Vietnam’s 8% growth in 2022 was a bright spot of the region and the world, said Daniel Leigh, head of the World Economic Studies division in the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s Research Department, which produces the World Economic Outlook (WEO).

In an interview granted for the Vietnam News Agency during the week of Spring Meetings of the IMF and the WB in Washington DC, Leigh said the IMF have just revised up the growth forecast for Vietnam, adding that this is partly due to the rebound from COVID-19 and trade diversion. Some of the investment is shifting to Vietnam, giving the country a lift, said the expert. 

Although the IMF expected a slowdown in Vietnam’s growth, the projected rate is still high, at 5.8% in 2023 and 6.9% in 2024, he said.

He also noted that inflation in Vietnam is relatively low, at over 3% in 2022. It is coming up – partly because of the dynamic economy – and is expected to be back to the world inflation target, at around 4.3% in 2024.    

For Vietnam to continue to grow strongly in the remaining quarters of this year and the next five years, Leigh recommended that the country's monetary policy continue to focus on bringing down inflation as it happens, and fiscal policy continue giving the targeted support to the vulnerable households.

Regarding financial stability, a priority should be given to helping stabilise the real estate and corporate bond markets with specific tools, but this should not distract from the overall move toward inflation stability, he suggested.

Six product groups enjoy over 1-billion-USD exports to US in Q1

Six groups of products posted an export revenue of over 1 billion USD to the US market in the first quarter of this year, with the group of machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts topping with 3.98 billion USD, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

The group of computers, electronic products and components came second with 3.55 billion USD, followed by garment and textile products 3.04 billion USD, telephones and components 2.34 billion USD, footwear 1.42 billion USD, and wood and wooden furniture nearly 1.4 billion USD.

The department reported that in March, export revenue generated from the US market was 7.75 billion USD, pushing the total in the first three months of this year to 20.76 billion USD, making the US as the largest export market of Vietnam.

At the same time, Vietnam imported over 3 billion USD worth of goods from the US, down about 12% year on year, mostly computers, electronic products and components.

As a result, in the first quarter of this year, Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 17.7 billion USD with the US.

Experts held that in the second quarter, many sectors such as textiles, footwear, and especially wooden furniture will face various challenges in the market due to lower demands as a result of inflation and economic crisis.

Last year, two-way trade reached 123.8 billion USD, with Vietnam’s exports of over 109 billion USD.

Hanoi moves to help firms join foreign distribution systems

Hanoi recently issued a project on promoting Vietnamese businesses to directly participate in foreign distribution networks by 2030.

This project aims to build a close strategic cooperation relationship between Hanoi's manufacturing and exporting enterprises and foreign distribution networks, on both traditional export and e-commerce channels, towards a stable and sustainable production - export - distribution model.

To accomplish these goals, Hanoi will direct relevant units, departments, and branches to provide market information for 5,000 businesses, and training for 1,000 ones to improve their competitiveness and supply capacity to gradually participate in the global value chain; support 300 firms in participating in cross-border e-commerce; and help more than 500 products to be exported directly to foreign distribution networks.

Over the past time, through many foreign retail groups, Vietnamese goods have been present more and more in supermarkets and shops around the world.

Every year, many kinds of products of Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular are put up for sale at Aeon supermarkets and retail stores across Japan through the “Vietnamese Goods Week” programme.

Besides traditional and typical products such as instant noodles, rice paper, spices, coffee, garment and textiles and footwear, Vietnamese fruits and agricultural products have also gradually reached the hands of Japanese consumers. Through this programme, many products have been imported by the Aeon Group and offered at hundreds of its supermarkets, contributing to realising the goal of 1 billion USD in the export turnover of Vietnamese goods through Aeon's system by 2025.

Similarly, Central Retail, one of the largest retail platforms in Southeast Asia, has regularly organised a “Vietnamese Goods Week” programme in Thailand.

The group has also pledged to support Vietnamese enterprises in seeking partners and bringing Vietnamese goods to its retail systems in Thailand and Italy.

In addition, the export trend through distribution systems based on e-commerce platforms is also being considered as an effective solution helping businesses gradually participate in the global supply chain. In 2022, the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade organised a workshop titled “Cross-border e-commerce with Amazon - Export opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises”, in which more than 500 businesses were guided to access Amazon.

