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California Fitness Group and VPBank on Tuesday in HCM City announce their partnership. — VNS Photo Thu Ngan The California Fitness Group and VPBank on Tuesday in HCM City announced their partnership, launching the VPBank-California Fitness platinum credit card and the VPBank-California Centuryon signature credit card. The is first time that a fitness brand and a bank have partnered on wellness-focused credit cards in Viet Nam. The two cards each offer cardholders an extensive array of benefits, starting with free gym sessions, and the ability to accumulate points that can be used towards a variety of incentives within California Fitness Group’s nationwide network of 36 fitness clubs and 12 Eri Clinics. The California Fitness platinum cardholders will be entitled to a welcome gift set; two Personal Trainer (PT) sessions; two weeks free-of-charge training for the cardholder only; and a two-week guest pass for family and friends. Additionally, if cardholders use the card to … [Read more...] about California Fitness & Yoga Centers and VPBank team up

Vu Duc Nhan, deputy CEO of transport firm Phuong Thanh Tranconsin Jsc, told VnExpress that the Ministry of Transport requires an investor to have an owner’s equity of 20 percent of the cost of a North-South Expressway project. This means that if a project costs VND5 trillion ($215 million), an investor needs to have VND1 trillion ($43 million) in owner’s equity.  The investor also needs to have experience in a similar project in scale, he added. "Very few Vietnamese companies have that money. Only some have recently invested in major national highways." A tightened credit policy on build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects is adding to the burden, Nhan said. Banks are charging an annual interest rate of 11 percent, higher than the 7.8 percent the Ministry of Transport estimated earlier when calling for investors. Many BOT projects are struggling to collect enough tolls due to lower traffic than estimated, making investors reluctant to take on expressway projects, he … [Read more...] about North-South Expressway: domestic investors fear foreign competition

Speaking at the 34th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said ASEAN also needs to consider and acknowledge positive development in the negotiations for the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) between the bloc and China, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Phuc said that next year, as the ASEAN chair, Vietnam would work to raise ASEAN’s status on the global stage by enhancing its links with the U.N. Vietnam was elected non-permanent U.N. Security Council member for 2020-2021 term earlier this month. China lays claim to almost the entire South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, including waters close to Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.  It has occupied some archipelagos illegally and created artificial islands, turning them into garrisons. On June 9, a Filipino fishing boat with 22 crew members was sunk near Reed Bank in Vietnam's Spratly … [Read more...] about Vietnam asks ASEAN to take note of threats against fishers in South China Sea

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Transport Ministry disbursed 76 percent of the sum assigned by the Government in 2018, the highest rate recorded in the past three years. The rate was also higher than the national average of 66.35 percent. The figures were announced at a conference held in Hanoi on January 11 to review the ministry’s operation last year and set tasks for 2019. As heard at the function, the ministry disbursed more than 20.24 trillion VND (872.38 million USD) of more than 26.88 trillion VND (1.15 billion USD) it was tasked with in 2018. During the year, the ministry completed 27 projects worth more than 68.11 trillion VND (2.93 billion USD), and began 16 projects worth some 13.38 trillion VND (576.73 million USD). It also prepared for various major projects, including those on building the eastern section of the North-South highway, and the Long Thanh international airport, and on expanding Tan Son Nhat international airport. … [Read more...] about Transport ministry’s 2018 disbursement rate highest in 3 years

The three additional months are needed to carry out new preliminary evaluations of investors before they can bid for the public-private partnership (PPP) work, according to a recent report the government made to the National Assembly. Next year, the evaluations are expected to be completed by February, the contractor identified by August, and the tendering process completed by November, the report said. In September the Ministry of Transport decided not to invite foreign bids for the eight sections of the expressway to be built under the PPP model, saying only a few qualified and this could lead to a low level of competition. Sixty investors, half of them Chinese, submitted expressions of interest for the eight sections, but for four of them no investor met all the requirements, while for the rest only one to three did so, the ministry said in a statement. It then decided to invite fresh tenders with lowered criteria for the North-South Expressway from local investors, to "ensure … [Read more...] about Transnational expressway investor selection to take until August 2020