional capital reached 12.15 billion USD, accounting for 73.9% of total registered investment capital within 9 months.

The real estate business sector ranks the 2nd with 34 new projects with the total new and additional capital reached 1 billion USD, accounting for 6.1% of total registered capital. Fields of professional activities, science and technology rank the 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. In particular, Korean investors led with a total investment capital reached 5.58 billion USD, accounting for 34% of total investment capital in Vietnam.

Singapore ranked 2nd with total investment capital reached 1.84 billion USD, accounting for 11.2% of total registered capital. Japan ranked 3rd with total investment capital reached 1.7 billion USD, accounting for 10.3% of total investment capital.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of setting up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam… to help you shorten the implementation time.

Cre: http://www.antconsult.vn/news/16-billion-usd-fdi-capital-vietnam.html

French President Visits Vietnam

On September 5th 2016, Mr François Hollande – President of the Republic of France start visiting Vietnam at the invitation of the President of Vietnam – Mr Tran Dai Quang.

During the visit, the two parties will check, review and concretize the connotations towards promoting cooperation and further strengthen political relations, exchanging high-level visits on both bilateral and multilateral levels. Moreover, both parties will review and further improve the efficiency of cooperation mechanisms between the two countries.

The visit is also an opportunity for both sides to promote the economic cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, climate change combating, science – technology, health, agriculture… This is also an opportunity for France and Vietnam together to discuss international issues. The visit of President François Hollande will last for 3 days.

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French Businesses Build Earth Observation Station in Vietnam

French companies will exploit highway and building earth observation station in Vietnam. Moreover, many important cooperation agreements in the economic field have been signed this morning with the witness of heads of two countries.

On the sidelines of the talk between President Tran Dai Quang and President of France – Francois Hollande on September 6th 2016, representatives of FPT Joint Stock Company and Telespazio France (France’s leading company in the field of satellite system management and exploiting) have signed cooperation agreements with many important commitments.

Accordingly, the two sides will jointly collect and handle the data related to sea and land environmental monitoring, which are obtained from satellites and other facilities in order to create products and services on the platform of cloud computing. FPT and Telespazio France will also look towards the establishment of an EarthLab center in Vietnam, which is an Earth observation center from satellite. If established, this will be the 4th EarthLab center of Telespazio France in the world after France, the Republic of Gabon and Luxembourg.

A memorandum on the concession of exploitation right of the two projects Cau Gie – Ninh Binh and Long Thanh – Dau Giay is also signed between Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) and Vinci Concessions Corporation (France). In addition to the concession of exploitation right of the two above highways, the two partners will also exchange experiences, consider opportunities for technology transfer, management, operation and exploiting of the highway. At the same time, both parties will jointly research, develop and propose plan to invest in new highway projects in Vietnam in the future.

Also on September 6th, 3 airlines of Vietnam that are Jetstar Pacific, Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air have also signed with Airbus – French aviation corporation the deals worth 6.5 billion USD for the purchase of aircraft.

Earlier, in Quang Ninh Province, Linagora Company (France) and Hanel DTT Company have signed cooperation memorandum on e-government development, training human resources on software at the localities. On the basis of technology platform and experience of Linagora, this company will cooperate with DTT Hanel to support Quang Ninh province evaluate e-government model, consulting on solutions to improve operational efficiency of this system; as well as help Quang Ninh to build e-mail system with more than 20,000 users and the international tourism and foreign affair portals.

Do not just stop at the building of e-government, the two parties also towards building an information-based urban based on open source platform of Vietnam and France.

The above activities took place within the framework of the visit of President Francois Hollande. He was the 3rd President of France to visit Vietnam after the visit of President François Mitterrand in 1993 and President Jacques Chirac in 1997 and 2004.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/french-businesses-build-earth-observation-station-vietnam.html

Forbes: Vietnam is Becoming Economic Tiger of Asia

The website of Forbes has recently published the article of author Ed Fuller with the title “Vietnam is ready to become the next economic tiger of Asia.”

Like South Korea, Taiwan and China, Vietnam is having many base advantages.

