EMART HYPERMARKET (KOREA) OFFICIALLY JOINS VIETNAM MARKET

After 5 years of conducting the survey and researching the market of Vietnam, the leading retail group from Korea – Emart (owned by Shinsegae Group) has officially entered Vietnam market by opening the first Emart hypermarket in Vietnam on December 28^th 2015 in 366 Phan Van Tri street, ward 5, Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

Go Vap Emart Hypermarket has over 3 ha in area with a total investment of up to 60 million USD (equivalent to 1,350 billion VND). Starting construction from early 2015 and went into operation at the end of the year,  Emart Go Vap is expected to meet the shopping needs and create modern consumption habits of Vietnamese people with quality products and reasonable price.

Emart Go Vap has two main parts with an area of 6,000m2, serving diverse items from staples, fresh products to household goods, electronics, fashion…; the utility service areas include restaurants, children’s education and entertainment park… The modern shopping space, nonstop improving and upgrading services are differences that help Emart Go Vap conquer local consumers.

Mr. Choi Kwang Ho, CEO of Emart Vietnam said that the growth of Emart will accompany the development of Vietnam. Thus, 95% of goods in Emart are domestic goods. With the quality and best price as well as services that match with shopping habits of Vietnamese, Emart commits to put on great efforts to become a close shopping destination for local people.

Come to the opening of Emart from December 28^th, customers will have chance to visit and shopping with many attractive 50% discount programs plus thousands of gifts and awards such as Emart helmets, Emart environmental bags, SH 150i motorcycles, Samsung TV… At the same time, customers can also participate in many exciting activities such as taking pictures with snow, the rotation of luck, darts and face painting… Especially, customers visit Emart Go Vap will enjoy unique dishes from Korea as traditional kimpap and many other unique Asian dishes… With the shopping discounts and attractive activities, Emart Go Vap promises to bring consumers an exciting and attractive shopping space, especially in the time of Lunar New Year is coming very close.

As the first Emart Hypermarket in Vietnam, Emart Go Vap is an important step in the launching plans and the ambition to penetrate the Vietnam retail market. Pursuing the motto “Every day of customers will be full of joy”, Emart committed to providing goods and best service to customers.

With the desire to grow in breadth and depth in new markets as well as to realize the goal to brand Emart to the world, Emart promises to continue a-20-year-history of impressive development with Emart Go Vap and the future system of Emart in HCMC and Vietnam.

Since the opening of the first low cost shop in Korea in 1993, Emart has achieved impressive growth steps in the past 20 years. Currently, Emart Hypermarket is the no 1 hypermarket chain in Korea with over 160 hypermarkets in Korea and foreign countries. Emart is the largest and oldest low cost store chain in Korea with sales exceeding 13.2 billion USD as of 2014. Through the launching of new series of trade centers and acquired Walmart Korea in 2006, Emart is confirming the leading position in the field of retail and supermarket chains.

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VIETNAM AND EUROPEAN UNION WILL ELIMINATE OVER 99% IMPORT TARIFFS ON EACH OTHER

At a press conference on October 30^th in Vietnam informed of important agreements between Vietnam and European Union (EU), Mr. Bruno Angelet – Ambassador, Head of Delegation of the European Union (EU) said that early August 2015, the EU and Vietnam has announced the conclusion of negotiations but the negotiation group continues to resolve the remaining technical issues, while improving documents.

Once completed, the Agreement must be approved by the National Assembly of Vietnam, the Council and the European Parliament. Accordingly, Vietnam and the EU will eliminate over 99% of import tariffs.

For the few remaining tariffs, both parties will grant each other tariff quota or tariff reduction. This can be seen as the highest level of commitment that Vietnam has achieved in the FTA has been signed so far.

In the investment sector, the commitments to ensure an open business and investment environment to help promote high quality investment flows of both the EU and other partners in Vietnam. Thus, Vietnam has the opportunity to become the connection for trade and investment activities between EU and other countries in the region.

In addition, the commitments related to investment, liberalization of trade, service, Government procurement and intellectual property protection… will also open up opportunities for both sides to approach each other’s market sand ensure balance overall benefit.

