Private Hospital Projects Attract Foreign Investment

  After many domestic investors failed to invest in the construction of private hospital, from 2014 until now, especially in the first months of 2016, there were many foreign investors interested in this area.

Recently, a US delegation composed of more than 40 representatives from US leading hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment companies, research institutions and medical training institutions came to offer Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) leaders, as well as with the 175 Military Hospital to join hands and develop the private health sector under the health socialization policy of HCMC till 2020.

According to the chairman and founder of the worldwide health service network company, they want to invest in Vietnam medical sector. If so, in addition to investment in infrastructure and equipment in the public - private cooperation model, investors also need to invest in manpower training and hospital management model to operate more efficiently.

According to the Director of the HCMC Health Department, the city is having a lot of large projects that need the cooperation of both domestic and foreign investors such as the Health Complex in Tan Kien, Binh Chanh District, with many projects such as the City Children's Hospital, Hospital of Otolaryngology campus 2, Hematology and Blood Transfusion Hospital, Oncology Hospital, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medical campus 2...

The Government of Vietnam is conducting the socialization schedule  in the medical field. In fact, the total health expenditures of 93 million people in Vietnam now accounts for 5.8% of GDP, the highest in ASEAN, which is said to become the magnet for investors in this market.

In 2016, many foreign investors such as Bumrungrad Hospital Corporation (Thailand) and Lippo Group (Indonesia) have expressed their intention to develop hospital chain in Vietnam. This is considered a good time to invest in Vietnam health sector.

In a recent meeting with leaders of Vietnam Government, Temasek Corporation (Singapore) said that in the coming time, this corporation wish to promote investment activities in Vietnam, in which they will mainly invest in health sector by building private hospitals.

Earlier, in January 2014, Shangrila Corporation of Malaysia has invested to build Thanh Do Hospital in Binh Tan district, HCMC. The hospital has 320 beds, 21 clinical and subclinical specialties such as obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, surgery, cardiology, otolaryngology, ophthalmology, urology, cancer, hepatobiliary, digestion... Until June 2015, the hospital has announced to change their name and logo into City International Hospital (CIH).

At the beginning of 2016, the investors in the health sector continues to surprise when VOF Investment Fund (managed by VinaCapital) announced to takeover 75% stake in Thai Hoa International Hospital in Dong Thap province. The amount of money that VOF invested here is about 10 million USD.

According VOF, in the coming time, the Fund will continue to seek investment opportunities in the healthcare sector, including investment opportunities in equitized public hospitals if they feel attractive enough.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

India Interested in Vietnam’s Power and Renewable Energy Projects

  On November 2^nd 2016, the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam had a meeting with Indian Industry Federation, led by Mr. Naushad Forbes, President of the Federation and Chairman of Forbes Mashall Pvt Ltd, came to visit Vietnam.

According to Mr. Naushad Forbes, currently, Indian companies are investing and developing infrastructure and thermal power projects in Vietnam, such as Long Phu thermal power project and through the business forum of the two countries, the two sides are also interested in seeking opportunities to invest in Vietnam in the field of renewable energy, information technology, adaptation to climate change and many other areas.

Representatives of the enterprises under the Indian Industry Federation expressed their confidence in the political, economic and trade relationship of the two countries. They suggested that the two-way trade turnover currently stands at 5 billion USD are still low and not commensurate with the potential of the two countries. Furthermore, the Indian businesses also affirmed that they will do their best to promote investment cooperation, long-term trade between business communities of the two countries in the coming time.

Indian businesses desire the Government of Vietnam to support and remove difficulties for the joint project of the two countries in construction, transfer of technology in a number of hydropower plants, production and assembly car (a joint venture between Tata Group and TMT Group) and invest in pumping systems in urban to prevent flooding, pharmaceuticals, transport infrastructure...

According to Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, for many years, Vietnam is an investment destination of many large enterprises around the world. Despite the world economic recover slowly and uneven. Moreover, Vietnam economy has to face with difficulties coming from natural disasters and climate change, the economic growth in the first 9 months of 2016 rose by 6% and export still grew by 8%, while many economies’ export growth is low or negative.

In Vietnam, the Enterprise Law and the Investment Law (amended) are creating favorable business investment environment and the Government also has policy to develop 1 million businesses by 2020. In such conditions, the Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam will create favorable conditions for investors, both domestic and foreign so that Indian businesses will invest in Vietnam more, especially when Vietnam is a member of the 10 free trade agreements of the important areas in the world.

Deputy Prime Minister evaluated that the members of the Federation are strong India businesses, that are investing in the areas that Vietnam is prioritize the development such as energy, renewable energy, information technology... Deputy Prime Minister suggested that Indian businesses need to promote cooperation and investment in projects in the no. 7 electrical diagram of Vietnam, especially is to promote the Long Khanh Thermal Power Project. In addition, Indian companies can also participate in the value chains of Vietnam in the fields of textiles and footwear when the TPP agreement will take effect in the coming time.

Vietnam also encourage cooperation forms such as BOT, PPP and even franchised highway toll collection for foreign partners when meeting the necessary requirements; encouraging investment, transferring of technology, energy-saving machinery in automotive manufacturing, construction industry...

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Vietnam Technology Startup Attracts Foreign Enterprises

 Technology startup in Vietnam is increasingly attractive. Many foreign enterprises are interested in this area and showing their desire to set up business in Vietnam.