According to the economic report till August of 2016, foreign direct investment (FDI) into Vietnam has reached a record level in 2015 and this year could be higher. Only the first half of 2016, FDI into Vietnam reached 11.3 billion USD, increased by 105% over the same period last year although in the context of the global economy is moving very slowly.

Since 1990, the average economic growth of Vietnam reached 7% per year, just behind China. This growth has brought Vietnam from a poor country into the country with average income level of the world. If Vietnam continues to keep the growth rate of 7% per years in the next 10 years, the Vietnam economy will grow just like China and many other economic tigers in Asia.

Vietnam now has more than 92 million people, mostly young (average age is 30.7 years old) and skilled. Moreover, the spending from the national budget for education is around 6.3% of GDP, higher than the average of most low and middle income countries. In the global rankings, 15-year-old children of Vietnam have regularly defeated children in the United States and Britain in math and science competitions. This is an advantage for the factory in Vietnam that requiring workers to have the ability to operate complicated machinery.

Another positive point is the advantage of geographical location, while Vietnam has the border with China, becoming a competitive advantage compared to other countries when Vietnam is closer to the production centers in Southern China with the transportation system connected by road and sea. Furthermore, the rising price of labor wages in China makes Vietnam becoming alternative destination for businesses to move their factory to locations where costs are lower.

Simultaneously, Vietnam is a member of various trade agreements. According to The Economist, Vietnam will be the greatest beneficiary of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP – an agreement of 12 countries including the US and Japan). Moreover, Vietnam also signed other trade agreements with the EU and South Korea.

Besides, nowadays, tourism is playing an increasingly important role in the development of Vietnam. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), in 2015, tourism has contributed more than 16 billion USD to the Vietnam’s economy, equivalent to about 9.3% of GDP.

With the goal of attracting 55 million tourists (both domestic and foreign) each year until 2030, Vietnam has announced the visa exemption policy for visitors from 22 countries in Europe and Asia, including the UK, France, Germany, Russia and 9 ASEAN member countries.

Also, a lot of infrastructure and major transport projects have been planned to implement in the next 15 years, including 7 new tourism development areas, the Hai Phong, Quang Ninh waterways and the railway connecting to China’s Yunnan province. Simultaneously, the upgrading of infrastructure in the area is expected to go further, thanks to a series of bilateral agreements that have been signed with Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar to realize joint tourism initiatives.

Analysts have predicted that the supply of hotel rooms will increase in the next 3 years. The CBRE real estate consulting firm has forecasted that the number of hotel rooms in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi will grow by 8% per year until 2018. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) also forecasted that the growth rate of the industry will be 6.2% annually over the next decade, creating more jobs and increasing tourism directly of about 2% per year until 2025 .

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/forbes-vietnam-becoming-economic-tiger-asia.html    

Reasons That Phu Quoc Island Attracts Major Investors

Natural beauty of Phu Quoc, the policy mechanisms and long-term orientation are reasons why this island attracts many major investors.

2015 is considered to be a difficult year for the tourism industry as the number of tourists coming to Vietnam decreased compared to the previous year and also the first year that the number of tourists coming to Vietnam decreased since 2009. However, in the general context, there is an island in Vietnam goes upstream as seen in the number of tourists increased by 30%. That’s Phu Quoc Island.

Every day, Phu Quoc has 50 coming and going flights. In the first 6 months of 2016, the number of tourists traveling to Phu Quoc has reached 1 million. Within 5 recent years, Phu Quoc Island has attracted large number of investors, in which among them there are almost all of the largest investors in Vietnam in the field of resort tourism.

Phu Quoc Island is known as the jewel in the southwestern sea areas of Vietnam. Phu Quoc Island has 27 large and small islands with the natural area of nearly 600km2, which is nearly equal to the natural area of Singapore. With this location, Phu Quoc is only 2 hours fly to capital cities of ASEAN countries, connecting by sea with the ASEAN countries that have sea, locating on the important maritime transportation and marine tourism axis, which is axis of Singapore – Thailand – Vietnam – Northeast Asian countries.