EU can become the best partner in the future of Vietnam because Vietnam is also becoming one of the most dynamic countries and have good relationship with EU in the region. EU can support Vietnam in many fields such as governance models and provide excellentservices in the field of infrastructure, training and education, the judiciary and law, health, social insurance and sustainable energy.

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CAN THO GRANTED LICENSE FOR 5 NEW FDI PROJECTS

In 10 months of this year, Can Tho has granted license for 5 new foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with a total investment of about 17.1 million USD.

These projects focus on sectors as manufacturing dried rice bran for export; repair and maintenance of agricultural/industrial machinery, commerce, processing industry and cinema.

Also in the past 10 months, Can Tho adjusted 38.4 million USD capital increases of 4 FDI projects, in which Lotte hypermarket project adjusted increase of 31 million USD. Currently, the accumulated until early of November 2015, Can Tho has 66 FDI projects with total registered investment capital of 954.6 million USD, implemented capital reached 346 million USD, accounting for 36% of registered investment capital.

According to the Department of Planning and Investment of Can Tho, total FDI capital into Can Tho till October 2015 was 55.7 million USD, reaching 75% of year target. These are positive signs in FDI attraction of the city.

In particular, Can Tho is reviewing and approving project to establish Pegasus international university with an investment of about 15 million USD and life-skills training school of Singapore. This will be the first international university and life-skills training school in Can Tho and the region, contributing to improve the quality of education and training for pupils and students, promoting education and training development, create high quality human resources for Can Tho and the provinces of the region.

As evaluated by the Department of Planning and Investment of Can Tho, in the near future, investment activities of Can Tho will prosper while many investors come to survey the investment environment in areas such as: resort, 5-star hotel, thermal power plant, solar power, project to produce and sell cosmetics, textile, waste treatment plant, hospital…They are big projects, using many workers will contribute to local and region economic development, creating jobs for local people, increase revenues of the city when implemented.

With the advantage of supplying raw material as seafood and agricultural products, Can Tho City is a potential land and ideal destination for investors come to build processing plants to serve domestic and international demand. In particular, the incubators with technology of Vietnam – South Korea in Tra Noc Industrial Zone promise to help develop mechanical engineering industry, agricultural and aquaculture processing in Can Tho.

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CONTRACTS SIGNED WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA VISITS VIETNAM

There have been series of cooperation contracts that are signed between the AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam) members and Vietnam businessesafter the first day that President Barack Obama visits Vietnam.

On the trip to Vietnam of President Obama, AmCham and VCCI jointly organized the corporate event in Hanoi. At the event, the signing of agreements between member companies of AmCham and Vietnamese partners are took place.

In particular, the signing of treaties on climate change and clean energy includes 7 records:

– Memorandum of GE on the development of 1000MW of wind power: Estimated that in 2025, there will be 1,000 megawatts from wind power projects. With that capacity, wind power will be enough to supply for 1.8 million households in Vietnam over the next 10 years.

– Agreement on nuclear safety training: US will help Vietnam to train the human resources, equipped with the knowledge of nuclear procurement, design and build factories, licensing and safety checks of nuclear reactors in the future. At the same time, US experts will also advise about the effectiveness of this technology as well as economic benefits when developing.

– Memorandum of Understanding between the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group and Murph Oil Company: Murphy has participated in oil and gas exploration in Vietnam since 2012 and currently is cooperating to exploit gas in Nam Con Son. This memorandum will open up many opportunities for cooperation between the two sides in oil and gas, energy joint venture, accelerating the negotiation of the project in Tho Chu Island and many other contracts.

– Cooperation agreement of the solar energy projects between First Solar and Thien Tan: Thien Tan Investment and Construction Company have signed two major contracts to purchase solar panels worth 35 million USD to serve the solar photovoltaic plant, which has started construction since mid 2015. The plant has a capacity of 19.2 MW with total investment of 800 billion VND and is built on an area of 24 ha in Quang Ngai.

– Memorandum of Biomass Minnesota Plant: Tin Thanh Electricity Company cooperates with US businesses, negotiating the terms related to design and build of boiler biomass power. That helps saving of 10 – 20% electricity, reducing 200,000 tons of carbon each year.

Along with other agreements such as joint researching on lower Mekong, Memorandum of Understanding on climate change in the Mekong Delta…

The signing ceremony of the future investment projects includes the Memorandum of Understanding that The Grand Ho Tram Strip develops its 2nd hotel tower; Memorandum of Traffic Safety Program.