Do Hong Hanh, strategic partner director of Amazon Global Selling Vietnam, said that over recent years, the number of Vietnamese sellers has  bên increasing on this e-commerce platform. In the coming time, Amazon Global Selling will strongly support Vietnamese businesses to grasp market information, improve the quality of human resources, and gradually build up brands for Vietnamese goods in the world market.

Hung Yen moves to tackle difficulties facing enterprises

Leaders of the northern province of Hung Yen have had a meeting with local companies and entrepreneurs to address their concerns about administrative procedures and site clearance issues to improve the business climate.

Businesses proposed authorities tackle problems in the collection of land use tax, frequently update information on departments and sectors’ websites, increase measures for promoting cooperation with other countries to expand export markets, and allocate funding for training and supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Tran Quoc Van requested relevant agencies to absorb the opinions and quickly take actions to remove obstacles facing companies.

He called on investors and businesses operating in the province to proactively equip themselves with modern technology, stay updated with scientific and technological advances, and improve their management and governance capacity so as to raise productivity, profit, and competitiveness.

The official also asked them to pay more attention to social responsibility, guarantee employees’ legitimate interests, ensure occupational health and safety, and protect the environment.

In 2022, Hung Yen posted a growth rate of 12.8% in gross regional domestic product (GRDP), ranking first in the Red River Delta and fifth nationwide. Growth of each local sector surpassed its set target, with the index of industrial production up 10.4%, the trade and service value 19.45%, and the state budget revenue rising 2.63-fold from the target to reach the highest-ever level and make the province among the top 10 nationwide in this regard.

Last year, per capita GDP increased over 16% from 2021 to 102.3 million VND (nearly 4,400 USD) while labour productivity stood at 196 million VND each worker, higher than the national average.

In the first two months of 2023, the local industrial production grew by 10.48% while the total retail of goods and consumption services soared by 225.34%.

Meanwhile, Hung Yen attracted 169.77 million USD in foreign investment in the first quarter of this year, making it one of the top 10 foreign investment destinations in Vietnam during the period.

The province is currently home to 2,145 valid investment projects, including 1,631 domestic and 514 foreign-invested ones, worth almost 310.9 trillion VND and more than 6.2 billion USD, respectively. Local industrial infrastructure is developing rapidly with eight out of the 17 planned industrial parks already operational and ready to welcome projects. Nine others are under construction at present.

North-central localities strive to attract large cargo ships

North-central localities are seeking ways to attract large cargo vessels so as to motivate the comprehensive growth of the logistics chain, contributing to boosting their socio-economic development.

According to analysts, the region is still weaker than others in terms of attractiveness to container ships

Vietnam has a considerable system of seaports from the north to the south, with many localities owning a large number of seaports, including Hai Phong city with 50, Ba Ria-Vung Tau 45, and Ho Chi Minh City, 43.

However, despite a long coastline, the north-central region from Thanh Hoa to Thua Thien-Hue provinces only has 10 seaports, attracting few large vessels.

 The north-central region from Thanh Hoa to Thua Thien-Hue provinces only has 10 seaports (Photo: diendandoanhnghiep.vn)
Experts held that the planning for the upgrade and expansion of the regional seaport system has yet to receive adequate attention, making it difficult for large international vessels to dock in.

Meanwhile, the macro and micro policies for maritime economic development of regional localities have yet to be strong enough to boost the localities’ capacity in maritime transportation. As a result, the region is lagging behind the northern and southern regions in the field.

In this context, many regional localities are offering incentives to attract container ships.

Delayed tax refunds put firms at risk

The Public-Private Partnership cooperation is seen as an effective measure to speed up digital transformation and green growth in businesses and localities, said insiders.

The Dien dan doanh nghiep (Business Forum) newspaper cited the success story in digital transformation of the central province of Thua Thien – Hue as an outstanding example of the effective connection between businesses and authorities.

According to the newspaper, Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group has built and put into operation a Smart City Operation Center (IOC) in Thua Thien – Hue, contributing to creating a transparent investment, production and business environment to attract local and foreign investors, including technology enterprises.

