February half term 2022

Illustrative photo Billions of shares According to statistics, banks added about eight billion shares to the market by paying dividends in 2021. If one includes private placement and offering to existing shareholders, the number of newly issued bank shares on the market is about ten billion shares. The fact that banks have rushed to put billions of shares into circulation has caused banks to face a downward pressure, especially when the stock market is adjusting sharply after the impact of strict social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic in the third quarter of 2021. In the second half of 2021, many bank stocks plunged sharply after closing the right to pay dividends for the year. Typically, Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB Bank) lost nearly 27% of its value after four months of paying dividends. Similarly, VietinBank also decreased value by about 25% after three months of closing the right to pay more than 30% dividend in shares. The trend of … [Read more...] about Shareholders concerned about bank stocks

Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Ha shared Vietnam’s plans to eradicate child labor at a conference in South Africa on Tuesday. At the fifth Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labor in Durban, South Africa, Ha spoke about the pivotal role that childhood education plays in reducing the risk of children leaving school to find work. Currently, about 94.4 percent of Vietnamese children have access to education thanks to government policies to make primary and secondary education compulsory, eradicate illiteracy, and reduce or exempt tuition fees for poor, disabled, ethnic minority, and underprivileged children. The Vietnamese government also has policies which help these marginalized groups gain access to health insurance and other social welfare programs. Currently, Vietnam is cooperating with other entities, such as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) to … [Read more...] about Vietnam’s next steps in the fight to eradicate child labor

Defending champions Vietnam beat Malaysia 1-0 at Viet Tri Stadium in northern Phu Tho Province on Thursday night to set up an exciting Southeast Asian (SEA) Games men’s football final against archrivals Thailand. The game needed two extra 15-minute halves after regulation time to decide who will play the finale against the Thais, who also defeated Indonesia 1-0 after 120 minutes in the other semifinal earlier the same day. The hosts came into the tie having not conceded a single goal in the group stage and put more pressure on Malaysia in the first half after the first 10 cagey minutes. Malaysia had a shot on target from close range after a corner was half cleared, but Vietnamese goalkeeper Nguyen Van Toan was able to smother the effort easily. Nguyen Tien Linh almost opened the scoring in the 27th minute as he ran down and faced Malaysian keeper Azri Ghani, but his shot drifted wide of the far post. Linh missed another chance in the 42nd minute as he was in a convenient … [Read more...] about Vietnam defeat Malaysia to set up men’s football final against Thailand at 31st SEA Games

The visit paid by the Singaporean parliament speaker is aimed to realize the agreement reached by the countries’ top leaders during Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit to the neighboring country in February 2022. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on enhancing relations, exchanges, and cooperation between Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA) and the Parliament of Singapore was signed during the three-day visit to Hanoi paid by Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin, his first official visit to Vietnam beginning on May 18. Chairman of Vietnam's National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue (R) and Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore Tan Chuan-Jin in Hanoi on May 18. Photos: Quochoi During the visit made at the invitation of Chairman of Vietnam's National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue, the two legislative bodies also supported the signing of an MoU on cybersecurity, mutual legal assistance, and trans-border crime prevention. They argued that the legislative connection is an extremely … [Read more...] about Vietnam, Singapore parliaments ink agreement to boost cooperation

"Even in the very tough environment we are seeing, our employees have maintained a high quality and reliable service for our customers and this is helping us deliver stellar performance year after year," said Jens Lottner, CEO of Techcombank. Last year, the bank continued to reduce costs while focusing on building deposits in its current accounts and savings accounts (CASA), which Lottner described as a "stable and cheap" source of funding. Techcombank’s CASA ratio, which reflects the percentage of the bank’s total deposits that are CASA, jumped from 46.1 percent in 2020 to 50.5 percent last year, on its way to the bank’s target of 55 percent by 2025. Techcombank’s net interest margin (NIM), a measure of the difference between the interest received by the bank and the amount paid out to lenders, also increased 69 basis points to 5.6 percent during the year. "Together, these improving metrics, along with our effective cost management, translated into an excellent profit before tax … [Read more...] about Techcombank eyes seat at top Southeast Asian banking table