Accordingly, The Grand Ho Tram Strip has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cotec Construction Joint Stock Company (CotecCons) on the expansion of The Grand Ho Tram Strip worth 75 million USD.

The construction of the 2^nd hotel tower with 559 rooms of The Grand Ho Tram Strip will be undertaken by CotecCons, bringing the total number of room of The Grand Ho Tram Strip to 1,100 rooms when completed.

After the completion of the hotel building, the actual total investment for the whole project has reached 1 billion USD.

In addition, in a memorandum on traffic safety program, the US will pour about 1 million USD to help Vietnam solving the challenges of traffic safety problems such as accidents, give helmets for citizens…

In the aviator industry, Vietjet Air (Vietnam) and Boeing (US) have signed contract worth 11.3 billion USD in the presence of President Tran Dai Quang and President Obama. With this contract, Vietjet Air will buy 100 Boeing 737 MAX 200 from Boeing.

Besides the contract signed with Boeing, Vietjet Air also signed contract with United Technologies Corp to buy engines for the aircrafts that Vietjet has signed and ordered with aircraft suppliers. The signed contracts worth up to 3.04 billion USD.

According to the executive director of the US Trade Association (AmCham), the visit of President Obama will further promote cooperation relations between the two countries in many fields; including economy, friendship between the two countries, security, human right, global and area issues of mutual interest.

The timing of the trip to Vietnam of President Obama has very important meaning because this is the time Parliament is preparing to consider ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at the end of this year.

AmCham believes that the TPP will bring many benefits and opportunities for companies, investors, workers, farmers and consumers in both the US and Vietnam. When fully deployed, the TPP will pave the way for the digital economy, strengthen the creative industries; contributing to a fair play ground for businesses and investors.

In addition, TPP will bring many important changes to the business environment in Vietnam and opens up many new opportunities, helping Vietnam to speed up in the industrialization, modernization and globalization process. This Agreement will help the private sector to have more opportunities to reach important markets, stimulating competition, attracting foreign investment and contributing to the construction of supply chain infrastructure; from that creates great opportunities for Vietnam enterprises, creating jobs and raise incomes for Vietnamese employees.

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Vietnam in Top 20 Destinations to Living in the World

Althought the economy is not too rich like many developing countries, visitor still plus destination to Vietnam by owning many scene nice and the food.

Vietnam in  20 top destinations  to living in the World Business Insider Page recently has suggested for many peoples tired of life at home and looking for new environment to do again the begining . Vietnam ranks 16th among the top  20 most liveable , higher than Japan and Belgium. In the opinion of this website, S-shaped strip of land owned many beautiful landscapes, delicious food, attractive, affordable, easy to make friends and social life stable. However, Vietnam also has some limitations such as standing near the bottom of the rankings on health and quality of life for children.

Topping the list is Switzerland. Despite small size, this country owns the economy, political stability, income per capita and is located in the heart of Europe.

National received the most opposition after the name in the list is India. Many people believe that this is dangerous countries for women evils of rape still occur daily and the government, there is no effective preventive measures.

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Vietnam Prepares for Wave of Russian Tourist

Currently, there were complicated situations occurred in the favorite destinations of Russian tourists such as Egypt, Turkey and Goa of India, the Russian Government recommend, forbidden or even stop the tours and flights to these destinations. Such names as Vietnam, Cuba and China were recommended as safe destinations for Russian citizens to travel.

Nha Trang Beach of Vietnam

The A321 of Kogalymavia Airlines (Russia) had an accident in the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt) on October 31st makes 224 people on the flight were killed. The Security Agency of the Russian Federation determined that this is a terrorist attack after finding traces of explosives in the debris. Soon after, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the suspension of all flights from Russia to Egypt.

On November 11th, Russia officially banned all aircraft of the national airline of Egypt (Egypt Air) and advised their citizens should not come here. This led the Egyptian tourism industry hit hard. According to Al-Ahram newspaper in Arabic of Egypt, there were 72,000 Russian tourists have left this country after the tragedy. Egyptian Tourism Minister predicted that in the last 3 months of 2015, their tourism industry could suffer over 820 million USD losses.