Phu Quoc Island has a coastline of 150km with beautiful and famous white sandy beaches. Phu Quoc Island has nearly 100 mountains and 36,000 hectares of forests with diverse ecosystems. Forest coverage accounts for over 60% of the area of Phu Quoc.

In particular, although Phu Quoc is island but there are abundant freshwater resources to ensure social and economic development of the island and a rich and unique marine ecosystem. In addition to the natural ecological tourism, Phu Quoc has unique features in terms of social and culture which are the famous pepper, fish sauce and pearl farming production.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/reasons-that-phu-quoc-island-attracts-major-investors.html

Foreign Specialists Interested in Vietnam

Vietnam is attracting foreign specialists to visit, live and work as expatriates due to stable political, improved environment for doing business.

As such, Vietnam has becoming an attractive destination for setting up business and factory in comparison with other countries in the region due to the capability to attract managements and talents.

Vietnam topped the list as the country bringing high income for foreign professionals with 67% said that their income has increased and 68% of them have capable of increasing accumulation. The study was published by HSBC in the foreign expert research which was newly implemented.

Accordingly, foreign professionals living in Asia Pacific was the highest paid people in the world with an average annual income of 126,537 USD.

The report also shows that Asia Pacific is the workplace of 18% foreign experts with salary exceeding 200,000 USD a year, the highest rate in the region, followed by the Middle East with 16%.

Living in Vietnam: Earning more money and good accumulation

In Asia in general, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore bring the highest accumulation to foreign experts, thus making their disposable incomes rise.

In particular, Vietnam topped the list with 67% of professionals working here saw their incomes rise and 68% have increasing accumulation. In particular, 16% of experts said that they potentially own more real estate by the rotation.

However, according to HSBC then Vietnam topped the area in terms of potential savings of foreign experts.

For younger professionals, a few Asian markets provide opportunities for better accommodation. More than half of professionals under 35 years old in Indonesia (55%) and India (52%) spend less on accommodation than when they stay in their own country.

The report also shows that Asia Pacific has the ability to create easiest financial base for professionals with high incomes, with 73% (of all income levels) said that they can establish easiest finance in New Zealand, followed by Singapore (63%) and Australia (56%).

Justin Bull from HSBC in Hong Kong said that Asia given the best opportunities for financing, allowing foreign experts to improve living standards and achieve desired lifestyle. The majority of the experts here are British and American. According to the survey, an important part of Asian experts changing local for income increasing like Australian experts working in China and Vietnam; Indian professionals working in Malaysia and Indonesia; Filipino professionals working in Malaysia and the Malaysian and Indonesian professionals working in Singapore.

There will be high-quality workforce shifting

When ASEAN is closer to the establishment of an economic community, the demand for skilled manpower will be increased to be able to enhance the competitiveness of the sector.

With the fact that ASEAN will increase 57 million new households belonging to the middle class to the global markets as of 2025, HSBC said that experts will continue to contribute in the field of telecommunication, technology, banking , education, hospitality, health, marketing and construction…

In addition, the new agreements on trade and investment, connecting economies with each other will unfreeze international vacancies between Asia and developing markets. This will be a potential world for skilled professionals and skilled labor.

The ability to save more, the higher disposable income or the ability to buy real estate is important factors for experts to consider switching to a new country.

Feel “Breathe easy” when living in Vietnam

Vietnam ranked 21st in the economic ranking, but ranked 5th when talking about the saving ability of foreign experts.

According to the survey from HSBC. Most of foreign experts believe that Vietnam had a more comfortable life with less spending on housing costs (62%), travel (73%), clothing (68%), goods and necessities (62%), essential services like electricity, water, telephone (70%) and bills (77%).

Thus, experts are likely to save more (68%) while living in Vietnam.

More than half of the foreign experts (62%) said that in Vietnam they can afford to hire a maid and nanny, something that they cannot afford while living at home country, and can enjoy the luxury vacation (52%), compared with only 28% and 36% of global experts.

The survey from HSBC also showed that Vietnam ranked 22nd in the ranking on experience, but 2nd in the ability to make friends. More than half of the foreign experts (56%) find that they integrate quickly into life and culture of Vietnam, and the majority of foreign experts find it easy to make new friends in Vietnam (68%).

