Vietnam

Vietnam and the dilemma of new wealth

Five days before United States (US) President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in Hanoi for their second summit, two former Vietnamese ministers of communications were arrested and charged with “violations related to management and use of public capital.” The two officials are alleged to have approved a state-owned telecom company’s purchase of a private television provider for over four times its estimated value, at a loss to the state of around US$307 million.Similarly,

1 March 2019
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Trump, Kim end summit abruptly

The United States (US) and North Korea on Friday put forward starkly different accounts over the breakdown of a high-stakes summit in Hanoi but offered guarded hope that they could meet again.After weeks of building expectations and with a signing ceremony ready to go, President Donald Trump abruptly ended his second-ever meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and declared a deadlock."Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times," an unusually downbeat Trump

1 March 2019
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Vietnam’s high-speed rail project revived

Vietnam’s proposed North-South High-Speed Railway (HSR) is expected to improve transport quality for nearly half of the country’s population.The country’s Ministry of Transportation presented a pre-feasibility study for the project to Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc earlier this month, and the report created with the support of a foreign consultancy team found that north-south transport routes currently benefit 49 percent of the nation and serve a population which accounts for 61 pe

28 February 2019
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Grinning Kim arrives in Vietnam

Jovial North Korean leader Kim Jong-un grinned and waved as he walked the red carpet from a Vietnamese rail station Tuesday, as flag-waving children and white-uniformed honour guards greeted him after a marathon two-and-a-half-day rail journey across China.Wearing his trademark Mao-style black suit, Kim disembarked from his olive-green armoured train surrounded by a crush of security and aides as the guards presented arms.Emerging from the station, he was met by a military band and a swarm of

26 February 2019
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The battle for Hmong heritage in Vietnam

Vuong Duy Bao surveys his ancestral palace, a vestige of Vietnam's marginalised Hmong ethnic minority that he says was taken from his family by local officials.The wooden structure is laden with historic markers: opium flowers carved into pillars in a nod to the region's once-booming trade, and an iron fence made with metal imported from former colonial ruler France.Built in 1903 by Bao's warlord grandfather with his opium fortune, the retired civil servant claims local authori

8 February 2019
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What to expect from second Trump-Kim summit

United States (US) President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are ready to reunite for a second time. Speaking to Congress in his State of the Union address, Trump said that there is still “much work to be done” and said that both leaders will meet in Vietnam at the end of the month."As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean peninsula," Trump said in his speech.

7 February 2019
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Vietnam expects boost in shrimp exports

Vietnam’s shrimp exports are expected to reach more than US$4 billion in value this year aided by free trade agreements.The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) last week said the country was unable to meet its 2018 export target of US$4.8 billion, hitting only US$3.5 billion – a 7.8 percent decrease from 2017.However, the implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and other free-trade agreements later this year is expected to boost exports to 28 E

5 February 2019
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Can VinFast boost Vietnam’s automotive market?

In June 2017, Vingroup, a Vietnamese conglomerate focusing on real estate development, retail, mobile and various services decided to diversify its business and launch Vietnam’s first domestic car manufacturer, VinFast. Not long after, in September 2017, VinFast opened its first manufacturing complex worth US$1.5 billion in the northern port city of Hai Phong, officiated by Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the Vietnamese Prime Minister himself.

30 January 2019
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Vietnam pitches itself as an investor safe haven

A red-hot economy, business-friendly policies and a Communist party led by free-traders: that’s the elevator pitch Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is delivering to global investors amid the United States (US)-China trade war.“We are ready to grab the opportunity,” Phuc said in an interview, a few days before departing this week to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Vietnam is quietly positioning itself as a safe haven for manufacturers wary of getting caught in the cros

21 January 2019
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Is F1 the right fit for Vietnam?

Come April 2020, Vietnam will become the third country in ASEAN to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix – a major status symbol for the Communist state.

20 January 2019
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Grab ordered to compensate Vietnam taxi firm

A Vietnam court Friday ordered ride-hailing app Grab to pay a cab company more than US$200,000 for losses incurred due to competition – a judgement blasted by the firm as "a giant step backwards" for the country's tech community.The Singapore-based app, which launched in Vietnam in 2013, has been embroiled in a lawsuit with Vinasun, a major taxi provider in the south of the country, since May 2017.

30 December 2018
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Vingroup launches first smartphones

Vietnam's largest private conglomerate Vingroup unveiled its first made-in-Vietnam mobile phones on Friday in the fast-growing country where it will face tough competition from tech giants like Samsung, Oppo and Apple.The company, run by Vietnam's richest man, has built its core business in the real estate and retail sectors but has branched out to include car manufacturing, gene decoding and now mobile phones.

15 December 2018
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