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Samsung almost 15 percent of Vietnam’s exports so far this year

Samsung exported US$33.5 billion worth of product from Vietnam in the first seven months of the year, Tuoi Tre has reported. This is the equivalent of around 14.73 percent of Vietnam’s total exports and about 46.42 percent of Vietnam’s exports of mobile phones and computers.

The arrival of Samsung back in 2008 heralded a significant shift in the manufacturing sector with the South Korean mobile phone behemoth transforming Vietnam’s northern provinces into an epicentre of electronics manufacturing. 

That said, whereas Samsung has created thousands of jobs in Vietnam the majority are in low-value assembly rather than high-value research and development. Vietnam has pushed the firm to help Vietnam to move up the supply chain most recently in semiconductor chip development but there have been reports that, at least in semiconductor production, Samsung has been reluctant.

See also: Vietnam’s Semiconductor Manufacturing Ambitions: Unpacked

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Vietnamese consumer bank deposits continue to climb

Of note, over the last two years in the wake of a broader economic downturn brought on by higher interest rates in key export markets and the near-collapse of Vietnam’s real estate market, everyday Vietnamese have turned to saving rather than spending their excess income. This is problematic in that local consumption has been an important growth driver over the last decade or so. Retail sales, month on month, however,  have been more or less stagnant since the beginning of the year. This latest data from the SBV suggests this could last a while longer…

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Vietnam to self-fund high-speed rail, avoid ‘strings attached’ foreign loans

Notably, debt-diplomacy has become common in recent years particularly in developing nations and given Vietnam’s precarious position in the world in terms of geopolitics, a reluctance to be indebted to external creditors is understandable. That said, this is a huge and very expensive project that really needs to be done right and Vietnam has no existing high-speed rail and therefore no experience installing and using the technology to speak of.

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PetroVietnam Gas Corporation: Vietnam Stock Overview

Amid declining domestic natural gas production, imported LNG is slated to play a crucial role as a long-term alternative energy source. Currently, GAS is the first and only enterprise in Vietnam authorized to officially distribute LNG. GAS is involved in several key LNG projects, including the Thi Vai and Son MY LNG port warehouse and the Block B – O Mon gas pipeline projects…

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Vietnam gold ring prices reach all-time highs despite C.bank intervention

The gold price in Vietnam is more often than not much higher than it is in the rest of the world. In fact, in 2023, at its peak, the price of a gold bar in Vietnam was around 20 percent higher owing to a number of factors including huge demand and limited supply, the latter due to regulations that restrict gold imports and exports and gold bar production.

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VietinBank: Vietnam Stock Overview

Non-interest income fell by 12.6 percent to US$333.2 million, driven by a drop in bancassurance operations, in line with a broader decline in bancassurance revenue following negative publicity in 2023. In addition, securities trading revenue decreased 72.6 percent in contrast to the VN Index which increased by 10.2 percent and other financial institutions like MB Bank which had an eightfold increase in securities revenue year-over-year…

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