Gold is yet again becoming a safe haven asset, and some customers want more ways to get involved, Le Toan The World Gold Council (WGC) believes that the appetite for gold is often hampered by the interest rate, as when interest rates rise, gold loses its appeal. However, inflation is also a tailwind to gold demand as a common safe-haven asset. The USD tends to weaken when the Fed raises interest rates, which enhances gold’s demand. “Furthermore, what happens in China’s consumer market has had a big impact as it’s the world’s largest consumer market for gold. We expect China to start to emerge from the worst of the pandemic and that will support consumer demand,” the WGC noted last week. “It is difficult to predict how the geopolitical situation will play out. It depends on where inflation goes, but inflation is certainly the biggest driver at the moment, which will probably support institutional investment demand in the next quarter.” Meanwhile, the demand for gold in Vietnam … [Read more...] about Gold appeal sparkles amid rise of inflation

Flexibility is required in handling raw material issues for power plants and easing coal supply pressures, Photo: Shutterstock Thai Binh Thermal Power Plant under Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has been in a coal shortage since the beginning of 2022. Ta Trung Kien, director of the plant, said that the volume of coal delivered “has been reduced significantly” compared to the signed contract. Vinacomin Group and Dong Bac Corporation – two of the coal suppliers for the Thai Binh Thermal Power Plant – delivered only just over 74 per cent of the monthly plan. “The two units of our plant need about 6,400 tonnes of coal per day. Due to a lack of coal, the plant was forced to use backup coal to maintain the operation. By the end of the first quarter, these reserves were at just about 14,000 tonnes, much lower than the required norm of 80,000 tonnes,” Kien said. Many other plants are facing similar problems, including Nghi Son 1, Vung Ang 1, Vinh Tan 2, and Duyen Hai 1, which currently … [Read more...] about Nation lacking coal supply for sufficient power generation

Thao Nguyen - Senior investment manager Ascend Vietnam Ventures Social commerce, a subset of e-commerce that refers to the process of buying and selling goods or services directly within social media platforms, is not new. In Vietnam, long before traditional e-commerce established a foothold with tech-savvy consumers, such activities largely took place on major social media platforms. Serving both big-city shoppers and the majority of the population who live outside of core urban centres, social commerce made up about 65 per cent of Vietnam’s $22 billion e-commerce in 2020, presenting the highest rate in Southeast Asia, according to Bain & Co. Within the last two years, we have been seeing a new wave of startups emerging in this sector and beginning to harness the untapped potential of Vietnam’s social commerce playing field. Some of those have attracted almost $14 million in funding in Q1 this year. Compared to the regional rate of 44 per cent, Vietnam’s social commerce … [Read more...] about Vietnam poised for the next level of social commerce via innovative startups

A panel discussion at the conference on strengthening ‘Public-Private Partnership for sustainable healthcare transformation’ in Hanoi on May 18. (Photo: VNA) Opening the event, the newspaper's editor-in-chief Le Trong Minh said that Vietnam's health sector faced many challenges, such as increasing infectious and non-communicable diseases, hospital overcrowding, shortage of supplies and equipment, the ageing population as well as the disparity between regions and healthcare levels in terms of quality of medical services and standardisation of modern equipment. “For the health system to be capable and always ready to respond to future situations, towards a comprehensive and sustainable health care system, it is necessary to have new investment orientations in social resources for the health system, as well as stronger cooperation from the parties involved, including the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) method,” said Minh. At the event, MPI deputy minister Tran Duy Dong said it … [Read more...] about Conference discusses Public-Private Partnerships in healthcare

Hoang Viet Tien-Head of Strategic Advisory, Insider Mobile games and e-sports account for a major share of the blockchain sphere, and in addition to the play-to-earn wave from blockchain games, new waves are coming such as SocialFi (earning income through social activities), CALO (exercise to collect utility tokens), and Genopets (nurture and evolve Genopes to train and battle for rewards). A new report by DappRadar and the Blockchain Game Alliance suggests that 2022 will be a benchmark year for crypto games developers. The report reveals that $2.5 billion in investments were raised in Q1 alone this year, adding that developers could see this figure balloon to $10 billion by the end of the year. Compared to previous years, these figures also suggest the niche has become a key sector for investors. In 2021, for example, just $4 billion was raised throughout the whole year. In Vietnam, there are about 3.99 million gamers and more than 60 per cent are between the ages of 18 and … [Read more...] about Staying safe in the booming blockchain and GameFi world