According to Mr Mitchell Pham, president of the New Zealand Technology Association (NZTech) - who is known to be the 1^st native of Vietnam elected to become the chairman of NZTech, representing for over 400 technology enterprises New Zealand: “All trip participants were impressed with the development of science and technology in Vietnam. We are looking for specific opportunities for cooperation with Vietnam-tech enterprise".

More information about the members of the delegation, Mr Mitchell Pham said that back to Vietnam this time, accompanied him are 6 young leaders of technology enterprises in New Zealand with a desire to learn and exchange with technology businesses in Vietnam, in order to create connection for long-term investment goals.

In terms of the favorable conditions, according to Mr Mitchell Pham, trade relations between New Zealand and Vietnam have the fastest growth rate in Southeast Asia with 120% in the period 2010 - 2015. Two-way trade of the two countries in 2015 has reached 1 billion USD.

Moreover, Vietnam is known as the country with the booming information technology market and the government is also trying to create more incentives for this sector. Meanwhile, technology businesses in New Zealand have experiences and large operating network, certainly the cooperation and investment in Vietnam will be intensified in the coming period.

According Chicilon Media, Vietnam technology market, especially Ho Chi Minh City is developing extremely powerful. Consumers is having trend to access to communication products and services via smartphones instead of traditional media such as TV, poster... Hence, this Company has strengthened their strategy focusing on channels to access information over the phone and access to a diverse range of partners such as the startup.

In parallel, the growth of mobile devices will continue in the coming years. Therefore, the approach to the users of mobile devices – who are moving to the final stage of the shopping journey and going to buy the product - becomes extremely important. Currently, marketing on mobile devices is evaluated as a simple marketing channels, rapid deployment and easy to access to customers.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Binh Duong Welcomed 1 Billion USD Project

  Many foreign corporations have chosen Vietnam to become their investment destination to set up business in Vietnam and the most recent project coming from a Korean investor. This is the project to produce tire and automobile airbags of Kolon Industries Corporation (Korea). This "super plant" will be located at Bau Bang Industrial Zone of Binh Duong province.

Mr Tran Thanh Liem - Chairman of Binh Duong Province has just signed a memorandum of understanding with leader of Kolon Industries Group (Korea) concerning the implementation of the plant to produce tire and automobile airbag with investment capital up to 1 billion USD. On this occasion, Becamex IDC Corporation has also announced that Kolon Industries leases from them nearly 42 hectares of land in Bau Bang Industrial Zone (Binh Duong province) to put the plant on.

According to Kolon Industries Corporation, after more than two years of searching and working with many units and localities in and outside the territory of Vietnam, the Corporation has selected the Bau Bang Industrial Park as the location to implement the project to produce tire and automobile air bag in Vietnam. The expected total investment capital of the project for all three phases is about 1 billion USD, in which the Phase 1 from 2017 to 2018 is 220 million USD, Phase 2 from 2018 to 2026 is 600 million USD and after that is the Phase 3.

Established since 1954, Kolon is one of Korea’s transnational corporations in multiple industries with high-tech products: tire, automobile air bag, film to use in electricity industry, electronics, fashion….

By the end of October 2016, Binh Duong has 2,818 investment projects from 59 countries and territories with a total capital of 25, 6 billion USD. In particular, Korea is the country ranks 3^rd with 594 projects and a total investment of nearly 2.4 billion USD.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of set up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam... to help you shorten the implementation time.

FDI Flows into Vietnam’s Geotechnical Engineering

  The need for strong development of infrastructure in Vietnam is attracting more and more foreign businesses in the geotechnical engineering industry to come and set up business in Vietnam.

Geonia, a leading corporation in Korea specializing in the production of high quality geotextile product (the fabric with permeability, when using to line in the soil, it is capable of separating, filtering, protecting, processing strengthening and water drainage), which are expected to achieve strong revenue in Vietnam market.

According to Geonia’s Chief Representative in Vietnam, the Government of Vietnam is promoting the construction of road and port infrastructures; therefore the demand for geotextile products is very huge. Vietnam has built a number of highways and Geonia has provided this product, with revenues of more than 5 million USD in 2014 and approximately 5 million USD in 2015. In the coming years, revenue can increase; even twice when many projects in Vietnam are performed.

At the 3^rd International Conference on Geotechnical took place recently in Hanoi, not just Geonia, there were nearly 50 other foreign companies participated and wanted to find out the business investment opportunities in Vietnam, through the establishment of partnerships, joint ventures and promoting the sale of geotechnical products in Vietnam market.

According to Sales Manager of ACE Geosynthetics Company (Taiwan), until the end of 2016, this Company will set up partnership with 5 enterprises in Vietnam, bringing the total number of partners to 18, although ACE Geosynthetics has not have official investment and trade activities in Vietnam. Currently, ACE Geosynthetics is the leading exporter of geothermal synthetic products in Asia.

ACE Geosynthetics could set up factory in Vietnam in the future. Last year, ACE Geosynthetics has achieved sales growth at 2 figures. In 2016 and 2017, ACE Geosynthetics also expect to achieve such results.

Meanwhile, according to Director of Sanshin Construction Corporation (Japan), Sanshin is considering setting up partnership with local business to implement a number of large infrastructure projects in Vietnam, beginning from 2017.

Since early of this year, Sanshin has partnered with Technical Link Construction Company (Vietnam) to implement a number of industrial infrastructure projects in the southern region. In the next year, these two enterprises will jointly implement a number of other similar projects.

