Ride-hailing sector competition throwing sparksThe race for market share in the Vietnamese ride-hailing sector has just entered a new phase with the arrival of big players like Go-Jek, Aber, and MVL. Igniting a new raceAccording to newswire DealStreetAsia, Go-Jek will initially offer ride-hailing services in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and the Philippines, with plans to add additional services later. In Vietnam, Go-Jek selects Go-Viet as its partner to invest in technology and professional training. Once Go-Jek officially starts operations in Vietnam, it is expected to become a heavyweight in the ride-hailing market. According to the report of Temasek (Singapore), the Southeast Asian ride-hailing market will be valued at $20 billion in 2025, seven times higher than the existing value.

Painting by Vietnamese artist sold for record priceA silk painting by Vietnamese master artist Nguyen Phan Chanh (1892-1984), one of the leading painters of Vietnamese contemporary fine arts, was sold at over US$853,000 (HKD$6.7 million) at an auction by Christie’s Hong Kong on Sunday. Child with Bird, silk, 1931, by Nguyen Phan Chanh, has just been sold at over US$853,000. This is the highest price for a painting by any Vietnamese artist sold by the auction house and in the world. On May 26, another painting by the same artist, The Snail Seller, was sold for US$600,000 (HKD$4.66 million) at Christie’s Hong Kong. He tried his hand at silk painting with the encouragement of his college rector, Victor Tardieu (1870-1937).

HCMC police arrest suspect in theft of diplomat’s necklaceThe HCM City police announced Sunday evening that they have arrested a man suspected of snatching a necklace from a Russian diplomat three months ago. Vo Ngoc Phi was arrested on Sunday for allegedly snatching a necklace from a Russian diplomat in HCM City. - Photo courtesy of HCM City Policebrowser not support iframe. Long An Province resident Vo Ngoc Phi, 27, was taken into custody for allegedly snatching a necklace from Dmitrii Alekseev on January 17, 2018. The police released the clip to the public last Friday and arrested the suspect two days later.

Sugar producers seek help against corn syrup importsA group of sugar producers has asked for Government intervention as the industry struggles to compete with corn syrup imports. The Vietnam Sugarcane and Sugar Association (VSSA) asked the Government to intervene in adjusting tax incentive policies on imported High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), or liquid sugar extracted from corn, to create a fair playing ground with locally-produced sugarcane products.The association also asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to consider investigating the possibility of applying special safeguard methods on HFCS.The recommendations were released as sugarcane businesses face challenges in the level of consumption of local sugar products as well as pressure from competition posed by increasing imports of HFCS products into the country, which they say cause serious damage to the domestic sugar industry.According to a report from the Vietnam General Department of Customs, the volume of imported HFCS dramatically accelerated between 2015 and 2017, with imports in 2017 totalling 89,343 tonnes, up 31.7 percent from 2015.These were mainly imports from China and the Republic of Korea, representing more than 90 percent of total output and import value.HFCS is much cheaper than local sugar, and prices are expected to decline further due to improvements in production technology. In 2015, the price of white sugar was 630 USD per tonne compared to 496 USD per tonne of HFCS. In 2017, it was 702 USD and 398 USD per tonne of sugar and HFCS, respectively.The difference between the average selling price of HFCS and sugar has remained high through recent years, increasing by 21.26 percent in 2015, 36.63 percent in 2016 and 43.3 percent in 2017.VSSA Chairman Pham Quoc Doanh said given this difference in prices, HFCS poses a major challenge to the domestic sugarcane industry.Doanh said HFCS enjoyed a preferential import tax rate of zero percent and no quota impositions, while preferential tariffs on sugar under quota stood at 5 percent, and tariffs on non-quota white sugar and raw sugar were 85 percent and 80 percent, respectively.In addition to damaging sugar production in the country, he said the inconsistent application of tax policies between sugar and HFCS products has caused damage to the State budget.“If HFCS is seen as similar to sugar made from sugarcane, the import tax rate should be similar, not discriminatory,” Doanh said. “The level of incentive import duty imposed on HFCS must be at the level applied on sugar.”-VNA

HCM City: will $5 billion drive floods away? Money has gone, but floods have stayedHCMC has spent trillions of dong to implement many large projects and hundreds of small projects to prevent floods. In the last few years, the money was used to implement anti-flood projects in the central area, 550 square kilometers large. However, the municipal authorities still said it needed VND73.379 trillion more to implement anti-flood projects under Program 752 and Program 1547. In the last few years, the money was used to implement anti-flood projects in the central area, 550 square kilometers large.

Will foreigners be allowed to buy condotels? VietNamNet Bridge - Some experts have proposed allowing foreigners to buy condotels in Vietnam to attract the foreign cash flow. The HCMC Real Estate Association, has sent a document to PM and relevant ministries, proposing to allow foreigners to buy condotels to improve the liquidity of condotels, mobilize more capital, and facilitatetourism development. Meanwhile, other experts disagree and say that most condotels are located in coastal areas, and if Vietnam allows foreigners to buy condotels, it will be like allowing foreigners to own Vietnam’s coastline. “If allowing foreigners to buy condotels, it’s a must to say clearly which areas they can buy,” Hoi said.

40 civil servants resign, Da Nang’s talent program failsVietNamNet Bridge - Forty people in Da Nang’s high-quality human resources development program (Program 922) have refused jobs offered to them. Da Nang tries to attract talentsBy May, 93 people had quit Program 922 for “talents”, while 40 had resigned from their posts because of bad health or family reunion. Da Nang is the first locality in the country running training programs to develop high-quality human resources for the city’s state agencies. As of April 18, 2018, the city had sent 647 people to training courses under Program 922 which aims to produce 100 masters and PhDs. Da Nang withdrew the petition in 11 cases as the people involved had completed the reimbursement after the case went to trial.

