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Accordingly, for market development and improvement of insurance services, the Ministry of Finance said that the average growth rate of total assets, total investment, and total revenue was expected to increase by about 15% this year.
In addition, the Ministry shall grant licences to qualified investors to participate in the market; continue to manage and monitor the market by means of remote monitoring and on-site inspection; at the same time, build and perfect an information technology system serving market management and supervision; and carrying out inspection and examination of enterprises in accordance with the approved plan.
The Vietnamese insurance market currently has 79 insurance businesses; of which there are 31 non-life insurance enterprises, one branch of non-life insurance enterprises abroad; 19 life insurance businesses, two reinsurance businesses, and 26 insurance brokerage businesses.
The total assets of insurance businesses are estimated at 811.3 trillion VND (34.4 billion USD), a year-on-year growth of 14.5%.
Total equity is estimated at 162.8 trillion VND, up 3.83%. Total insurance premium revenue is estimated at 251.3 trillion VND, up 15.09%.
The Ministry of Finance said that the institutional improvement would continue to be focused on to gradually create a favourable legal corridor for the healthy and sustainable development of the insurance market and meet bilateral and multilateral commitments on international integration.
Vietnam exports first batch of fresh longans to Japanese market
The first batch of fresh Vietnamese longans have been successfully shipped to Japan and will be available on supermarket shelves throughout the demanding market after several days, according to details given by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Following dragon fruit, mangoes, and lychees, fresh longans are the newest fruit to be licensed to enter the fastidious market, paving the way for subsequent shipments with larger volumes being exported to Japan moving forward.
Hoang Phat Fruit Company Limited revealed that after the arrival of the one-tonne batch, the firm will supply between 70 tonnes and 100 tonnes of fresh longans by sea and by air to Japan each month.
Fresh longans are required to undergo cold treatment within 13 days before then being shipped to Japan in order to eliminate harmful organisms. After the process, the MARD will issue a phytosanitary certificate to confirm that the shipment is eligible for export.
To export this batch of longans to Japan, Hoang Phat Co., Ltd. had to go through a number of stringent evaluation processes involving the granting of planting area and factory codes.
In addition, the firm is required to ensure no chemical residue is found in any of the fruit products while the cold treatment process must be maintained at 1.3 degrees Celsius within 13 days under the close supervision of Japanese experts.
According to the Plant Protection Department, it took the country six years of conducting negotiations before local longans could enter the Japanese market.
Vietnam earns over 400 mln USD from tourism during New Year holiday
The tourism sector raked in about 9.6 trillion VND (408.3 million USD) in revenue during the three-day 2023 New Year holiday, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism reported on January 4.
From December 31, 2022, to January 2, 2023, the sector recorded about 3 million domestic travellers.
Positive signs were also seen in the number of international visitors, most of whom came from the Republic of Korea, Russia, Germany, and Spain. Vietnam has also started welcoming back tourists from India, the Middle East, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, among others.
Notably, Quang Nam province attracted 89,000 foreign arrivals, Ho Chi Minh City 35,000, Hanoi 38,000, Khanh Hoa province 6,950, and Ba Ria - Vung Tau province 5,815 during the holiday, statistics show.
The administration said tourism has sustained the recovery trend and completely surmounted difficulties after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The return of international visitors has also proved the country’s right and timely moves to restructure tourist markets and renew tourism products.
Vietnamese economy anticipated to see strong growth amid potential risks in 2023
Amid an unstable global economy, the Vietnamese economy is forecast to enjoy plenty of growth opportunities and face many potential risks in the year ahead.
Similar to other nations in the group of emerging Asian countries, strong growth is expected to continue in the country, with the IMF predicting that the Vietnamese economy will grow by 6.1% this year, the World Bank (WB) giving a growth forecast of 6.4%, and the ADB anticipating a growth rates of 6.7%.
Such growth would make the country one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Indeed, this optimistic growth outlook is largely due to the fact that COVID-19 has been brought under full control through a rapid vaccination programme which resulted in the nation fully lifting restrictions to allow all social activities to return to normal.
Vietnamese inflation has risen, but only exceeded the official target of 4% by a small margin in November as it reached 4.37%.
A cautious rate hike by the central bank is therefore viewed as a positive step in keeping inflation under control and maintaining confidence without putting growth at risk.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) should continue to be cautious, particularly as inflationary pressures may increase and the exchange rate has the potential to drop, a factor which will affect import prices and push up inflation over the coming months.
The objective of the monetary policy is to bring inflation back to the official target within a reasonable and short period of time.
Maintaining rapid growth amid a weakening global economy will certainly pose a challenge.
Exports have been one of the country’s traditional growth engines, although exporters will face a slowdown in demand from both North American and European customers.