Stabilize the life in Vietnam is relatively easy, with 36% of the experts feel like home once or within six months after moving to Vietnam. Most of foreign experts also enjoy integrated into in Vietnam (61%), enjoy and cook Vietnamese foods (78%).

Vietnam ranked 31st in the ranking about family. Almost half of the foreign experts (43%) said that the cost of child care in Vietnam is less expensive than at home country, and most of foreign experts (74%) send their children to the international school.

Vietnam is developing very fast and owns a dynamic business environment. This is an attractive destination for entrepreneurs seeking start-up opportunity and new business projects.

As an emerging market, Vietnam brings foreign experts many challenges and chances to develop career. With significant attractions in terms of tourism, culture and people, Vietnam also brings foreign experts wonderful experiences along with ease of integration and stabilizes the life in Vietnam.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/foreign-specialists-interested-in-vietnam.html

WSJ: “Made in Vietnam” Goods will Soon Popular Globally

Numerous foreign investors relocating factorties to Long An (Vietnam) to set up business and take advantage of young and low cost workforce.

This province has a dozen industrial zones. As of May 2015, they have attracted 3.67 billion USD foreign investments, 40% of which is poured into textiles sector.

The economists said that this process could accelerate if the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) is agreed. This agreement will reduce import tariffs on many goods exchanged between member states, mainly to benefit the developing country like Vietnam or Malaysia – countries where growth rate depends heavily on exports.

Wages soared and labor shortages in China are making Vietnam become more attractive. Last year, FDI into Vietnam have reached 12.4 billion USD, increase by nearly 25% compared to 2009. One of the largest investors as Samsung Electronics of South Korea whom have plan to double investment in electronics manufacturing in Vietnam.

If TPP takes effect, Vietnam economy will be the biggest beneficiaries because this country has more opportunities to access the large consumer market. TPP will give member countries privileged access to the US and Japan.

The Government of Vietnam is estimated that TPP could bring the economy 33.5 billion USD over the next decade, equivalent to a fifth of current GDP. The export turnover of the main industries, such as textiles and footwear, will increase by 46% to 165 billion USD in 2025 due to tax-free imports into other countries.

In Long An, the 3-storey factory of Avery Dennison is preparing for the influx of orders on clothing labels and price tags. Dozens of concrete houses for workers are also being built – a signal that many other manufacturers are also coming here.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/industry/manufacturing/wsj-made-in-vietnam-goods-will-soon-popular-globally.html

Vietnam Is the Focus of Foreign Investors

With favorable conditions in macroeconomic, political and social, Vietnam is a potential destination for setting up company and conduct the M&A activity.

In Vietnam, the growth of the retail market and the entry of international brands, while the average income of consumers is increasing along with stable economic conditions are creating motivation for retail market. In addition, e-commerce sector is growing and accounts for a large part of total retail sales, although traditional forms of shopping still being preferred by consumers.

Moreover, the liberalization of the retail market in 2009 created favorable condition for foreign brands to join and domestic brands are constantly expanding in order to maintain market presence. The most developing sectors of the retail segment are food & beverage (F&B) and consumer products.

Vietnam Retail Market

Prospect for the Asian retail market is very positive, the average growth rate in retail sales is 8.5% in the last 5 years. The number of tourist increases is promoting retail activity in the shopping venues with a prime and convenient location. Although the development of e-commerce in the region is now very noticeable, but the traditional forms of shopping still has an important position in the market. The store owner will need to focus on improving the shopping environment and concerning about the customer experience in order to increase competitiveness.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, in the next 5 to 7 years, approximately 1.5 million m2 of retail floor space will enter the Ho Chi Minh City market of retail space, bringing the total number of retail area to nearly 2.5 million m2. The retail market will be busy, especially in the affordable and intermediate segments. The powerful foreign retail corporations will consider Vietnam as potential market in the region, demonstrating that in the period 2014 – 2015, the retail and consumer goods are the mainstream of M&A activity in the world, accounting for 36% of the total value of M&A activity in Vietnam.