The cooperation with the locality offers a good opportunity for Viettel to pilot its technological solution, towards commercialising and transferring those solutions to other localities, and gaining profits.

Pavel Poskakukhin, President of the Digital Sector Committee under the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham), emphasised the importance of PPP in supporting digital transformation, saying that for projects at national and local levels, no single business or administration can invest in technology solutions that bring benefits to the economy by themselves.

According to Poskakukhin, to promote PPP in digital transformation, many countries have decided to transfer some public services to the private sector. However, public services in Vietnam are still managed by authorities.

PPP cooperation to support digital transformation has been effectively implemented among businesses. However, this cooperation form is still not popular between technology enterprises and localities.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), the Law on PPP investment took effect on January 1, 2021, but many ministries and localities have yet to implement any PPP projects in technology.

Do Tien Thinh, Vice Director of the National Innovation Centre (NIC) said in recent years, NIC has deployed many activities to support businesses’ digital transformation and realized that businesses are facing difficulties in seeking breakthrough solutions for their digital transformation targets with suitable costs.

Statistics from the MPI show that about 60% of businesses do not have enough budget for digital transformation, he said.

Through NIC, many activities to support businesses in speeding up digitalisation have been performed under the collaboration between the centre and technological firms, focusing on human resources training, and innovation support programmes in factories.

SHB plans to seek foreign strategic partners

The Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) has set a profit target of more than 10 trillion VND (426,400 USD) this year and plans to seek foreign strategic partners.

At the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders earlier this week, SHB General Director Ngo Thu Ha presented two business scenarios in 2023, corresponding to two plans on credit growth limits of 10% and 14%.

Specifically, with a credit growth limit of 10%, equivalent to 429.8 trillion VND, SHB aims to increase pre-tax profit by 6.15% to 10.3 trillion VND; total assets up by 8.93% to 600 trillion VND; mobilised capital up by 12.05% to 456.18 trillion VND.

With a credit growth limit of 14%, equivalent to 445.12 trillion VND, the target pre-tax profit will increase by 9.67% to 10.63 trillion VND; total assets will be up by 10.09% to 606.5 trillion VND, and mobilised capital is expected to increase by 14.78% to 467.29 trillion VND.

In both options, SHB expects the dividend payout ratio in 2023 to be 15%.

Vietnamese firm seeks ways into Russian coffee market

DNL Viet Nam Import Export and Trading JSC, in collaboration with its Russian partner Solaris LLC, is introducing its three-in-one coffee product branded Wakey at the Coffee Tea Cacao Russian Expo 2023 (CTCRE) which is taking place from April 12-14 in Moscow, Russia.

DNL earlier signed an agreement with Solaris LLC on the distribution of Wakey coffee in Russia.

Pavel Denekin, Chairman of Solaris LLC, affirmed that there is great demand for three-in-one instant coffee products in Russia as well as Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, and Vietnam's coffee has high quality and special aroma, so he firmly believed in success in promoting Wakey products in Russia. 

Vietnam's instant coffee has long been familiar to coffee fans in Russia. However, so far, only Trung Nguyen's 3-in-1 coffee brand has established a strong foothold in the Russian market. Recently, a number of businesses have been trying to market other Vietnamese coffee brands in the " land of poplar trees”. 

The 2023 CTCRE saw the participation of 170 exhibitors, more than 7,000 professionals with 150 different sideline events including analyses, evaluations, roundtables, presentations and competitions.

Vietnam advised to support aggregate demand by accelerating public investment disbursement

The World Bank (WB) on April 13 released a report on Vietnam’s macroeconomic situation in April this year.

The WB recommended that the slowing economic growth in Q1/2023 needs close monitoring. If weaknesses in external and domestic demand persists, the government could consider supporting aggregate demand through an acceleration of public investment disbursement.

According to the report, anticipated increases in electricity tariff and public sector salary in the coming months and easing of monetary policy by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) may lead to renewed upward pressure on inflation. Potential further financial tightening in the US to control inflation could create exchange rate pressures, especially as the SBV just reduced some policy interest rates to support the economy.