Many construction enterprises from Japan are coming to Vietnam for the construction of infrastructure projects. Therefore, Sanshin also wants to expand its presence here to cooperate with Japanese companies.

According to construction experts, Vietnam is a country located in geographic areas with complex geological conditions; therefore the selection of foundation solutions for infrastructure is extremely important.

In the strategy to 2020, Vietnam will basically become an industrially developed towards modernization country, so the demand for infrastructure development, industrial development, urban development during this period is very large. In particular, the Government has been setting up special policies giving priority to infrastructure development in all industries and sectors. This is the opportunity for businesses and investors at home and abroad.

According to Vice President of International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, in Vietnam, in addition to forms of public transport in major urban centers, the economic development requires faster means of transportation over long distances. Therefore, high-speed rail and highways will soon become urgent needs. This shows that the demand for geotechnical engineering will increase in the very near future. This is the investment opportunity for many businesses.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of setting up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam... to help you shorten the implementation time.

Korean Corporation Wants to Build Racecourse in Vietnam

  Chairman of the Korea’s Horse Racing Corporation Mr Choi Hank Soo have just had a meeting with the People's Committee of Bac Ninh province (Vietnam) to explore opportunities for cooperation in this locality by setting up a business.

At the meeting, Mr Choi Hank Soo said that the purpose of this trip to Bac Ninh is to explore investment opportunities to build the racecourse and entertainment complex in Thuan Thanh district (Bac Ninh), with investment capital in the first phase reaches 500 million USD.

When the project goes into operation, it will form the kind of attractive sport and entertainment services for the community, creating jobs for 5,000 – 10,000 labors, making great contribution to the budget and contributing to the economic and social development of Bac Ninh province.

According to Chairman of Bac Ninh province, this highly feasible project has large-scale investment, under conditional business lines that require the approval of Vietnam Prime Minister. Provincial Leaders recommended the Korea Corporation to coordinate closely with the concerned departments to complete the procedures according to Vietnam law, submitting to the ministries and Prime Minister for approval.

Chairman of Bac Ninh province also committed that within 10 working days from the time receiving the approval of Prime Minister, this province will complete the legal formalities for the project to be implemented soon and put into operation in an effective way.

Reportedly, a project to build 27-hole golf course is being implemented in Thuan Thanh district (Bac Ninh).

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Thang Long II Industrial Zone (Under Pho Noi B Industrial Zone)

  Geographical location:

Located adjacent to Highway 5 (Hanoi - Hai Phong); 30 km from Hanoi, 70k m from Hai Phong port, 110km from Quang Ninh deep-water port.

Scale of land area:

345.2 hectares

In which: Stage 1: 219.6 hectares, 154 hectares of land area for rent

Stage 2: 125.6 hectares, 101 hectares of land area for rent.

Industrial zone technical infrastructure:

Stage 1:

Thang Long Industrial Zone II has completed the work of compensation, site clearance the whole land area of the industrial zone and has completed construction of technical infrastructure on an area of 154.4 hectares.

The system of internal road in the industrial zone, water supply and drainage systems, power supply, firefighting system, water supply plant with capacity of 4,500 m3/day and night and wastewater treatment plant with capacity of 3,000 m3/day and night have been completed and put into operation. Investors are actively investing in building infrastructure for the remaining part of the 65,3 hectares area.

Phase 2: In 2011, the Government has agreed to supplement Thang Long Industrial Zone II to the list of industrial zones that are expected to expand in 2015, with an area of 125.6 hectares. So far, investors are carrying out of compensation, site clearance and ground leveling to implement phase 2 according to the registered progress.

The sector attracting investment project:

Projects in the field of manufacturing of electronic products and precision engineering; the electronic engineering industry, transport machinery, light industry; industrial gas production.

Investment project attraction status:

By the end of 2012, industrial zone has received over 36 projects from Japan with a total investment of 1,040 million USD, including a number of projects with large-scale capital: the projects of Hoya Glass disk Company, Hamaden Company, Toyota, Kyocera Vietnam Co., Ltd... Currently, the total land area of Phase 1 is 106 hectares with occupancy rate of 70% of the land area which is capable for rent in phase 1 (106/154 hectares). In total registered projects, there are 21 projects went into operation, creating jobs for about 4,000 workers.

Owner of Thang Long II Industrial Zone:

Thang Long II Industrial Zone Co., Ltd

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

For more information, please contact ANT Consulting.

FDI in Real Estate Reached 1 Billion USD in 2016

  The area of real estate business attracted total FDI capital reached 1 billion USD in the first 9 months of 2016.

Foreign Investment Department (Ministry of Planning and Investment) has announced FDI report for the first 9 months of 2016. Accordingly, there were 1,820 newly licensed projects with total registered capital of 11.02 billion USD, increased by 1.1% over the same period. Meanwhile, there are 851 projects registered to adjust capital with the added value of 5.3 billion USD, decreased by 13.9% over the same period.

Generally in the first 9 months of 2016, total newly registered and additional capital reached 16.4 billion USD, decreased by 4.2% over the same period in 2015.

In 9 months, foreign investors have invested in 19 sectorsin which the field of processing industry, manufacturing is the sector attracting more attention of foreign investors with 767 new projects and 608 respectively adjust capital projects.