Goa, a state in India is the favorite destination of Russians in the new year holiday continues to go to “blacklist” due to threats to local security problems as well as the increase in prices at tourist sites.

The crisis started in 2014 when the Ruble devaluation, the number of Russian tourists travel to Goa halved. 2016 will continue to decline. The negative impacts caused Transaero Airlines, which often serving 50% of guests are Russians goes bankruptcy. According to statistics, Russian tourists accounted for nearly 50% of foreign visitors to Goa, with nearly 250,000 visitors in 2013.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the House of Russia published a list of the safe destinations, which encouraging its citizens to come after a series of favorite destinations are included in the “blacklist”. In the three alternative candidates, there was Vietnam.

Phu Quoc Beach of Vietnam

At the Russia – Vietnam business forum occurred last November in Moscow, Russia suggested that Vietnam should prepare to welcome waves of tourist to come here after many difficulties in Egypt. Moreover, Vietnam should improve the mechanisms to support the Russian tour operators to penetrate the Vietnam tour market.

This is good sign for Vietnam’s tourism industry after the number of Russian tourists has reduced from the end of 2014 due to the Ruble devaluation causing them to tighten spending. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, as of November 2015, there are 297,384 Russian visitors come to Vietnam, reached only 90% compared to the same period last year. However, from October, the number of Russian arrivals to Vietnam has increased slightly.

The high season of Russian for traditional wintering lasts from October to the end of March next year. Therefore, it is time for Vietnam to attract the large number of tourists coming from Russia. Moreover, it is particularly advantageous in the context of many favorite destinations of the Russian are no longer safe and Vietnam is recommended by the Russian Government.

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SAIGON CO.OP COOPERATED WITH WILMAR (JAPAN) TO BUILD SAUCE FACTORY

Nam Duong International Food Co., Ltd will implement the project with a total investment capital of 577.2 billion VND (equivalent to 25.6 million USD) to build a new factory in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Zone (Nha Be, Ho Chi Minh City).

Accordingly, Nam Duong International Food Co., Ltd is a joint venture between Saigon Co-op (a large retailer in Vietnam) and Wilmar International Limited (Singapore) with the capital contribution ratio is 49% and 51% respectively.

After the joint venture was established, the preparing procedures for the new factory will be conducted expeditiously. The factory will specialize in manufacturing sauces and spices to serve the domestic and export market.

The brand “Nam Duong” owned by Saigon Co.op, which was founded in 1951, is one of the brands in the sauces and spices industry in Vietnam, with products: soy sauce, sauce, chili and tomato sauce. These products are preferred by domestic and abroad consumers. These products are now being exported to markets such as the US, Canada and Europe.

As the leading retailer in Vietnam, Saigon Co.op understands the trend, tastes and appetites of consumers. On the other hand, Wilmar Group which has extensive experience in manufacturing and distribution of food worldwide. Through this joint venture, the Nam Duong’s sauces and spices products will meet the international production standards and safety and will be sold in a global distribution network but still preserve the traditional flavors in each product.

The main objective in the development strategy of Wilmar is aimed at building and developing closed business models with diverse agricultural commodities, proactive from input raw materials to produce and distribute finished products. Currently, the Group has more than 500 factories in China, India, Indonesia, Indonesia, Vietnam and 50 other countries worldwide. The Group develops based on multinational human resources base with 92,000 employees.

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FOREIGN EXPERTS FELT “BREATHE EASY” WHEN LIVING IN VIETNAM

Vietnam ranked 21^st in the economic ranking, but ranked 5^th 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 22^nd in the ranking on experience, but 2^nd 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 31^st 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.

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ALIBABA FROM CHINA ACQUIRES LAZADA VIETNAM

Recently, there is a trend that foreign company comes and buy company in Vietnam, in order to expand their business operation and also set foot in Vietnam market, where is emerging as a potential market of the area.

Alibaba Group – China’s giant technology corporation has spent 1 billion USD to acquire Lazada, thereby officially set foot in the online sales market of Vietnam.

On April 12^th 2016, the China’s giant technology group named Alibaba Group announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire the control of e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, which is Lazada with an amount of 1 billion USD , thereby officially set foot in Vietnam.

