Tourism experts of Vietnam and Japan compared notes on measures to handle tourist overload and build satellite destinations, towards the development of a more sustainable tourism for Vietnam, at in international seminar in Hanoi on October 23. Paravicini, for his part, said his working trip aims to step up Switzerland's economic development programme for Vietnam through activities that enhance financial transparency and accountability. They have also created favourable conditions for citizens of the two countries to cross the border, and promote investment, trade, and tourism activities. Wagner told his guest that the Supreme Court of Canada wants to strengthen cooperation and share experience with Vietnam, adding that Canada also expects to step up judicial collaboration with Vietnam. She also expressed her wish to further deepen ties with Vietnam in all areas, including politics-diplomacy, national defence-security, trade and economy, education and judicial affairs.

Including bad debts that commercial banks sold to the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) and have not yet been recovered, the bad debt ratio rose to 6.16 per cent. This bad debt ratio includes the debts of five banks: SCB, Dong A Bank, CBBank, OceanBank, and GPBank, which are under the SBV’s special control. Excluding these five banks, the bad debt ratio stood at 1.92 per cent. Notably, the bad debt ratio in the real estate sector rose from 1.8 per cent in July 2022 to 2.58 per cent in July 2023. Some bank leaders believe the bad debt ratio will peak in the third quarter of this year and start to gradually decrease from the beginning of the next year.

Hanoi (VNA) - Powerlifter Le Van Cong on October 23 won the first medal for Vietnam at the ongoing 4th Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China. In the men's under-49kg category, Cong failed to lift 170kg in his first attempt. Powerlifter Le Van Cong (Photo: VNA)As a result, Cong won a bronze medal. Meanwhile, the silver medal went to Al-Sudani Muslim, and the gold in this category event was claimed by Paralympic champion Omar Qarada of Jordan who successfully lifted 182kg. As of 12:30 p.m. on October 23, Vietnam ranked 13th in the medal ranking at the event.

HÀ NỘI — The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) will continually issue new bills to withdraw cash from the banking system in the context that liquidity is abundant and interbank interest rates remain low, analysts forecast. This will stimulate dollar speculation and put pressure on the foreign exchange rate. Three scenariosKBSV’s analysts have outlined three scenarios for the SBV’s bill issue, corresponding to different foreign exchange rate zones. Nevertheless, Hà acknowledged the intricacy of the SBV's task, given the intricate relationship between interest rates and foreign exchange rates. On October 19, the dollar rate at commercial banks saw a significant surge, notably exceeding the VNĐ24,700 threshold.

Among the honored enterprises, AES Mong Duong stood out as a model of tax compliance and contributions to the state budget. Since beginning commercial operations in 2015, Mong Duong 2 Thermal Power Plant has always fulfilled its tax obligations to the state budget. In the period from 2020 to 2022, despite being affected by Covid-19, AES Mong Duong contributed more than VND2.1 trillion to the state budget and has constantly complied with tax regulations according to Vietnamese law. AES, through its subsidiary, AES Mong Duong Power Company Limited, has successfully developed and arranged financing for the Mong Duong 2 Power Project of 1,242 MW with total investment of approximately $2.1 billion. For more information, visit: www.aes-vietnam.comAbout AESThe AES Corporation (NYSE: AES) is a Fortune 500 global energy company accelerating the future of energy.

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese airlines registered an on-time performance (OTP) of 85 per cent in January – September, lower than the 87.8 per cent rate in the same period last year, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Việt Nam. Bamboo Airways posted the best OTP of 92.4 per cent with 30,068 on-time flights. The rate of VASCO was 92 per cent, Vietravel Airlines 87.1 per cent, Vietnam Airlines 86.6 per cent, Pacific Airlines 14.2 per cent and VietJet 81.3 per cent. Nearly 221,200 flights were conducted in January – September, including 83,933 flights of VietJet, 79,234 flights of Vietnam Airlines and 32,538 flights of Bamboo Airways. International passengers rose by 300.2 per cent to 11.5 million, while domestic passengers fell by 3.6 per cent to 32.6 million.

HÀ NỘI Foreign investors' net selling was VNĐ4.6 trillion in September, the sixth consecutive month of net selling by foreign investors on the Vietnamese stock market, according to the State Securities Commission (SSC). In the first nine months of 2023, foreign investors net sold VNĐ11.46 trillion. Among them, there are 394 stock codes listed on HOSE, down six codes compared to September 2022; 330 codes on HNX, down 11 codes. Of these, domestic investors account for 7.8 million accounts (individual accounts over 7.76 million; institutional accounts over 15,700 accounts); foreign investors have 44,700 accounts (40,200 individuals and 4,506 institutional accounts). Domestic individual investors currently account for 99.2 per cent of accounts.