In 9 months, foreign investors have invested in 19 sectors, in which the field of processing industry and manufacturing are the sectors attracting more attention of foreign investors with 767 new projects and 608 projects register to adjust capital.

Total new and increasing capital to processing industry and manufacturing reached 12.15 billion USD, accounting for 73.9% of total registered capital in 9 months.

In particular, the field of real estate business ranks 2^nd with 34 newly registered projects, total capital reached 1 billion USD. The field of professional activities, science and technology ranks 3^rd with 649 million USD, accounting for 3.9% of total investment capital...

In the first 9 months of 2016, there are 65 countries and territories have investment projects in Vietnam. Korea leads the way with a total investment capital reached 5.58 billion USD. Singapore ranked 2^nd with total investment of 1.84 billion USD. Japan ranked 3^rd with total investment capital of 1.7 billion USD.

Foreign investors have invested in 54 provinces and cities in which Hai Phong attracted the most investment capital with 37 new projects and 28 projects register to adjust capital, corresponding to 2.74 billion USD. Followed by Hanoi and Dong Nai with total investment capital of 1.97 and 1.89 billion USD respectively.

Some large projects that are licensed in the first 9 months of 2016 including LG Display Hai Phong with total registered investment capital of 1.5 billion USD, invested by LG Display Co., Ltd (Korea). The goal of the project is producing and processing plastic OLED display products for mobile devices such as cell phones, smart watches, tablets.

LG Innotek plant project in Hai Phong with total registered investment capital of 550 million, invested by LG Innotek Co., Ltd. (Korea) with the goal of producing camera modules.

Amata City project in Long Thanh has a total investment of 309.3 million USD, invested by Thai investor with the goal of building service urban in Dong Nai.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Danang Resort Real Estate Is Growing Well

  Savills Vietnam has just published a report updating the situation of Danang real estate market in the first half of 2016. Accordingly, the segment of hotel, resort and villa continues to be exciting with the launch of many new projects as well as the presence of many famous brands in the world.

Specifically, according to Savills Vietnam, in the first half of 2016, the number of tourists coming to Da Nang has increased by 28% year on year, while domestic passenger traffic increased by 4% year on year.

Thanks to the flourishing of the tourism activity, only in the second quarter of 2016, the total number of 3 - 5 stars hotel in Danang increased by 4% quarter on quarter and 15% year on year. The average occupancy rate has also increased by 2% compared to the first quarter of 2016. The average room rate has increased by 6% over the same period in 2015.

Place these datas in the context of the tourism industry of some central provinces (from Ha Tinh to Thua Thien Hue), which are suffering heavy losses due to the environmental disaster caused by Formosa in the first months of 2016, it is clear that the attraction of Danang tourism is very good.

Also according to Savills, in the second half of 2016, 3 new projects in the hotel segment, which are expected to enter the market, will continue to provide about 1,320 rooms; including Crowne Plaza phase 2, Hilton Danang Hotel and Four Points under Sheraton. Since the third quarter of 2016 to 2018, it is expected to have 35 new projects entering the market.

For the resort villa segment, Danang is a pioneer in high-end coastal real estate segment and second (after Nha Trang) in total supply with 1,199 villas and 3,367 apartments. The surveys indicate that more than 80% of buyers coming from Hanoi, being attracted by diverse portfolio of products, complete infrastructure, tourism prospects, attractive sales policy as well as an image of Danang as a green, young and dynamic city.

We have to mention the successful projects such as Bana Hill, Ocean Villas, Hyatt Regency, Furama, Intercontinetal and Azura. Moreover, there are large-scale future projects that are Soleil Danang, Coco Bay, Da Phuoc, Han Riverside, Ariyana, Central Coast, Vinpearl Han River and Ocean Suites & Estates. The market is expecting a large supply of coastal apartments and villas.

According to Savills Vietnam, Danang provides investors benefits from the complete development of infrastructure and urban planning. While the northwest coastal areas have the advantages of natural landscapes to develop eco-tourism, the urban areas are developing towards becoming a center of trade, finance and education. In addition, the eastern coastal areas are marked for tourism and hotel industries; the southern of Danang is expected to develop tourism and a large urban area.

With the modified Real Estate Business Law, Housing Law and expanding the conditions for foreigners to own houses in Vietnam, the real estate market of Danang will certainly become more attractive and with sustainable development in the future.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Hong Kong Investment Funds Investing in Real Estate, Banking of Vietnam

  In the talks with Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on September 14^th 2016, representatives of corporations and large investment funds from Hong Kong have expressed their interest in investment opportunities in Vietnam.

Talking to Hong Kong enterprises, Government leaders said that Vietnam has amended the Law on Investment towards more open and transparent, creating stable investment environment, ensuring maximum property rights of investors and enterprises; conducting strong reform of administrative procedures in areas such as taxes, electronic customs clearance...

In the process of development, Vietnam hopes that foreign investors will invest in areas such as road transport, railway, waterway and other infrastructure. The Vietnam Prime Minister also noted that investors in the process of production and business should pay attention to ensure the livelihood and skills training of employees; compliance with laws and regulations regarding environment protection in Vietnam.

Highly appreciated the solutions and policies of Vietnam Government, Dr. Jonathan Choi - Sunwah Group Chairman, who is also a permanent Honorary President of China Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said that investors in Hong Kong are very interested in the stable investment environment and respecting the development of private sector in Vietnam. The investment sectors that are interested by Hong Kong’s large enterprises and investment funds are energy, healthcare, real estate, finance and banking.