Close supervision of the financial sector is critical given continued uncertainties in global financial markets and a slowing domestic economy, including a sluggish real estate sector that constitutes about 20% of financial sector borrowing.

The bank reckoned that Vietnam’s economy registered low growth in Q1/2023 with only 3.3%, down from 5.9% in Q4/2022. This registers the second lowest Q1 growth rate in the past decade. This is mainly due to the contraction of the industry and the sharp drop in exports.

The low growth rate was largely due to the contraction of industry with recorded at -0.4% in Q1/2023, compared to an average of 5.3 % during 2020-2022 and weighed on growth -0.1 percentage point contribution to the GDP. The slowdown in industry mirrors the 11.8% contraction in exports.

In Q1/2023, the services sector grew by 6.8% and contributed 2.9 percentage point to the GDP. Agriculture registered a 2.5% growth rate - and contributed 0.3 percentage point to the GDP growth rate in Q1/2023.

Climate must drive change at development banks: ADB president

President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Masatsugu Asakawa has called on development banks to make greater changes to the response to the climate crisis that the world has been facing.

The world is assailed by crisis, with war, disease, and economic hardship taking a terrible toll on human welfare in recent years, he said, adding that most alarming of all is the worsening impact of climate change, which threatens the very existence of countless species, including human being.

Time is running out to fix the problem, Masatsugu Asakawa said, citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s warning the planet’s temperature will likely rise 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels within the next decade, and will shoot past that critical threshold without immediate and massive emissions reductions.

The world can be entering a doom loop in which the consequences of climate change distract attention and divert resources from tackling its causes, further impeding progress as the effects worsen.

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) like the ADB can deliver critically needed financing and expertise for climate progress. However, the ADB president said that the banks cannot take bold action without making sweeping changes to their operations.

The stakes are highest in Asia and the Pacific. In addition to accounting for more than half of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, the region is warming faster than anywhere else and is acutely vulnerable to rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and biodiversity loss. These trends will only escalate if MDBs continue to pursue business as usual, he pointed out.

To improve the odds that humanity wins the battle against climate change, MDBs must change in three ways, Masatsugu Asakawa suggested.

Vietnam’s food industry enjoying vigorous growth: official

Vietnam’s food industry is growing strongly thanks to people’s improved income, increased purchasing power, and the supply of diverse and highly competitive products, an official told a policy dialogue in Hanoi on April 13.

Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that about 5,080 Vietnamese businesses are operating in the food industry, surging 83.8% from 2019, which is an encouraging figure after two years of struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the last five years, the volumes of food and beverage consumption in the country have risen by 9.68% and 6.66%, respectively.

The processed vegetable and fruit segment makes up 24.7% of the industry’s revenue and is expected to post the fastest growth thanks to strong export and domestic consumption. Notably, this segment has witnessed growth of nearly 205%. The most favoured fruits include mango, banana, dragon fruit, orange, and pineapple, he noted.

In particular, the food industry is among the key ones prioritised by the Vietnamese Government by 2025, with a vision to 2035, and also has an important role to play in socio-economic development, Phu went on.

In recent years, the food industry associations of Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) have promoted cooperation. Vietnamese firms have also benefited from business partnerships with major Korean enterprises such as Lotte Mart, E-mart, Home Plus, and CJ to increase their presence in the RoK’s supermarkets and shopping centres like Coupang and Gmarket, and gradually enter the Northeast Asian country’s e-commerce market, the official added.

Paul Le, Vice President of Central Retail Vietnam’s trade promotion division, held that Korean enterprises should grasp import opportunities since Vietnam produces many foods hardly found in the RoK.

His firm will consider assisting Korean enterprises by sharing experience in processing, producing, and creating new products in the fast-moving consumer goods sector, he noted, adding that Vietnam has a large volume of raw materials, and Central Retail Vietnam looks to boost added value through processing.

Artificial reef placement proves useful in Ca Mau province

After more than three years, a project on placing artificial reefs to protect and enrich fishery resources in combination with tourism development off the southernmost province of Ca Mau has recorded initial encouraging results.

From 2019 to 2021, with support from the Thai Government, Ca Mau placed 500 concrete blocks to its western sea area to accommodate marine species. Following initial successes, it added another 400 structures to the sea under a programme on fishery resources protection and development.