The transaction includes an investment of 500 million USD in Lazada’s newly issued equity and the repurchase of shares of some Lazada’s shareholders include Rocket Internet SE, Tesco Plc and Investment AB Kinnevik with a total investment value of Alibaba reach approximately 1 billion USD.

This acquisition is expected to help worldwide brands and distributors that are trading on the platform of Alibaba, as well as local vendors can reach the consumer market of Southeast Asia. In addition, Alibaba deal with a certain number of shareholders of Lazada, giving Alibaba the right to purchase and shareholders the right to sell its remaining shares in Lazada at the marketprices in 12-18 months after the completion of the transaction.

Lazada is headquartered in Singapore, which was founded and operated by Rocket Internet SE from Germany. The company carries out e-commercial activities in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

According to Bloomberg, the deal came from the objectives set by the billionaire cum Alibaba’s chairman Jack Ma, targeting at least half of company revenue comes from markets outside of China.

Through the deal with Lazada, Alibaba generate more revenue from sale of clothing and electronics in 6 regional markets in Southeast Asia where Lazada if operating, including Vietnam.

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JAPANESE GIANT PETROLEUM CORPORATION ENTER VIETNAM MARKET

There is a trend that foreign corporations entering Vietnam market as they see the potentials of this rising economy.

Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Group has received an investment license to open a joint venture with a unit of Kuwait to build a petrol distribution system in Vietnam.

This corporation will contribute 50% capital to Idemitsu Petroleum Q8 Co., Ltd, along with Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) to set up station system to retail gasoline in Vietnam.

The investment registration license has been granted by the Vietnam Government and the business registration procedures are being conducted. If completed, this would be the first time when Vietnam petroleum distribution market has the participation of an enterprise with 100% foreign capital.

Currently, the two partners in the joint venture of Idemitsu Petroleum Q8 are all shareholders in Nghi Son Petrochemical Complex and Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation (each party hold 35% of the capital).

Nghi Son Petrochemical is expected to trial operating in 2016 and commercial operating in 2017. Thus, through the establishment of a separate company on the distribution of petroleum products, Idemitsu and KPI will complete the production and distribution chain in Vietnam, ensuring the supply as well as output for the product.

Apart from the investment in joint venture distribution and petrochemical company, Idemitsu Kosan is also engaged in a series of beginning stage projects of the petroleum industry, such as investment in the mining lots (Lot 09-3, Lot 05.1). Moreover, this Japanese giant also said that they are ready to consider contributing funds when PV Oil carries out equitisation.

Idemitsu Kosan is one of the leading oil and gas group in Japan, with history of over 75 years of formation and development. The group’s market capitalization has now reached 108.6 billion Yen (almost 1 billion USD) with net sales in 2014 reached 4,630 billion Yen (about 42 billion USD). By the end of the first quarter of 2015, the corporation has nearly 9,000 employees.

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RISK MANAGEMENT: A VITAL ELEMENT WHEN DOING BUSINESS

Risk management is a vital element when doing business but so far, not many enterprises concern about it.

According to a recent survey with 522 companies, there are only 43 comanies, accounting for about 8%, have the independent risk management department in their business. More noteworthy, the majority of these 43 companies operating in the banking and financial sector, which has nothing new to risk management. In fact, not all banks have independent and effective risk management departments. The negative problems related to the banking system in recent times somewhat showed the picture about the risk management of this sector.

Risk is understood as any events and situations that could harmful to the ability to achieve the business objectives of the enterprise. Risk management is organized in a formal way and is conducted continuously to identify, control and report the risks that may affect the achievement of the business objectives of the enterprise.

So why businesses are not interested in risk management? Part of this problem stems from the awareness of the leaders. In order to build and operate the risk management system in the enterprise, it needs the commitment of the senior leaders. If senior leaders do not aware of this problem, the administration process will be difficult to achieve the desired effectiveness.

Recently, there are many theories and systems of risk management but small and medium enterprises should be cautious when apply because system and theory are just general and they should be adjusted when applying to each business.

In order to form the culture of risk management, the leaders must along with the employees to implement it regularly and for each project. In theory, the risk management process is carried out in 5 steps: identify risk; evaluate its impact; determine the likelihood; action and measures; monitoring and evaluation.

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