Speaking in front of 300 investors attending the Hong Kong - Vietnam Business & Investment Forum, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Vietnam will become one of the largest trading partners of China in ASEAN. In 2016, the bilateral trade turnover between the two countries could reach 100 billion USD.

Also at the forum, Head of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region stated that the Government here will continue to open the door and strongly supporting Vietnam enterprises to penetrate the Hong Kong and Chinese domestic markets.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

16 Billion USD of FDI Capital into Vietnam

  According to the data from the Foreign Investment Department, total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first 9 months of 2016 reached 16.43 billion USD, equivalent to 95.8% compared to the same period of 2015.

As of September 20^th 2016, there were 1,820 new projects were granted the investment registration certificates with total registered capital of 11.165 billion USD, increased by 1.1% from the same period in 2015.

Along with that, there are 851 projects registered to adjust capital, with total additional capital reached 5.265 billion USD, equivalent to 86.1% over the same period in 2015.

Meanwhile, till September 20^th 2016, it is estimated that the FDI projects have disbursed 11.02 billion USD, increased by 12.4% over the same period in 2015.

Also according to the report of the Foreign Investment Department, in the first 9 months of 2016, foreign investors have invested in 19 sectors, in which the processing and manufacturing sectors are the sectors that attracting more attention of foreign investors with 767 new investment projects and 608 projects register to adjust capital, the total new and additional capital reached 12.15 billion USD, accounting for 73.9% of total registered investment capital within 9 months.

The real estate business sector ranks the 2^nd with 34 new projects with the total new and additional capital reached 1 billion USD, accounting for 6.1% of total registered capital. Fields of professional activities, science and technology rank the 3^rd with 649 million USD, accounting for 3.9% of total investment capital.

In the first 9 months of 2016, there are 65 countries and territories have investment projects in Vietnam. In particular, Korean investors led with a total investment capital reached 5.58 billion USD, accounting for 34% of total investment capital in Vietnam.

Singapore ranked 2^nd with total investment capital reached 1.84 billion USD, accounting for 11.2% of total registered capital. Japan ranked 3^rd with total investment capital reached 1.7 billion USD, accounting for 10.3% of total investment capital.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of setting up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam... to help you shorten the implementation time.

French Businesses Build Earth Observation Station in Vietnam

   French companies will exploit highway and building earth observation station in Vietnam. Moreover, many important cooperation agreements in the economic field have been signed this morning with the witness of heads of two countries.

On the sidelines of the talk between President Tran Dai Quang and President of France - Francois Hollande on September 6^th 2016, representatives of FPT Joint Stock Company and Telespazio France (France’s leading company in the field of satellite system management and exploiting) have signed cooperation agreements with many important commitments.

Accordingly, the two sides will jointly collect and handle the data related to sea and land environmental monitoring, which are obtained from satellites and other facilities in order to create products and services on the platform of cloud computing. FPT and Telespazio France will also look towards the establishment of an EarthLab center in Vietnam, which is an Earth observation center from satellite. If established, this will be the 4^th EarthLab center of Telespazio France in the world after France, the Republic of Gabon and Luxembourg.

A memorandum on the concession of exploitation right of the two projects Cau Gie - Ninh Binh and Long Thanh - Dau Giay is also signed between Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) and Vinci Concessions Corporation (France). In addition to the concession of exploitation right of the two above highways, the two partners will also exchange experiences, consider opportunities for technology transfer, management, operation and exploiting of the highway. At the same time, both parties will jointly research, develop and propose plan to invest in new highway projects in Vietnam in the future.

Also on September 6^th, 3 airlines of Vietnam that are Jetstar Pacific, Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air have also signed with Airbus – French aviation corporation the deals worth 6.5 billion USD for the purchase of aircraft.

Earlier, in Quang Ninh Province, Linagora Company (France) and Hanel DTT Company have signed cooperation memorandum on e-government development, training human resources on software at the localities. On the basis of technology platform and experience of Linagora, this company will cooperate with DTT Hanel to support Quang Ninh province evaluate e-government model, consulting on solutions to improve operational efficiency of this system; as well as help Quang Ninh to build e-mail system with more than 20,000 users and the international tourism and foreign affair portals.

Do not just stop at the building of e-government, the two parties also towards building an information-based urban based on open source platform of Vietnam and France.

The above activities took place within the framework of the visit of President Francois Hollande. He was the 3^rd President of France to visit Vietnam after the visit of President François Mitterrand in 1993 and President Jacques Chirac in 1997 and 2004.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Forbes: Vietnam is Becoming Economic Tiger of Asia

  The website of Forbes has recently published the article of author Ed Fuller with the title "Vietnam is ready to become the next economic tiger of Asia."

Like South Korea, Taiwan and China, Vietnam is having many base advantages.

According to the economic report till August of 2016, foreign direct investment (FDI) into Vietnam has reached a record level in 2015 and this year could be higher. Only the first half of 2016, FDI into Vietnam reached 11.3 billion USD, increased by 105% over the same period last year although in the context of the global economy is moving very slowly.

Since 1990, the average economic growth of Vietnam reached 7% per year, just behind China. This growth has brought Vietnam from a poor country into the country with average income level of the world. If Vietnam continues to keep the growth rate of 7% per years in the next 10 years, the Vietnam economy will grow just like China and many other economic tigers in Asia.