Nguyen Viet Trieu, deputy head of the province’s sub-department for fisheries, said the work has created living and breeding sites for marine animals and helped them avoid destructive fishing methods, thus contributing to fishery resources recovery.

A survey of the 1.88 sq.km area where the 900 blocks are placed shows that the inshore maritime ecosystem, including small fish and the species with high economic or biotope values, has been protected from negative impacts of some fishing activit.

Another important result is the improved environment in this area and its vicinity, he said, elaborating that there are now 97 commercial species, including 62 fish, 15 crustacean, and 20 mollusc species, up from only 40 commercial species (25 fish, eight crustacean, and seven mollusk ones) before the reefs were put.

Global Conference on Sustainable Food Systems to open

The fourth Global Conference on Sustainable Food Systems Programme will take place in Hanoi from April 24-28, with over 200 foreign delegates from member countries and organisations taking part, announced the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The event will examine the major barriers related to the transformation of food systems, as well as put forward actionable recommendations, focusing on the global model and architecture of the food system, national and local policies and governance, production and consumption models, and implementation methods.

It will also introduce good models and exemplary initiatives regarding the implementation of national plans for the transformation of food systems at the national and local levels, and initiatives from the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS).

The first edition of this event took place in June 2017 in South Africa, the second in February 2019 in Costa Rica, and the third was held online in November - December 2020.

The Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) is a global partnership programme aimed at accelerating the process of transforming food systems towards sustainability by building capacity, creating synergies, and enhancing cooperation among partners at all levels.

Conference links tourism experiences across four provinces

A tourism promotion conference was held in Hanoi on April 13 spotlighting enticing activities for tourists on their journeys across the four provinces of Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh.

Held as part of the Vietnam International Travel Mart Hanoi 2023, it gathered representatives of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), tourism management units at central and local levels, and travel companies. The four provinces took this occasion to hold a display of publications and documents on their tourism products and specialties.

In his remarks at the event, VNAT General Director Nguyen Trung Khanh said this was a good opportunity for the provinces to introduce what they have to offer visitors in the peak time of domestic tourism this summer.

Leveraging the potential and unique identity of each locality in the overall linkage, the provinces have focused on building and effectively exploiting a series of new and attractive products such as a tour through ancient Vietnamese capitals, and a journey to discover heritages in the central region, Khanh noted.

They have even reached out to the international market by connecting with Laos and Thailand, he added.

The number of tourists to these provinces skyrocketed last year, reflecting the prospects brought about by regional tourism linkages, said the official.

Hanoi among localities with high public administration performance index

The capital city of Hanoi scored over 43.9 points out of 80 in the 2022 Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI), which was freshly released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on April 12.

The score helped it be listed among 16 localities with high points of between 43.44 and 47.88.

Among the eight sub-criteria, the capital city scored highest in "public administration procedures" with 7.31 out of 10, followed by "public service delivery" with 7.22 and "control of corruption in the public sector" 6.8.

According to the municipal department for internal affairs, with its point, Hanoi ranked 12th nationwide, down two places compared to 2021.

For Hanoi to improve its ranking in the PAPI index in the time to come, Dang Hoang Giang, a research member of the 2022 PAPI, urged the city to strengthen its performance across all aspects related to administrative performance, from education, transparency in land management, and accessible online public services to environmental management.

The 2022 PAPI report provides a source of reliable, evidence-based data for central and local authorities to review their performance in the key areas of governance, public administration, and public service delivery, said UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam Ramla Khalidi at the April 12 launch.

As reflected through the index, Vietnam’s efforts to overcome the socio-economic impacts of the unprecedented health crisis in 2022 translated into increased economic confidence at household and national levels. In a notable turnaround, 66.1% of the respondents viewed the national economy as “good” in 2022 – a 19.4% leap from a year earlier, while there was a 13.7% drop in citizens assessing conditions as “bad” from 19.8% in 2021 to only 6.1% in 2022. Similarly, at the household level, fewer citizens reported their economic situation was “poor” (11.4 versus 15.3% in 2021).

