Việt Nam News

Last year saw a lot of merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the Vietnamese property sector, with transactions totalling US$1.5 billion and the participation of many major foreign players.

Since Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) seized Sài Gòn One Tower using the authority conferred on it by Resolution 42 on settling bad debts, several banks have followed suit and offered mortgaged assets for sale to help pay their bad debts.

The State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) office in the southern province of Đồng Nai is investigating the delay in repaying principal and interest by the Thái Bình People’s Credit Fund to 82 customers in Biên Hòa City’s Tân Hòa Ward.

Vietcombank recently said it has received permission from the State Securities Commission to sell its stakes in the HCM City-based Saigon Bank for Industry and Trade (Saigonbank) and Việt Nam Cement Finance Company.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as of September 20 banking credit growth was only 11.02 per cent against a full-year target of 21 per cent.

Earlier this month Idemitsu Q8 Petroleum LLC opened its first retail outlet in Hà Nội’s Thăng Long Industrial Park, marking the first time a wholly foreign-owned company has entered the fuel retail sector.

On September 13 Samsung launched its mobile payment service, "Samsung Pay", in partnership with the National Payment Corporation of Việt Nam (NAPAS). Like Samsung, Apple also plans to bring its digital wallet, "Apple Pay", to Việt Nam soon.

In the first eight months of the year Việt Nam attracted foreign investment worth more than US$23.36 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45.1 per cent.

According to Government Decree 94/2017/NĐ-CP, to come into effect on October 1 this year, 20 items will be traded solely by public entities with clear directions from the Prime Minister’s Office.

At its third session the 14th National Assembly passed a resolution to trial various policies on bad debt settlement and the handling of secured assets for bad debts of credit institutions, branches of foreign banks and State-owned organisations to speed up the settlement of bad debts, which are acting as speed bumps in the banking sector’s development.

From mid-March Sacombank has been offering certificates of deposit (CDs) denominated in đồng to individuals and companies.

In the first four months of the year, the trade deficit was at quite high at around US$2.8 billion.

Farmers need to be rescued again as prices of yet another item collapse        

Market observers said in the first two months of the year the Government successfully issued bonds worth VNĐ54.11 trillion ($2.38 billion) for terms of five to 10 years.

Although Vietnamese apparel company movement toward the stock market is an inevitable trend in a market economy, only 30 businesses of the sector’s total of 6,000 have listed so far.

The Government has instructed the Ministry of Finance to consider changes to special consumption taxes on imported pick-up trucks to level the field for cars.

The Prime Minister recently ratified a project to stimulate non-cash transactions in 2016-20 with a view to reducing the cash transactions rate to under 10 per cent.

Last year the VPBank-owned FE Credit-Consumer Finance Services added 2.7 million accounts to take its total number of customers to 3.3 million.