Vietnam now has more than 92 million people, mostly young (average age is 30.7 years old) and skilled. Moreover, the spending from the national budget for education is around 6.3% of GDP, higher than the average of most low and middle income countries. In the global rankings, 15-year-old children of Vietnam have regularly defeated children in the United States and Britain in math and science competitions. This is an advantage for the factory in Vietnam that requiring workers to have the ability to operate complicated machinery.

Another positive point is the advantage of geographical location, while Vietnam has the border with China, becoming a competitive advantage compared to other countries when Vietnam is closer to the production centers in Southern China with the transportation system connected by road and sea. Furthermore, the rising price of labor wages in China makes Vietnam becoming alternative destination for businesses to move their factory to locations where costs are lower.

Simultaneously, Vietnam is a member of various trade agreements. According to The Economist, Vietnam will be the greatest beneficiary of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP - an agreement of 12 countries including the US and Japan). Moreover, Vietnam also signed other trade agreements with the EU and South Korea.

Besides, nowadays, tourism is playing an increasingly important role in the development of Vietnam. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), in 2015, tourism has contributed more than 16 billion USD to the Vietnam's economy, equivalent to about 9.3% of GDP.

With the goal of attracting 55 million tourists (both domestic and foreign) each year until 2030, Vietnam has announced the visa exemption policy for visitors from 22 countries in Europe and Asia, including the UK, France, Germany, Russia and 9 ASEAN member countries.

Also, a lot of infrastructure and major transport projects have been planned to implement in the next 15 years, including 7 new tourism development areas, the Hai Phong, Quang Ninh waterways and the railway connecting to China's Yunnan province. Simultaneously, the upgrading of infrastructure in the area is expected to go further, thanks to a series of bilateral agreements that have been signed with Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar to realize joint tourism initiatives.

Analysts have predicted that the supply of hotel rooms will increase in the next 3 years. The CBRE real estate consulting firm has forecasted that the number of hotel rooms in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi will grow by 8% per year until 2018. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) also forecasted that the growth rate of the industry will be 6.2% annually over the next decade, creating more jobs and increasing tourism directly of about 2% per year until 2025 .

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

German Enterprises Seeking Investment Opportunities in HCM City

  At a meeting between the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and the German Business Association (GBA), Mr Jens Ruebbert - Chairman of GBA said that Vietnam is an attractive destination for investment and business activities of foreign investors, including German businesses.

Go along with Mr. Jens Ruebbert attending this meeting, there are more than 70 German enterprises operating in various fields, wishing to expand investment and trading activities in a number of potential areas such as automobile, production, communication, finance, insurance...

With advanced professional qualifications and also experiences, German enterprises are expected to seek investment and trading opportunities, bringing practical benefits for both sides of the business community, as well as both countries.

Germany is one of the major and efficient partners of Vietnam in the field of education and training, science and technology... It is possible to mention some of their projects that have been implementing in Vietnam as Vietnamese-German University; Construction of Phu Lac 1 wind power plant worth 35 million Euros; No. 2 metro line in HCMC worth 240 million Euros or the project to improve energy efficiency in rural areas worth 120 million Euros...

According to the leader of HCMC, the relation between Vietnam and Germany are increasingly strengthened and is developing in various fields such as political, economic, commerce and education...

Germany is one of the important partners of Vietnam in the European Union. Therefore, Vietnam in general and HCMC in particular, wish to promote cooperation in the field of urban transport, health, education...

Until 2020, the two-way exchange trade turnover target between Vietnam and Germany will reach 15 billion to 20 billion USD.

Therefore, in order to create favorable conditions to help German businesses reaching and searching for investment and trading opportunities with Vietnam partners, the Department of Planning and Investment of HCMC has published information on economic and social development orientation of the city from 2016 to 2017.

Besides, the city also introduced several measures to boost production and trading, in order to remove difficulties for enterprises, improve the investment environment to attract human resources at home and abroad such as enhancing trade promotion, expanding the market by concentrating in investment sectors that are encouraged by the city.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of setting up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam... to help you shorten the implementation time.

Benefits of Setting Up Company in Ho Chi Minh City

  Ho Chi Minh City is considered as Vietnam's economic hub. During the long history of foundation and development, the city's economy is growing constantly and motivating the development of the country.

The city is therefore considered as a potential investment environment for domestic investors as well as foreign investors. The investment through establishing companies and conducting business activities in Ho Chi Minh city certainly promises to achieve multiple benefits. These benefits come from the following reasons.

First, Ho Chi Minh City has strategic location advantage in Vietnam. Southeast Asia Region, Ho Chi Minh City is 1,700 km south of Hanoi, 297 km east of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 881 km east of Bangkok, Thailand.

Food, glass, textiles, paper products, plastics, chemicals, building materials and machinery are produced here. Ho Chi Minh City accounts for 20% of total gross domestic product (GDP), 30% of industrial production and 40% of export products of Vietnam. The city also accounts for 33% of the national budget and 60% of foreign investment flows into the region. In the past few years, the economy have been grown at a rate greater than 10% (6% to 8% nationally).

Second, Ho Chi Minh City is home of  well – qualified, abundant and young human resources.