Despite this progress, some scarring from the health crisis was evident. While 56% of the respondents confirmed their economic conditions were better in 2022 than a year earlier (52%), aside from 2021, this percentage in 2022 was still the lowest since 2012. Similarly, those suggesting that their economic conditions were worse rose to their highest levels since 2012, except for 2021. This underlined that many respondents are still feeling the lingering pain of the economic damage by the pandemic, with ethnic minorities and women most acutely impacted given the higher prevalence of poverty and vulnerable employment among them.

Railway sector targets profitable year

Vietnam Railways Corporation has targeted a profitable year following three consecutive years of losses.

The firm has aimed to obtain revenues of VND6.5 trillion (VND276.59 million) and post-tax profits of just VND3 billion (127,659) this year. It has planned to pay taxes of VND115 billion in the year. 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, VNR suffered great losses in 2020-2020 period. In 2021, the company faced losses of over VND530 million. The figure dropped to VND130.5 billion last year.

In the first quarter of this year, the Vietnamese railway industry saw a considerable recovery. During the period, Hanoi Railway Transport JS Company served 800,000 passengers, recording a growth of 200 percent on-year. The firm achieved total revenue of VND300 billion from passenger transport, up 200 percent on-year.

Meanwhile, Saigon Railway Transport JS Company 660,000 passengers in the first three months of this year, up 136 percent on-year. This helped the company to record revenue of VND360 billion, up 147 percent on-year.

The railway sector has offered many attractive discounts to lure passengers. Ticket prices in the low season have been reduced by 50-60 percent.

Vietnamese economy need monitoring after slowdown in Q1: WB

The Vietnamese economy should be put under the microscope after its growth suddenly slowed in the first quarter of 2023, suggested the World Bank (WB) in its Vietnam Macro Monitoring edition for April.      

WB statistics show Vietnam’s GDP grew by 3.3% year on year in the first quarter of the year, slowing down from 5.9% in the fourth quarter of last year.

This marks the second lowest quarterly growth rate over the past decade, and WB experts pointed out that the slowdown can be attributed to a contraction of industry, reflecting the sharp decline in exports.

The service sector remained the main contributor to growth, contributing 2.9% in Q1 thanks to strong domestic demand coupled with the return of international visitors. Agriculture registered a 2.5% growth rate and contributed 0.3% to the GDP rate in Q1.

Despite the overall contraction, industrial production showed tentative signs of improvement in March.

The industrial production index (IPI) stood at 1.6% lower in Q1 compared to the same period last year. However, the IPI improved in March, growing by 9.4% month-on-month compared to a steep contraction of 22.7% seen in January and a weak growth of 3.5% recorded in February.

Meanwhile, exports and imports declined by 11.8% and 14.6% year on year, respectively, reflecting the fall in exports in several major sub-sectors, including electronics, machinery, textiles, apparel, and footwear products, as well as their associated imported inputs.

Both headline and core inflation continued to be slow in March, reaching 3.4% and 4.9% year on year, respectively. Inflation continued to be driven by prices of food and foodstuffs, housing, and construction materials, while transport was no longer the major contributor to inflation compared to March 2022.

Most notably, the FDI commitments continued to trend down in Q1, representing a fall of 40% on-year amid high uncertainty at a global level, reflecting the effects of uncertainty related to the global economic prospects as well as the tightening of financial conditions in advanced economies.

The report outlined that the disbursement of FDI also started to slow in Q1, while credit growth decelerated to 9.5%, the lowest level since 2020, reflecting the slowdown in economic activity, especially in terms of industry and real estate sectors.

More than 140 million shares of LienVietPostBank to be auctioned

The Viet Nam Post Corporation (Vietnam Post) plans to auction 140.5 million shares of Lien Viet Post Commercial Joint Stock Bank (LienVietPostBank), equivalent to 100 per cent of Vietnam Post’s ownership in the bank.

The Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) will hold the auction on April 21, 2023.

The starting price for offering shares is VND22,908 (US$0.98) per share. The transfer of Vietnam Post's capital at LienVietPostBank aims to implement the Government's direction on restructuring Vietnam Post's capital contribution in the banking and insurance sectors.