LA basketballer to visit HCM CityBasketball player Danilo Gallinari, who plays for the Los Angeles Clippers team, will travel to HCM City to participate in the Junior NBA Việt Nam from June 22-24, according to the National Basketball Association (NBA). Danilo Gallinari, a player for the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, will travel to HCM City to participate in the Junior NBA Việt Nam from June 22-24, according to the announcement of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Born in Italy, he is one of 108 international players from a record 42 countries and territories who were on opening-night rosters for the 2017-18 NBA season. Gallinari averaged 15.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2 assists per game in his first season with the Los Angeles Clippers. Gallinari will help coach 64 boys and girls selected from Regional Selection Camps in Hà Nội and HCM City.

Food-beverage sector strives to meet int’l food safetyWith a market of 93 million people, Vietnam has seen rapidly growing consumer demand for food and beverage (F&B) products, offering great opportunities for the sector to expand, experts have said. The country is expected to enter the top three Asian countries posting the highest growth rate of the F&B industry by 2020. Ly Kim Chi, President of the HCM City Food and Foodstuff Association, said that today’s consumers were willing to pay more for healthy and natural products. On May 29, the Vietnamese High Quality Business Association will, for the first time, take part in THAIFEX-World of Food Asia, the leading F&B trade fair in Asia, according to Vu Kim Hanh, chairwoman of the association. Hanh said that participation in trade shows was one of many ways to promote Vietnamese products.

Vietnamese Ambassador to US bids farewell to local officials, friendsOutgoing Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh has bid farewell to local officials and friends before returning home and concluding his mission in the US in late June 2018. Ambassador Vinh also had meetings with some US officials, including special Assistance to the President on Asia Matt Pottinger and Senator Jim Webb. On May 21, Ambassador Vinh hosted a reception at the Vietnamese Embassy in the US to bid farewell to officials from the US administration and parliament as well as businesspersons, scholars and friends, including Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton. At the meetings, Ambassador Vinh thanked the US side for supporting him and the Vietnamese Embassy in fulfilling missions, contributing to strengthening bilateral relations in all areas. Ambassador Vinh assumed his post as Vietnamese Ambassador to the US from late November, 2014.

NA session: SOEs’ efficiency not match resourcesThe operation efficiency of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) during 2011-2016 had yet to match the resources they were holding, according to a report delivered to the National Assembly on May 28. In addition, the restructuring of badly-performing businesses and the withdrawal of State capital from ineffective investment projects remained slow. The supervision team suggested ministries, sectors and localities to complete and approve land use plans. The discussion session focused on the implementation of policies and laws on State capital and asset management and use in State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and equitisation of SOEs in the 2011-2016 period. Expressing his sympathy with solutions stated in the NA’s monitoring report, he said it is necessary to accelerate the completion of institution and legal framework for the State Capital Management Committee.

Govt vacillates on incentives in special economic zonesVietNamNet Bridge – The Government plans to develop three special economic zones, which it hopes will spearhead the country’s growth. — Photo zing.vnCurrently there are no special economic zones in the country though it has 18 coastal economic zones, 27 border economic zones and 325 industrial zones. The Ministry of Planning and Investment expects the three special economic zones to contribute billions of dollars to the economy each year from 2020 onwards. The Government has agreed in principle that the special economic zones will enjoy special regulations and fewer limitations to enable them to woo investors. The draft Law on Special Economic Zones (or Law on Special Administrative-Economic Units) reflects this strategy.

Bad debts tend to escalateVietNamNet Bridge - After considering the Q1 finance reports of 13 large and medium sized commercial banks, analysts say they have found that bad debts are increasing again. The figure was equal to 51 percent of total bad debts, higher than the 50.5 percent at the end of 2017. However, most of them were third-group debts, or subprime debts, amounting to 58.6 percent of total bad debts, while the fifth-group debts accounted for 18 percent. This is equal to 55.3 percent of the bank’s total bad debts which have increased from 1.61 percent to 1.87 percent. US$1=VND22,000RELATED NEWSMulti-trillion VND worth of bad debt put on saleVAMC targets VND140 trillion bad debts this yearKim Chi

Tomorrow's cities: Google's Toronto city built 'from the internet up'The vision is to have a bustling city that works for everyone -- Photo: SIDEWALK LABSOn Toronto's Eastern waterfront, a new digital city is being built by Sidewalk Labs - a firm owned by Google's parent Alphabet.It hopes the project will become a model for 21st-Century urbanism. Sidewalk Labs promises to transform the disused waterfront area into a bustling mini metropolis, one built "from the internet up", although there is no timetable for when the city will actually be built. These are real and prescient issues for the city of Toronto," he told the BBC. "Sidewalk talks about open data, but from the very start the one thing that they are not making public is their agreement with Waterfront Toronto." Waterfront Toronto is the organisation charged with revitalising the area around the city's harbour.

Outdated infrastructure blamed for rail accidentsOutdated infrastructure, limited funds and operator negligence have been identified as the main causes serious accidents on the rail. A report from the Vietnam Railways Corporation said that from September 16 2017 to April 15 2018, there were 199 rail accidents, killing 91 people and injuring 122 others. He went on to say that the corporation reviewed accidents to improve the sector with new technology and remove several level crossings. "However, it is also rare that so many serious rail accidents occur so close together as seen last week." Vu Quang Khoi, director of the Vietnam Railway Authority, said after every accident, Vietnam Railways Corporation were made to review operating processes to avoid similar cases.