With a population of more than 8 million, accounting for more than 10% of the total Vietnamese population, Ho Chi Minh City itself has potential employment market to make any business investment. The work force in Ho Chi Minh City was estimated to reach 4.7 million people in 2012, making up more than 50% of the total population of the city. The percentage of trained labor increased from 40% in 2005 to 55% in 2010 and was forecast to reach 70% in 2015. The percentage of labor source holding postgraduate degree is also increasing year by year and most of them tend to stay in the city after holding degrees. Ho Chi Minh City is also home to more than 80 universities and colleges, vocational schools with over 400,000 students providing an abundant trained work force.

With the above – mentioned abundant labor force, any companies set up in Ho Chi Minh City can easily recruit suitable employees in a short time..

Third, the city has modern and high infrastructure system. Namely, when setting up company in Ho Chi Minh City, the owners will benefit from the modern and comprehensive infrastructure system.

Tan Son Nhat Airport is the largest airport in the country with the capacity to accommodate 20 million people a year. From Tan Son Nhat Airport, there are 50 routes to other countries all over the world such as China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, European countries, etc.

Saigon Port serves as a gateway to the Mekong River Delta, the South China Sea (83 km away from the sea) and the Asia continent. The port has a total area of 500,000 m² with 5 terminals meeting the international standards, and it handles about 8.3 million tons of cargo annually. Throughout the history of foundation and development of Saigon, Saigon Port plays an important role in making Ho Chi Minh City a flourishing trading center. It accounts for a fifth of the nation's Gross Domestic Product and almost a third of its industrial production.

Ho Chi Minh City is also home to industrial zones. According to the statistics of Cushman & Wakefield, the city has 18 industrial parks that are operating with a total area of 3635 ha. When investing in such industrial zones in Vietnam, enterprises can benefit from various incentive policies such as low rate tax or other incentive policies.

Telecommunication and information technology in the city is modern. The system of post and telecommunication in Ho Chi Minh meets international standard, providing fast, reliable and high quality services such as ADSL, rapid data transfer, wide broadband MAN. The Internet service in Ho Chi Minh city is also among the cheapest in the world.

Besides, the city is also considered the best working conditions. Enterprise will not be fear that it is not enough place for working. The city with the system of offices provide ideal working environment for all investors.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Vietnam Aviation Outlook in 2016

  Vietnam aviation market is growing fast with fierce competition. Although the growth rate reaches 20% in the first quarter of 2016, the airport infrastructure systems are not fully meet the demand.

Currently Vietnam Airlines (VNA) is at the last stage of the equitization process. Therefore, when the largest airline company of Vietnam finishes their equitization process, the majority of enterprises in this industry are joint stock companies.

Currently, Vietnam aviation industry has 137 aircraft teams with very young age (less than 6 years old) and the aircraft team is forecasted to increase rapidly in the coming time.

Domestic aviation market is increasingly fierce competition as VietJet Air has 31 aircrafts and VNA has 88 aircrafts, which are mainly serve domestic flights. However, while VietJet already accounts for 37% of the market, the market share of VNA fell below 50%. Accordingly, the competition in the domestic market is very fierce.

Furthermore, there are 53 foreign airlines joined with 3 domestic airlines. Accordingly, there are 48 domestic fly routes and 98 international fly routes, which are growing very fast with growth rate of more than 20% in the first quarter of 2016. Particularly Tan Son Nhat Airport has the strongest growth when accounting for 50% of market share.

The strong development of the aircraft teams have been identified as a huge pressure on the existing airport system. In a recent report on flight congestion, in the Lunar New Year period when travel demand increases, the congestion was limited. However, after the Lunar New Year period until now, the situation of delayed, canceled flights and congestion at the airport occurred more often due to unfavorable weather conditions.

Currently, Tan Son Nhat International Airport is under pressure to increase the load until the Long Thanh Airport goes into operation, which is expected until 2025. Moreover, the Department of Civil Aviation has set the direction and submitted to the Government by trying to bring Tan Son Nhat Airport to the design capacity of 40 million passengers/year, while relocating the whole military flight operations out of this airport.

In addition, other key projects are also being carried out according to plan. Among them, Da Nang Airport could be put into service for the Apec Conference in 2017; Cat Bi Airport is trying to put into operation before March 13th and Cam Ranh Airport is still deploying the construction of the 2nd runway.

For airports in the northwest area, currently there are many investors interested in the Lao Cai Airport project in the form of socialization. Lai Chau Airport is proposing to the Department of Defense to switch to civil airport; Na San Airport would like to retain the airport by the budget of the Ministry of Defense; Dien Bien Airport will organize study to rotate the shaft.

To overcome the congestion, delayed or canceled flights, the operating capability at airports and the training of air traffic control have been enhanced. At the same time, the Department of Civil Aviation has begun to send officials to pilot school in order to save the State budget for the rental of flight inspection as well as enhanced flight safety.

Ba Ria - Vung Tau Attracts Investment to Build Logistics Center

  In order to promote the development of seaports, Ba Ria - Vung Tau is calling for investors in the field of logistics to come and build logistics centers.

Being the only deep-water port in Vietnam, in the near future, Cai Mep - Thi Vai port will be planned to become the national southern gateway port.

This will be a large center of regional ports. However, the operation of logistics enterprises in Ba Ria - Vung Tau is quite discrete, not yet being organized into a unified network.

The operation of the logistics service centers will bring more sources of goods to the port. This reciprocal relationship is not only creating incentives for the South East region to develop, but also generating revenues from the export activities.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Hanoi Ranks the 3rd in Attracting Foreign Investment

  This is the information published by the Department of Planning and Investment

Accordingly, the situation of industrial production in the first 8 months of 2016 in Hanoi is relatively stable with positive growth rate.