The State Bank of Viet Nam has directed LienVietPostBank to co-ordinate with Vietnam Post to develop a plan and roadmap to handle the postal transaction office system after the share auction; including a plan to manage LienVietPostBank's network units, including the system of postal transaction offices, to ensure that the bank operates safely, efficiently, and in compliance with the law.

At the same time, the central bank also requested LienVietPostBank to coordinate with Vietnam Post to fully inform investors who receive shares to fulfill the obligations and responsibilities of shareholders in accordance with regulations.

Pepper exports hit record high in March

Vietnam exported approximately 35,750 tonnes of pepper worth US$106.47 million in March, representing a rise of up 27.6% in volume and 26.5% in value on-year, thereby witnessing a record high since April 2020, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.      

Although pepper exports to the United States, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK experienced a decline in March, exports to Singapore, Turkey, and Egypt markets witnessed three to four-digit growth.

In the first quarter of the year, pepper exports to the US, Germany, Netherlands, and UK markets decreased, while pepper exports to the markets of the UAE, the Philippines, Turkey, and Egypt increased sharply.

Experts pointed out that the global pepper price will not experience strong fluctuations moving forward, adding that an abundant supply source of pepper and rising import demand from China and several other markets are predicted to offset the decline of the US and EU markets.

G-bond coupon rates for all tenors slide further in March 

Given the downtrend in January and February, the coupon rates of government bonds (G-bonds) in March continued to drop by 40 to 76 basic points in all tenors against the last G-bond auction held in early March.

At the auction session in late March, the G-bond coupon rates for the five-year, seven-year, 10-year, 15-year, 20-year, and 30-year tenors were at 2.93%, 3.8%, 3.45%, 3.6%, 3.75% and 3.8%, respectively, according to the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX).

HNX held 19 auction sessions in March for G-bonds issued by the Vietnam State Treasury (VST), with a total value of winning bids reaching nearly VND35.45 trillion, equivalent to a bid-to-cover ratio of 69.50%.

VST has raised a little more than VND104.87 trillion from G-bond issues in the first three months of 2023, achieving 97.1% of the first-quarter target and 26.22% of the full-year plan.

VST re-issued G-bonds for five-year and seven-year tenors along with tenors of 10 years, 15 years, 20 years and 30 years.

Among those, the G-bonds with 10-year and 15-year tenors had the highest winning bids, with bid-to-cover ratios of 32.99% and 41.88%, respectively.

On the secondary market, G-bond transactions in February surged 10.46% month-on-month to VND123.149 trillion, with an average of over VND5.354 trillion per session. Outrights accounted for 68.94% of the total transaction value.

The total value of G-bond transactions reached VND291.43 trillion in the first three months of 2023, with an average value of VND4.94 trillion each session, up 40.5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.

HCMC seeks study on Thu Thiem Depot

The HCMC authorities will propose the Government weigh including the Thu Thiem Depot project in the municipal general planning.

Thu Thiem Depot, located in Thu Duc City with three terminals for the North–South express railway, Thu Thiem – Long Thanh light rail and HCMC Metro Line No. 2., is highly efficient in passenger concentration and dispatch.

According to the Department of Transport, as it is adjacent to the existing city center and in one of the city’s main development areas of Thu Duc City, Thu Thiem Depot needs research on comprehensive planning and high-quality urban design to become a highlight of the city in the new development phase.

HCMC is now preparing general planning for the city by 2040, with a vision toward 2060 and general planning for Thu Duc City by 2040. Thus, the city authorities were asked to petition the prime minister to direct the Ministry of Transport to soon research detailed planning for Thu Thiem Depot to enable the city to manage the planning and synchronize with projects in other cities.

In 2013, the Prime Minister approved the adjustment of transportation development planning of Ho Chi Minh City by 2020, of which Thu Thiem Depot, with an estimated area of 17.2 hectares, would act as a passenger pick-up and drop-off location for the North-South railway.

Currently, Thu Thiem Depot is included in the pre-feasibility study of many other projects, such as the North-South express railway, the Thu Thiem-Long Thanh light rail and the HCMC Metro line No. 2.

Source: VNA/SGT/VNS/VOV/Dtinews/SGGP/VGP/Hanoitimes