In addition, Vietnam ranked 32nd in the list of nations that have the shopping streets with the most expensive rent cost in the world, in the context of Vietnam is preparing to join a series of free trade agreements such as AEC and TPP, then this will cause domestic retailers to face with many difficulties because rent cost plays the 2nd important role (after the location) in business strategy. When foreign retailers have strong financial resources, they can afford to hire premises with the most favorable location in the market.

Vietnam Tourism Real Estate Market

Many promient investors have visited Vietnam to explore the market potential. In the real estate segment, Kevin Green, one of British’s leading millionaires has just come to Vietnam to experience the market. He interested in tourism real estate and especially Sapa when the Hanoi – Lao Cai highway has completed. Moreover, the Fansipan cable car when completed will attract huge number of tourists to come here. Convenient transportation is a golden opportunity for tourism real estate.

Sapa is currently attracting around 2.5 million visitors. This figure is expected to rise to 5 million in 2020 due to infrastructure connections between Sapa and other areas are increasingly improved.

When talking about investment opportunities in tourism real estate in Sapa, Kevin Green said that Sapa has a lot of potentials for investment. He interested in the resort project “Sapa Jade Hill”, which is currently being developed. He also works with investors to be able to offer this product to abroad market, while completing the procedure to purchase Sapa Jade Hill villa for long term investment.

Reportedly, Sapa Jade Hill is a key project in Sapa, developed by Truong Giang Sapa and by Dai Hung Investment and International Trade JSC (GBI Land) with a total investment of nearly 2,000 billion USD. This project has completed Phase 1 with 19 service villas, which was sold out and handed over the red book to customer.

In addition, in the Property Expo Conference was held in Hanoi, Kevin Green and enrichment experts have shown a huge shift of capital flow from foreign companies, factories to Vietnam, then this is the most ideal place for real estate investment within the next 5 -10 years. The employment index is an indicator of the increase in value of real estate, as the number of workers in the industrial zone of Vietnam is on the rise.

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Signing of TPP in 2016 Will Promote FDI into Vietnam

The investment flow will be strong into Vietnam for setting up company, factory once the commitments in the TPP agreement takes effect.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will be signed on February 4th 2016 in New Zealand. In order to capture the opportunities that it will bring, many foreign companies have invested in Vietnam.

The parties have also agreed to a term of 2 years for national parliaments to ratify the agreement. Thus, the TPP can be effective in 2018.

12 members of TPP include: US, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, Peru and Singapore. The current country members of TPP accounted for 40% of the world GDP and 26% of global trade merchandise. The agreement will not be effective without the participation of both the US and Japan.

To this point, it is probably not debatable about the opportunities that the TPP brings to Vietnam, especially in trade development and investment attraction. When the trade is opened thanks to the commitment to eliminate tariff barriers between the 12 country members, it will impact to investment, not only in internal, but also from other investment markets.

Manufacturing Companies Set-up Business in Vietnam

HanesBrands (NYSE: HBI), US’s leading textile corporation has recently announced raising total investment in Vietnam market to nearly 55 million USD, increase by more than 11 million USD compared to 2014. After 8 years of operation in Vietnam, they have 3 factories located in Hung Yen and Hue.

HanesBrands is not the only business that can see these opportunities in Vietnam when the TPP was signed. Many large enterprises of textile industry have decided to expand investment in Vietnam to capture the opportunities brought by the TPP.

And it is not only the textile industry, there are a lot of examples to prove that foreign investors are looking at Vietnam as a tremendous opportunity to invest in. The appearance of high-tech giants such as Samsung, LG, Microsoft, Jabil… with investment capital of up to tens of billions USD, of which only the capital of Samsung has reached over 14 billion USD is the clearest evidence. The presence and moreover the expansion of the foreign retail giants such as Aeon, Auchan, Metro Cash & Carry, Big C, Lotte… are also the typical examples. More than 290 billion USD of FDI capital has been committed to pour into Vietnam during the past years.

According to Nikkei news agency, Pou Chen Company, which is the world’s largest footwear manufacturer, specializing in providing goods for two famous brands that are Nike, Adidas and many other major brands, are planning to move their factories to Vietnam to take advantage of TPP.

