Vietnam Morning News For January 8

2025 maritime industry and trade development plan approved
Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh has approved a plan to develop Vietnam’s maritime industry and trade to 2025, with a vision to 2035.
— VietnamPlus

$650 million of State-owned coal and mining corp not properly handled
Potential wrongdoings involving VNĐ15 trillion (US$658.5 million) and 6.7 million sq.m of real estate were found with the State-owned coal and mining giant, Vinacomin.
— VietnamNet Bridge

Vietnam’s HDBank becomes latest lender to go public
HDBank listed more than 980 million shares on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange on Friday, with a reference price of 33,000 dong apiece, giving the lender a valuation of around 32.4 trillion dong ($1.43 billion).
— Nikkei Asian Review

MWG deal under scrutiny by competition authority
Mobile World Group (MWG) has just announced completing the acquisition of a 95 per cent controlling stake in Tran Anh (TAG). However, MWG’s resulting market share, as the company already held 30 per cent before the deal, could cause legal issues, blocking the corporation’s designs of expansion.
— VietnamNet Bridge

Vietnam: Vinafood 2 gets nod for $220m IPO, to offer 25% to strategic investors
Viet Nam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) has received approval for its $220 million initial public offering (IPO) from Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, said a report in Vietnamnet.
— DealStreetAsia

Aquatic export estimated at 8.5 billion USD in 2018
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Directorate of Fisheries has said it will strive to earn an export value of aquatic products of 8.5 billion USD this year, up 1.2 percent annually.
— VietnamPlus

VNPT to restructure sub-units
The Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) will re-arrange the organisation of its sub-units in 2018-2020.
— VietnamNet Bridge

An IT expert promotes ‘smartphone farming’
An IT engineer in central Viet Nam is demonstrating the value of hydroculture as an effective way to build climate change resilience in the storm-prone region, Hoài Nam reports.
— Viet Nam News

Samsung asked to support training
The Vietnamese Government expects Samsung to further support human resource training and technology transfer in the country, helping Vietnamese parts suppliers take part in value chains and become suppliers of materials and parts for Samsung, said Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung.
— Bizhub

Budget deficit target set at 3.7% of GDP
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) expects to keep this year’s State Budget deficit at 3.7 per cent of the GDP, below the 3.9 per cent mandated by the National Assembly.
— Viet Nam News

Future looks bright for local banks
Business performance of commercial banks is forecast to continue its upward trend in 2018 after making significant improvements last year, according to a State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) survey.
— Bizhub

SSI top brokerage in Hanoi derivatives market
Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) was the biggest brokerage on the Hanoi Stock Exchange’s derivatives market last year with a 28.28% market share, according to an exchange report on the derivatives market.
— Nhan Dan Online

Economists predict bright outlook for Vietnam in 2018
The sky is bright for Vietnam’s economy but the country urgently needs to work on underlying issues like low productivity and poor infrastructure.
— VnExpress

VN real estate marks successful 2017
Viet Nam witnessed positive development in the real estate market in 2017 with increased transactions of apartments and reduction in real estate inventory.
— VietnamNet Bridge

Feature photo Simone D. McCourtie / World Bank

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