Aug. 22 – In the first seven months of this year, Vietnam, with 43 cities and provinces, attracted 651 additional foreign direct investment projects.
The top cities and provinces are:
Hai Duong (northern province)
Aug. 17 – Continuing growth in bilateral trade between India and Vietnam is reinforcing the importance of these two emerging economies to each other.
In 2010, bilateral trade grew 34 percent year-on-year to US$2.06 billion, with a similar pattern emerging in 2011. For the first half of 2011, bilateral trade came to US$1.8 billion, a 39.2 percent increase over the same period in 2010.
India’s involvement in trade with Vietnam has grown exponentially in the last decade as evidenced, most recently, by a more than 136 percent increase in exports from Vietnam to India in 2010 over 2009. Key Vietnamese exports include steel, coffee, rubber and electronic items. Continue reading
Jul. 13 – Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has issued Circular No. 91/2011/TT-BTC dated June 20, 2011, amending import tax rates for certain goods in the Preferential Import Tariff.
Beginning August 4, 2011, import tax rates increase for some items in the Preferential Import Tariff according to the list of taxable goods issued together with Circular No. 184/2010/TT-BTC by the Ministry of Finance. Continue reading
An investor who visits the Megastar Cinema in Vincom City Tower in Hanoi will likely be met by large crowds. A visit to the West Lake, passing through the Ho Tay water park, will generate a similar experience.
By Jonathan Choppin
Jul. 12 – The entertainment industry in Vietnam is showing increasing potential and positive indicators like growing cinema audiences and an increasing number of karaoke venues, western-style bars and nightclubs. Much of this industry’s growth, which tripled in value between 2004 and 2009, can be attributed to the country’s stable economy. On the whole, the entertainment industry will play an important role in Vietnam’s economy through jump starting investment in infrastructure and providing sources of employment. Continue reading
Political and legal aspects
Jul. 6 – Government targets and support mechanisms in the field of renewable energy are available in legal documents from the Minister of Trade and Industries and the Institute of Energy.
Examples include:
The Master Plan for Renewable Energy
This source describes national goals for the development of renewable energy sources within the next five years, as well as the nation’s 2025 goals in renewable energy. Continue reading
Jul. 5 – In an afternoon news conference on June 30, 2011, Deputy of Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan said Circular No. 13/2011/TT-BNNPTNT would guide the inspection of food safety resources and vegetable imports effective from July 01, 2011.
The Circular clarified that if the origin of plants and goods are not registered with authorities in Vietnam, they will not be allowed to be imported into the country. Goods imported into Vietnam must come from nations which the competent authorities in Vietnam recognize fully meet the requirements for food safety. Goods should also be packaged in the appropriate way, have secondary labeling in Vietnamese, or are labeled in Vietnamese and have been tested and certified as safe. Continue reading
Jun. 27 – The Vietnamese logistics market is still at a very early stage of development, so there are still various difficulties in this area. Nonetheless, the logistics industry is a huge contributor to the country’s gross domestic product. To increase development, logistic companies in the country are looking at new strategies and try to catch bigger opportunities in 2011.
The World Bank ranked Vietnam alongside China, India, Thailand, Uganda, the Philippines and South Africa as the fastest growing developing nations in terms of economy. Continue reading
Jun. 17 – In this new issue of Vietnam Briefing magazine, we take a look at Vietnam’s increasing attractiveness as an alternative to China as a major manufacturing destination in Asia. Vietnam is increasingly hitting the news for its low labor costs, similar to China many years ago, but the country in fact holds several additional, generally unexplored advantages for foreign investors.
We first take a quick look at exactly how the labor situation is changing in China and which specific companies (in the fields of electronics, toys, clothing and accessories, and automobiles) are shifting production to Vietnam. We then take a step back to take a snapshot of how Vietnam stacks up politically, demographically, geographically and economically and the trend in which it continues to develop, including a closer look at trade with China. Continue reading
By John Choppin
Jun. 16 – Vietnam has a comparatively strong IP legal framework. Several agreements have been signed, noticeably the Bern Convention on Copyright (2004) and other bilateral trade agreements.
In this domain, the benchmark is truly the TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property right) providing international standards for IP in Vietnam. The TRIPS requirements were passed as the IP Law (Nov 2005) and enforced in July 2006 to facilitate Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization. Later, it was improved with a few amendments (Jan 2010). Vietnam is also member of the WIPO (World IP Organization) and has a body of law comparable to industrialized countries. Continue reading
Jun. 10 – Until recently, there hadn’t been a department to support small and medium-sized Korean enterprises with tax and customs related issues in Vietnam. Last week, however, the Ministry of Finance held a conference in Ho Chi Minh City to support Korean businesses relating to problems with taxes and customs procedures during their business in Vietnam. The Korean business groups now have the opportunity to solve their problems with tax and custom procedures with the Vietnamese authorities.
During a similar conference in Hanoi one week earlier, Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance and the Korean Embassy in Vietnam agreed that Korean business would be treated the same as Vietnamese enterprises and the Ministry supported Korean businesses and would limit the barriers in the Vietnamese economic environment. Continue reading
Dezan Shira & Associates provide a range of services for companies looking to undertake foreign direct investment into Asia, These include corporate establishment, accounting, tax, payroll, audit and due diligence. To learn more about the firm, please contact one of our specialists at vietnam@dezshira.com, download our corporate brochure or visit at us www.dezshira.com