By the end of September 2015, the number of footwear manufacturing by Pou Chen in Vietnam accounted for 42%, increase by 39% compared to the same period in 2014. The total annual production of Pou Chen (headquartered in Taiwan) is more than 300 million pairs of footwear, sales from footwear and garment accounted for 75% of total revenues of the company.

According to the representative of Pou Chen, the company has gradually shifted production bases to Vietnam since 2012 as the labor costs in China are rising rapidly in recent years. They see the long-term stability in Vietnam in both economic and politics.

Pou Chen is not the only company that moving production bases to Vietnam. Currently, many Taiwanese companies are actively investing in Vietnam, including competitor of Pou Chen that is Feng Tay (over 50% of Feng Tay’s production is concentrated in Vietnam).

Besides, Far Eastern New Century Company (FENC) has also planned to pour 307 million USD to a new factory in Vietnam in June 2015 and is expected to start production in the second half of 2016.

It is clear that footwear suppliers are actively moving their factories to Vietnam to capture the opportunities that the TPP will bring. Once the TPP is approved, the goods from the members in TPP export to the US market will enjoy preferential tariffs. As a result, the famous international brands like Nike and Adidas will prefer Vietnam as the location of their factory.

In this context, the TPP would be a “catalyst” for this capital flow to flow stronger. The catalyst is not just come from the opportunity of an open trade market, but also from the commitments of the TPP members relating to investment.

According to Mr. Hoang Manh Phuong, Deputy Director of Legal Affairs (Ministry of Planning and Investment) – the one who participating in the TPP’s negotiating session related to investment – said that there are a lot of commitments bringing big advantages for foreign investors in Vietnam. TPP allows investors to invest and do business in all sectors, except the one that is still in the reserved category.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/industry/manufacturing/signing-of-tpp-in-2016-will-promote-fdi-into-vietnam.html

M&A in Vietnam: Strong Flow from Thailand

It is expected to have a strong capital flow from Thailand to Vietnam in the coming time to through M&A activities.

According to a research, the main trend of the M&A market Vietnam in the period of 2015 – 2016 and subsequent years have been focusing on some key sectors: retail, consumer goods, real estate, finance – banking. Notably, in the coming time, investors from Thailand will become “dual key” in its role as the acquisition of the project, and incorporation in Vietnam.

Not until now, it has been realized that Thai is serious rival in the M&A market. From the period of 2010 – 2011 till now, the Thai people through their corporations like Charoen Pokphand, TCC Group, PTT, Siam Cement (SCG), BJC, Central Group… by the way of M&A or direct investment have quietly entered in Vietnam’s retailing, building materials, gas sectors.

M&A Trend from Thai Investors in Vietnam

In 2012, SCG has spent 240 million USD to acquire 85% stake in Prime Group. Currently, SCG has nearly 20 subsidiaries and associated companies in Vietnam. As of June 30th 2015, the total asset value of SCG in Vietnam reached approximately 716 million USD… In the next 5 years, SCG will spend 6-8 billion USD for countries in the region, in which a large part will be poured into Vietnam.

At the end of 2014, Berli Jucker Pcl (BJC) announced to spend 879 million USD to acquire Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam. Earlier, in 2013, BJC has acquired 60 stores of Family Mart and buy 65% ​​stake in Thai An Group, who owns a network of 200 distributors, 2,500 wholesalers and thousands of retailers in traditional markets.

In 2014, F&N Dairy Investments Pte Ltd (F&N), a subsidiary of BJC bought shares of Vinamilk, raising the percentage of ownership in Vinamilk to 11.04%, reaching a value of about 591 million USD. The owner of BJC also offered to hold 40% stake in Sabeco and pricing SABECO at approximately 2.4 billion USD.

In addition, the Central Group through its subsidiaries – Power Buy bought 49% stake in NKT technology development and new solution JSC – the owner of Nguyen Kim Trading Company, which was priced at 200 million USD.