Responding to PM Chinh's invitation, the Lao PM said he will visit Vietnam soon and co-chair the 46th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-Governmental Committee in Vietnam. The run is an annual fundraising event organized by the British Chamber of Commerce Vietnam (BritCham Vietnam) in support of various charity projects throughout the country. Nguyễn Trung Dũng, deputy general director of Casper Việt Nam, said: “Casper Việt Nam is honoured to be a key sponsor for the National Cup 2023-24. Talking about future cooperation, Thức said Việt Nam asked Germany to continue their support for Việt Nam in the future. Australia cooperates with Vietnam to promote gender equalityOn the occasion of the 93rd Vietnam Women’s Day (October 20, 1930-2023) and the 50th anniversary of Vietnam - Australia diplomatic relations (1973-2023), Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrew Goledzinowski reviewed the fruitful partnership on gender equality with Vietnam over the past time in an article.

Still no further development has been heard these days on the proposed Kapet Reservoir. The forest means life for humans, a backbone of the economy, and the survival of a country. When he was alive, Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đồng used to stress the importance of protecting the forest: "Losing forest means losing soil. Losing forest means losing water. Losing forest means losing your country," he said.

Particularly, the number of orders from China is higher than the same period last year. Other key markets such as Japan, the EU, and the US have also shown signs of order recovery. The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers said in September, Vietnam’s aquatic exports reached 862 million USD, equivalent to that in the same period last year. The recovery was seen in the US, China and the EU markets with a year-on-year increase of between 4 and 17%. In the first nine months of this year, the export revenue of shrimp was 2.55 billion USD, a year-on-year decline of 25%.

Mohammed bin Salman, for his part, affirmed that Vietnam is a leading partner of Saudi Arabia in Southeast Asia, expressing his hope that his country will accompany Vietnam in the future. The UAE President affirmed the priority to elevating comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam to new heights, adding that he will instruct the country's investment funds to actively explore opportunities in Vietnam. Al Said said the Omani Government attaches importance to furthering cooperation with Vietnam, especially in economy and investment. He proposed cooperation in digital economy based on the three pillars of digital institutions, digital infrastructure, and digital human resources. Exhibition introduces Vietnam’s 17 Faces of Action for Sustainable DevelopmentAn exhibition named “17 Faces of Action of Vietnam for Sustainable Development” opened at the Vietnam Women’s Museum on October 20.

The Ministry of Finance reported more than 14.8 billion USD was disbursed in January-September, or over 51% of the plan. The Vietnamese Government always considers public investment disbursement to be among key solutions to achieve economic growth. However, the disbursement rates remained sluggish in many ministries, agencies and localities due to the lack of accountability and bottlenecks in bidding and investment procedures. According to the insiders, it is crucial to improve the legal system to ensure the disbursement must go along with quality and efficiency. Administrative reforms and application of information technology should be promoted to speed up the handling of public investment procedures./.

A notable 63 per cent of surveyed businesses positioned Việt Nam within their top 10 FDI destinations, EuroCham said. Few countries have emerged from the global pandemic as strong as Việt Nam has, and we are excited for our guests to see and hear that the opportunities for investing here are as abundant as ever.”Recently UK company Essentra Components announced plans to invest in Việt Nam. Major corporations such as Apple and LEGO have already begun building primary production facilities in Việt Nam at a cost of billions of dollars. Công Thương newspaper (Vietnam Economic News) quoted Nguyễn Văn Dòng, chairman of the Việt Nam Printing Association, as saying Việt Nam is an attractive destination for foreign investors, and many delegations from China and Thailand have been visiting to explore investment opportunities. Industrial property marketWith international investors flocking to the country, the demand for industrial land has been rising.

LÂM ĐỒNG — On the birth certificates of more than 200 children in the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng, there is a blank space where the names of their fathers should be. Among 201 children with no fathers on their birth certificates in 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, there are 44 cases from Tu Tra Commune. Most cases of children whose fathers cannot be identified were in ethnic minority areas. Nguyễn Mai Quân is in charge of maternal care for child marriage women at Tu Tra Commune Health Station. He said in 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, three cases of child marriage were discovered in the area.

HÀ NỘI - Việt Nam's draft Land Law currently does not have a land reserve for tourism development, making life difficult for investors and at times, pressuring them to purchase land at significantly higher prices, said industry experts and policymakers at a tourism property conference Thursday in Hà Nội. It has resulted in local authorities reclaiming and awarding plots of land to tourism developers without a clear governing legal framework. The consequences have started to show since 2019 when legal issues arose in tourism projects across the country. "In order to unleash the potential of tourism as a key economic driver, it's time the Government provided specific provisions for designated land for tourism development," he said. He said if localities had identified tourism as a key local economic engine, then tourism projects should be granted their appropriate standing among the socio-economic development priorities.