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Key Challenges in Vietnam-US Trade Negotiations: Unpacked
Vietnam’s Private Sector Development Push: Unpacked
Vietnam’s Aviation Industry: State of Play 2025
Vietnam and the Middle Income Trap: Unpacked
Vietnam’s 8 Percent GDP Growth Target: Unpacked
Buy More, Sell Less: Tackling Vietnam’s Trade Surplus with the US
Is Vietnam the Next Asian Tiger Economy?
What Recent Traffic Reforms Say About Doing Business in Vietnam
Building An International Financial Centre in Vietnam: Unpacked
Vietnam’s Economy in 2024: A Brief Recap
What to Watch Now Google Has An Office in Vietnam
Does Vietnam Have a Private Consumption Problem Too?
The 8th Session of Vietnam’s National Assembly: Key Takeaways
Rethinking Financing Vietnam’s Clean Energy Transition
Vietnam’s New Social Media ID Regulations: Unpacked
Calls to deregulate electricity prices in Vietnam
Deregulating electricity prices could create an ‘economic breakthrough’, according to Thien Dinh Tran, former Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, and reported by Dan Tri. He points out that it was done before with food prices and that it made a big economic differnce Eds note: Deregulating electricity prices
Foreign worker regulations in Vietnam have been amended
The Government of Vietnam has issued Decree 70/2023/ND-CP with additions to, and clarifications of, regulations on foreign workers, as reported in VN Economy. The changes are relatively minor and mostly semantic, however, there are some additional specific details that have been added such as documents that can be accepted to
Proposed increase in Vietnam container handling fees falls short of industry demands
Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport has proposed a 10 percent increase in container handling fees at Vietnam’s ports, according to Vietnam News. Key industry groups, however, requested an increase of about 15 to 20 percent per year back in March. These groups claim that Vietnam’s seaports are running at a collective
Back to the drawing board for PDP8 deployment plan
A draft deployment plan for the Power Development Plan 8 (PDP8) has been sent back to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for revisions due to a lack of detail, particularly on offshore wind, according to The Investor. Why it matters: Doubts have already been raised about Vietnam’s ability to
Vietnam’s semiconductor industry: where it’s come from and where it’s going
VN Express is carrying this write-up of Vietnam’s semiconductor industry in which it highlights Vietnam’s current role at the lower-value end of the supply chain. It notes that Vietnam’s role in semiconductor production is mostly at the final packaging stage which accounts for just 6 percent of a chip’s value.
Starbucks opens 100th store in Vietnam: how much bigger can it get?
Starbucks opened its 100th store in Vietnam on the weekend in Hanoi’s West Lake district, Vietnam News is reporting. It’s taken Starbucks ten years to get to this point on average opening only ten stores a year. For comparison, it opened more than 6,500 stores in China over 24 years
Calls to loosen lending criteria to boost business borrowing
A lot of businesses in Vietnam have already reached their maximum borrowing capacity, with no collateral left to take out new loans according to Huan Huu Nguyen, a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, and reported in Dan Tri. Nguyen says the issue is on the demand
Bot-trading on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange may soon be regulated
The State Securities Commision (SSC) has said trading firms should not deploy more automated trading-bots until it decides how to regulate this new tech, according to the Vietnam Investment Review. The article says this tech poses ‘potential risks and could destabilise the market’ though it doesn’t specify what those risks
Is it time to abolish conditional business lines in Vietnam?
In an interview with Thoi Bao Tai Chinh last week, Cung Dinh Nguyen, the former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management Research, took aim at conditional business lines and the corresponding business conditions. He says that to grow the private sector these need to be limited or even
Car sales drop in Vietnam in August partly because it’s ghost month
Car sales in Vietnam were down 9 percent in August according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) and reported by Vietnam News. The outlet notes a broader economic downturn and constraints on consumer spending are part of the reason, but also that these numbers coincide with the month of
Big gap in exports between domestic and foreign invested firms
This infographic from Tuoi Tre compares the exports of foreign invested enterprises to domestic firms, and there is a big difference. Foreign invested enterprises export almost three times more in terms of dollar value than local firms. What to watch: There is clearly an over dependence on foreign firms in
British newspaper hails Vietnam as dynamic content market?
Vietnamnet has covered an article in Britains Screen Daily in which the British publication refers to Vietnam’s film industry as ‘dynamic’. Vietnamnet’s coverage, however, ignores the two thirds of the article that discusses Vietnam’s censorship regime and how it is styming the development of Vietnam’s film sector. This is important,
EU ban of Vietnamese seafood could cost upwards of US$500 million
If the EU issues Vietnam’s seafood industry with a red card under its illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing regulations it could cost Vietnam’s seafood industry half a billion dollars according to ‘industry insiders and policymakers’, Vietnam News is reporting. Vietnam was issued a yellow card under the the EU’s
Boeing encourages Korean, Japanese suppliers to add VN to their supply chains
Boeing’s supply chain development director for Southeast Asia, Maxime Dourdan, told a forum Wednesday that it was encouraging its tier 1 and 2 suppliers in Korea and Japan to consider utilising Vietnamese suppliers for tier 3 and 4 parts and components, The Investor is reporting. Eds note: The timing on
Changes to who handles work permits in Vietnam proposed
Vietnamnet is reporting on proposed changes to who is in charge of assessing and issuing work permits. Specifically, if it should be at a local People’s Committee level or at the provincial level–essentially local government versus state government. The article is not clear as to why this might be necessary
Vietnam’s low labor costs, economic resilience most important for foreign firms?
VN Express is carrying the outcomes of a HSBC survey that found low labor costs and economic resilience the two main reasons businesses considered Vietanm in their expansion plans. There is, however, no mention of tax incentives in either the article or HSBC’s original press release. Note: Tax incentives can
Power shortages in northern Vietnam next dry season likely
Northern Vietnam’s power supply next dry season may fall short by up to 10 percent in a worst case scenario according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and reported by The Saigon Times. The publication goes on to dub the power supply a ‘significant challenge’ though this may be
What the ECB’s interest rate rise might mean for Vietnam
VN Express is reporting on the European Central Bank’s interest rate rise and what it means for the EU. There are, however, a couple of key points missing with respect to what it might mean for Vietnam. Firstly rising interest rates in the EU is likely to impact demand for
Savings interest rates are headed toward record lows
Savings rates at Vietcombank and Agribank have been reduced to 5.5 percent, which is the same as the record-low they hit during COVID-19, according to VN Express. Why it matters: The banking sector has been on a wild ride over the last year as the pulleys and levers designed to
Some renewable energy firms are struggling to make money in Vietnam
High-interest payments on corporate bonds issued to fund a number of renewable energy projects in Vietnam are making it difficult for a number of renewable energy generators to turn a profit, Vietnam News is reporting. Up until the last year or so bonds were a popular way to raise capital