In particular, attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) increased, accrued to the date of August 30^th 2016 reached 374 FDI projects (including 256 new projects and 118 projects that increase the capital). The total registered capital reached 2079.37 million USD, exceeding the target of 2016.

Currently in the city there are 3,686 valid projects with the total registered capital of 24.07 billion USD from 72 countries, regions and Hanoi now also ranks the 3^rd in attracting FDI in the whole country.

According to the city leaders, the city will greatly improve the investment environment, promote production and business activities, use the public investment capital effectively...

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Resort Real Estate Segment Flourishes with New Projects

  2016 is identified as a good year for the resort real estate segment with a series of new launching projects to attract the attention of both investors and consumers. In particular, the real estate projects located in the sea area are attractive to consumers who want to own a second home to serve the needs of pleasure. From the end of 2015, there were many resort real estate projects that are introduced to the market.

According to statistics, the sales volume of apartment and villa are very good, with 70-80% of the launched units were ordered. The amount of people interested in the projects and decide to buy is increasing, thanks to the incentive sales policy, profit commitments from investors, support for preferential interest loans from the cooperative banks with the investor and can use the house for free for a certain period.

Many wealthy families share that they would like to own a coastal apartment or villa because the demand for resort tourism is increasing sharply. Moreover, foreign investors see that resort real estate segment in Vietnam is rich in potential with many famous tourist resorts and long beautiful beaches. The loosening policy allows foreigners to buy and own real estate in Vietnam is also a positive move to promote the demand of many investors jumping into this playground although there are still many difficulties in policy implementation

Currently, many domestic enterprises began to invest into the resort real estate segment, which is an inevitable trend of the market. For about 10 recent years, resort real estate has been formed and attracted the attention of investors. Some domestic investors have experienced successfully in other segments also expanded into this segment. Most of the projects are in the luxury and high-end segments such as beach villa. On the other hand, according to experts, if we can build resort real estate products at a reasonable price, the liquidity will be very good.

Vietnam has the potential for tourism therefore resort real estate is a good investment channel. Investing in an area with great potential for tourism and large amount of passenger traffic would have faster payback than the places that tourism does not develop. At the present, Vietnam has a lot of large investors as Vingroup and Sungroup... are capable to invest in large-scale resort projects. At the same time, the market is also attracting a lot of foreign investors with good financial capability and ability to invest quickly.

Currently the coastal cities like Da Nang, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc are 3 hotspots in attracting capital investments in resort real estate segment. In terms of location, these coastal cities have the potential to attract investors the most because they are also the famous tourist destination that attracting millions of tourists each year.

2016 is the year of resort real estate segment. The projects in this segment stretch from the sea to the mountain and Sapa is a typical example. Many large investors as Vingroup or Sun Group have been implementing major investment projects here.

Only in 2015, Sa Pa tourism has welcomed nearly 2 million passengers, increased by 42.2% compared with 2014. Currently, the number of tourists visiting Sapa is large and has always had a tendency to increase. While the demand for luxury resort services continues to rise, the supply is limited. Hence, this is a good opportunity to develop the resort real estate segment in this dreamy mountain city.

Resort real estate has opportunity to develop rapidly thanks to the development in transport infrastructure such as airport, highway and cable car system... allowing the movement of tourists to be convenient and easy.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

M&A Activities in Vietnam in Recent Years

  Vietnam's population is more than 90 million people so that foreign investors are looking at Vietnam as a fertile ground to expand their market by M&A deals.

Accordingly, along with the process of restructuring the economy and international integration of Vietnam, in recent years, merger and acquisition (M&A) activities have been fairly active, in which many major transactions involving Thai enterprises.

In 2009, the total value of M&A transactions in Vietnam reached 1 billion USD then in 2015, the number is 5 billion USD. Particularly for the first 6 months of 2016, the value of M&A in Vietnam has exceeded 3 billion USD, in which it took place in such sectors as retail, commodities and real estate...

Thailand, Japan and Singapore are still the major buyers in Vietnam market. While Japan invests in companies in aviation, petroleum and pharmaceutical sectors, Singapore emerges with commercial real estate projects. Lastly, Thailand continues to focus on the retail segment with the goal of expanding the market.

Head of M&A transactions last year is the retail sector and consumer goods, accounting for 38.46% of the total value. In particular, the scale of 2 M&A deals from Thailand accounted for 24.8% of the total value of 2015 and the first half of 2016. This shows the trend that retail businesses at home and abroad continue to explore the market with more than 90 million people of Vietnam. Recently, Thailand's major corporations continuously acquired large supermarket chains such as Metro, Big C...  Singha has also become a strategic partner of Masan with investment value of 1.1 billion USD.

According to experts, there is a great competition in the business sector of Thailand and Japan when investing in Vietnam because Vietnam market has now fully matured and become more attractive. On the other hand, the market of Thailand and Japan has begun to saturate.

Especially, there is a wave of M&A of Thai investors in Vietnam in order to expand the market for the “Made in Thailand” products. While Thailand's population is about 50 million, the size of Vietnam's population is almost double - over 90 million people.

With many innovations in policy such as the Investment Law and the Enterprise Law, the process of international integration will create opportunities and new playing field for the M&A transactions to boom.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of set up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam... to help you shorten the implementation time.