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. 20 – Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance will propose that the government consider the National Assembly Standing Committee’s report covering a number of urgent solutions to help taxpayers awaiting repairs to the personal income tax law.

With the stock market down sharply recently, many investors are seeing almost no income, and some are even experiencing losses. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance has proposed tax exemptions for stock investors from August 1, 2011 to 2012. Income received from dividends will be exempt from personal income tax to make it fair to persons who have money in bank savings accounts. 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

Jun. 7 – On his recent trip to Japan, Vietnam’s Party Politburo member Truong Tan Sang commended Vietnam-Japan relations over the last 40 years while encouraging future high-level visits and the expansion of delegation exchanges because of the “Vietnam-Japan Friendship Year” coming in 2013.

In his conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Sang added that they will try to stimulate the “strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia” between Vietnam and Japan. Also he offered his sympathies to the Japanese people because of the recent natural disasters and promised that Vietnam will support Japan as well as it can. Additionally, he hopes and expects that Japan continues to raise its ODA to Vietnam following the agreements signed during Prime Minister Kan’s visit to Vietnam last October. Continue Reading

May 31 – Following two major laws concerning M&As in Vietnam which came into effect almost five years ago, namely the “Law on Investment” and the “Competition Law,” the number of M&A deals in Vietnam has surged from 38 in 2006 to 108 in 2007 according to Reuters, and from US$299 million to US$1.72 billion over the same time frame. Continue Reading

By Christian Quill

May 30 – More and more Italian investors are considering their investment options into Vietnam. According to the Italian Ambassador to Vietnam Lorenzo Angeloni, the Italian government would like to boost Vietnamese-Italian joint ventures financially. This is especially the case in joint ventures in agriculture, breeding, fisheries, food-processing, craftsmanship, and energy.

The Italian government also wants to assist some Vietnamese government projects. The priority areas for those projects are energy, transportation, waste treatment, cultural and environmental projects, microfinance, fair-trade and sustainable tourism. Continue Reading

May 23 – The Australian government announced that it will raise the level of official development assistance (ODA) in 2011-2012 up to US$145.77 million – an increase of 82 percent over the 2010-2011 value.

Allaster Cox, Australia’s Ambassador to Vietnam, has said that the increase in ODA exhibits Australia’s ongoing long-term commitment to assist Vietnam in its efforts to reduce poverty and reach sustainable development. Continue Reading

May 18 – Nguyen Trung Tin, the Vice Chairman of the Municipal People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, has pledged to create more favorable conditions for investors to develop their business in Vietnam’s biggest city.

Speaking at a seminar held on April 26 in the city titled “Evaluation and Solutions to Improve HCMC’s Investment Environment 2011,” Tin also highly valued domestic and oversea investors’ contributions to the city’s socio-economic development. He also affirmed the stable investment environment of the city and he believed HCMC is an attractive and reliable destination for investors. Continue Reading