Vietnamese handicraft firms need to make greater efforts to meet the requirements of foreign buyers, said participants at a seminar in HCM City yesterday.

 Moody’s Investors Service on Monday assigned first-time ratings and assessments to the Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB).

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is an important opportunity that Viet Nam must quickly seize in order to accelerate the process of industrialisation and modernisation, said Ho Thi Kim Thoa, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade.

  In the next round of equitisation, State capital must be sold faster, at higher value, and the enterprises’ corporate governance must further improve, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has said.

 The General Statistics Office of Viet Nam (GSO) is developing a new set of indices to evaluate the development and efficiency of businesses in provinces and cities and expects to launch it by the end of this year.

 Up to 477,808 businesses had been operating nationwide throughout 2016, a year-on-year rise of 8 percent.

 The VN-Index closed at 731.3 points on April 11, up 0.2 percent over the previous session’s level and a record high since February 20, 2008.

  The Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) in March granted a total of 228 securities trading codes to foreign investors, of which 188 were individuals and 40 were institutional investors.

 Vietstar Airlines will have to wait until the construction of an additional passenger terminal and aprons at Tan Son Nhat International Airport are completed before receiving a business license.

 Recruitment demand for mid- and senior-level managers in the first quarter increased 73 per cent year-on-year, according to a Navigos Search report released on April 10.

 A look at the state of AirAsia’s ventures in other markets outside of its home country Malaysia and comparison with its current situation in Vietnam may provide a basis to evaluate the prospects of AirAsia’s prospective joint venture.

 The Ministry of Transport has approved Uber Viet Nam’s pilot project of applying technology in managing and connecting under-contract passenger transportation.

 Last month, United Overseas Bank became the first Singaporean bank to receive an approval to open a wholly-owned subsidiary in Vietnam. 

 Following the trend of many international groups that are leaving China, a number of Italian firms are shifting investments from China to Vietnam to benefit from cheap labour costs and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.

 Vietnam’s pharmaceutical market has blossomed in recent years. But while providers are making great profits, patients are suffering due to the increasingly high prices of medicine.

 As of March, investors from the European Union had injected more than US$21.56 billion into 1,959 projects in Viet Nam, accounting for 7.2 per cent of total foreign direct investment and 8.5 per cent of projects registered in the country.

 Vietnam’s auto industry, which has ploddingly developed for the last many years, will face tariff abolishment on products imported from ASEAN nations from January 1 next year.

Vietnam’s retail petrol price is lower than neighboring countries and many ASEAN nations, said head of Tax Policy Department Pham Dinh Thi yesterday.

 The recent suspension of rice importation by the Philippines, a major import market of Viet Nam’s rice, has sparked concern among local rice exporters.

 Viet Nam catfish processors must prepare for the inspection programme of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in order to boost exports into this market.