According to a statistics from HSBC Thailand, the Thai companies were involved in at least 377 projects in Vietnam with a total registered capital of 6.7 billion USD, becoming the 10th largest investors in Vietnam market and their ranking are improved quickly. In particular, Vietnam and Thailand have set a target of raising bilateral trade to 15 billion USD by 2020.

The M&A trend of Thai corporations are clearly showed in 2014 – 2015 with the typical deals of PowerBuy – Nguyen Kim and BJC – Metro. Through M&A activities in the retail sector, Thai investors want to reach and grasp the distribution market of Vietnam.

M&A in Retail, Consumer Goods, and Distribution Services in Vietnam

The areas interested by Thai investors from 2011 to now are the retail and consumer goods sectors. The reason is Vietnam is a vast potential market for the retail sector and consumers goods. According to the research from Statista (Germany), Vietnam’s retail market sales could reach 100 billion USD/year in 2016.

The wave of M&A from Thai investors to acquire retail and consumer goods sector are to capture the opportunities when Vietnam participated in the agreements of free trade, as well as the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of 2015.

Thai investors are increasingly buying supermarket chains, making every effort to catch the opportunities brought by AEC when Thailand goods imported into Vietnam with the tax rate equal 0%.

According to CEO of HSBC in Vietnam, in the next 5 years, major corporations of Thailand will turn Vietnam into a production center for re-export of Thai products to other countries because Vietnam has a cheap and skilled labor force.

It can be seen that Vietnam has welcomed a strong capital flow coming from large corporations of Thailand with fast and powerful acquisition speed. Thai investors show no sign of stopage. In addition to the retail and consumer goods sectors, some other sectors are also getting the attention of investors from Thailand as oil and gas, infrastructure, transportation, agriculture…

These signals indicate that Vietnam is still an attractive destination for the capital inflow from Thailand. In the short term, M&A market will continue to witness the M&A activities that Thai investors continued to act as the purchaser. M&A due diligence assessment on Vietnam targets will be needed to ensure the success post-merger intergration.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/industry/retailing/ma-in-vietnam-strong-flow-from-thailand.html

U.S Company Plan to Invest in Vietnam’s Railway Infrastructure

At the meeting with the Vietnam Railway Corporation on September 21st, the National Standard Finance – NFS has proposed investment plans to create large-scale infrastructure assets with investment value of up to 2 billion USD/transaction. The investment models could be: PPP, DBFOT, DBOT or BOT…

Two important tasks that must be performed by the Vietnam Railway Corporation from now until 2020 are to modernize the existing railway lines, along with construction and investment the new railway lines. The Corporation is mobilizing resources for investment in railways. Therefore, the potential of NSF is highly appreciated and hope that the two sides could promote the exchange of specific information on the project to guide plans for cooperation and forms of investment to modernize and develop the railway of Vietnam.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/foreign-investor-in-vietnam/u-s-company-plan-to-invest-in-vietnams-railway-infrastructure.html

TPP Helps Vietnam Become an Important Base in The World Production Chain

Vietnam is considered to be the biggest beneficiary country of the 12 countries participating in the TPP.

The fact that countries which have large markets like the US, Japan and Canada reducing import tax to 0% for Vietnam goods will create tremendous boost to export of Vietnam. Particularly the textile industry, turnover could increase significantly.

The textile and footwear industries, the agricultural, forestry and fishery goods of Vietnam will have the opportunity to increase export significantly.

Joining TPP will also help Vietnam and other countries to have new opportunities from new supply chain, which will be formed after TPP takes effect. TPP countries currently account for 40% of global GDP and 30% of global trade. Moreover, it includes major markets such as USA, Japan which will certainly open up many opportunities when the new supply chain formed.

Accordingly, a number of corporations and large companies in the world have considered investing in Vietnam with the goal of making Vietnam become one of the important bases in their production chain. Joining TPP will help this trend grow stronger, which is an important condition for Vietnam to step on stage to develop new industries with higher technological contents.

The commitments in TPP in service and investment are also expected to have a positive effect in improving the investment environment, contribute to attracting foreign investment. Many studies confirm that foreign investment will increase as TPP takes effect.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that Vietnam enterprises will also can join into the public procurement market in the United States, Japan, Canada… According to the data from the US, the market for public procurement of this country is about 10-12 billion USD each year. This is an attractive distribution channel for export goods from Vietnam.

The completion and strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights will open opportunities to attract investment in sectors with high knowledge content, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, including bio-medicine and especially vaccine.

TPP will create condition for enhancing growth, creating job and increasing income, contributing to poverty alleviation, improving the quality of human resources and health care for the community.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/tpp-helps-vietnam-become-an-important-base-in-the-world-production-chain.html

Nielsen: Vietnam Is a Land of Potential Opportunities

According to Nielsen, Vietnam consumers is the motivation for economic development as they are willing to spend more and are also living in the lands of the potential opportunities. By 2020, Vietnam middle class will grow double, from 12 million people in 2014 increased to 33 million people in 2020.

Vietnam is among the top countries with the most optimistic consumers in the world, with more income and more spending. The percentage of increasing in per capita income rose in 2012 by 44% compared to 2010. The average growth rate of the monthly spending per person in 2012 increased by 32% compared to 2010. Therefore, Vietnam people have a strong desire for a better life, demanding about quality when 73% of people are willing to pay for higher quality.

Health is an important issue while there are 39% see health as the most concerning problem in life. Vietnam consumer’s monthly savings is to prepare for future problems, while 34% goes for the future of children, 12% is for health and 11% savings for house purchasing.

Consumers in Vietnam are also having more opportunities for shopping than ever. Modern trade channels are gaining significant role when 42% of consumers buy groceries at the supermarket more often. However, the utility factor is gradually becoming a way of life and developing quickly because of the accordance with the youth and officer with 23% of students and 36% of officer go shopping in the supermarket, convenient shop.

However, grocery store is still the dominant shopping channel in the market, while over 80% of sales of fast moving consumer goods coming from grocery stores, with 1,3 million stores across the country.

Technology offers more opportunities to help Vietnamese consumers connect. Smartphone is booming in Vietnam when nearly 1 in 2 Vietnamese people owning a smartphone, most of rural consumers watch TV daily. Online sales channel has also been in the market with 28% of Vietnamese consumers prefer online shopping.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/resources/reports/nielsen-vietnam-is-a-land-of-potential-opportunities.html

The France, Taiwan Phone Companies Invest in Vietnam to Take Advantage of TPP?

The information that Vietnam has finished the TPP negotiation pushing many phone manufacturing companies like Archos (France), Compal (Taiwan) to promote their market expansion plan and investment in through setting up business in Vietnam.

The Archos phone company (France) and their distributor – Petrosetco (Vietnam) are recently launching 7 product lines in Vietnam market.

Mr. Frederic Balay – Senior Vice President and CEO in charge of North American of Archos has opined that Vietnam is large market which phone demand is constantly increasing every year. Along with that, while Vietnam is an official member of the TPP, the market will be extended to billions of people and 40% of global GDP, attractive offers on tariffs for intra-origin goods.

Mr. Frederic Balay also said that these product lines are designed by a team of engineers in France and factories in China of Archos are undertaking production. But he revealed that the company is making long-term plans in Vietnam market.

At the end of September, a major phone producer – Compal (Taiwan) also confirmed their decision to return to Vinh Phuc to continue investing in the plan to produce smart phone which was left unfinished at the end of 2007.

Mr. Vincent Lee, Deputy General Director of Compal factory in Vietnam said that in two recent months, Compal has urgently repaired factory system; installed equipment, machinery; worked with a number of localities inside and outside of the province for employment and preparing to welcome the world’s top customers to visit exploring opportunities for investment and cooperation in smart phone manufacturer in Vinh Phuc.

Vinh Phuc leader suggested that Compal should shorten the negotiation with partners, and soon to announce the list of products to be produced, as the basis from now until the end of 2015. The province can adjust the investment certificate has signed and complete the procedures, mechanisms and policies to support the project in accordance with the law of Vietnam.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Cre:http://www.antconsult.vn/news/the-france-taiwan-phone-companies-invest-in-vietnam-to-take-advantage-of-tpp.html