Foreign direct investment is also a traditional growth driver for the nation, with many success stories being recorded in the electronics sector.
The investment expansion announcements of Samsung, LG, Foxconn, and Lego can be seen as evidence of the unrelenting appeal of the Vietnamese market.
However, multinational corporations (MNCs) are currently facing pressure to resume production, boost job creation in their home countries, make supply chains more resilient, and strengthen national security, all of which could weaken foreign investment flows over the coming years.
Real estate investment has also been a key growth driver in recent years, despite their large financial risks. Low interest rates and easy credit conditions have fueled a property boom, with housing prices rising rapidly.
The SBV has already moved to raise interest rates and tighten credit to combat inflation, while the housing price increase cycle is coming to an end.
Vietnamese homebuyers will be more cautious moving forward and it is likely that developers will delay the construction of new projects, leading to a freezing market. This will could a key cause in stifling the growth engine in the near future, with investment in carbon reduction potentially becoming a key growth driver in the short and medium term.
Despite the country committing to becoming carbon neutral by 2050, there is not much time left to make major investments needed to cut emissions.
Although there have been more projects making use solar batteries and wind turbines than before, coal remains the mainstay of the nation’s electricity industry and the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Vietnam requires large investments to decarbonise electricity generation, strengthen the grid, and to popularise the use of electric vehicles in transportation.
The nation has pledged to limit the electricity sector's emissions to 170 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030, with half of its electricity coming from renewables.
This level of investment will be supported by a package of grants from advanced economies, with the ultimate goal mitigating the negative impacts of climate change.
Inflationary pressure manageable for Vietnam in 2023: experts
The inflationary pressure on Vietnam in 2023 may not be high, said experts at a conference in Hanoi on January 4.
The pressure from inflation due to fluctuation of currencies, exchange rates, fuel prices and raw materials was likely to reach its peak in 2022 and is predicted to decrease in 2023, said Dr. Nguyen Duc Do, Vice Director of the Institute of Economics-Finance under the Academy of Finance.
According to him, in fact, inflation has declined since December 2022 when core inflation rose only 0.33% over the previous month. Although the prices of electricity and a number of services controlled by the State in 2023 are predicted to increase in 2023, the level of impact from the hike depends on the timeliness and level of adjustments.
Meanwhile, Associate Prof. Dr. Ngo Tri Long pointed to a number of advantages in 2023, including the momentum of recovery and well-controlled inflation in 2022.
Credit packages within the economic recovery programme and national target programmes are likely to be implemented faster this year, while a number of problems in the real estate, financial, labour and medical markets have been removed, making it possible for the country to rise up in 2023, he added.
However, Le Thanh Nga from the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that there are still some factors causing pressure on inflation, including fluctuations in the world market and increases in the prices of power, water supply, education and health care services.
Dr. Long asserted that in order to achieve the goals of 6.5% economic growth and 4.5% inflation, the Government should promptly remove obstacles in mechanism, policy and administration, while harmoniously combining macro-economic policies and ensuring the balance between interest and exchange rates, growth and inflation, and support to businesses and State budget collection.
It is necessary to keep a close watch on price developments and inflation in the world to give a timely alert and proper response, he added.
Nga suggested the increase of production of input materials with priority given to the domestic market, while applying measures to stablise the prices of commodities.
Director of the Price Management Department under the Ministry of Finance Nguyen Minh Tien said that the ministry will give cautious monetary policies and combine them with suitable fiscal policies to rein in inflation and ensure major balances of the economy.
Vietnamese real estate has mixed outcomes but positive outlook
The Vietnamese real estate market showed mixed results in 2022 with a boom in the first half of the year and a downturn in the second half, according to Nguyễn Mạnh Hà, deputy chairman of the Vietnam National Real Estate Association.
Hà was speaking at the seminar 'Vietnamese real estate: outcome and outlook' on Tuesday.
The deputy chairman said the tide of cheap money in late 2021 had lifted many boats in the early months of 2022, including real estate. Housing prices were soaring on the back of the post-pandemic economic recovery and the growing demand from homebuyers.
However, the industry began to go into reverse in the late months of the year as a result of a change in the governmental stance on bank credit and corporate bonds. The government's tightening up on the two capital channels has caused worries among investors and brought it to a halt.
Still, he has an optimistic outlook for the industry in the short term as the completion of some huge social housing projects this year is expected to encourage sales to low-income homebuyers.
Nguyễn Mạnh Quỳnh, chief of staff of the Vietnam Association of Realtors, held that the supply of commercial real estate was tight in 2022 with around 48,500 products for sale, equaling just 28 per cent of the figure in 2018.
"The market was facing a shortage of affordable housing and, at the same time, witnessing a surge in luxury housing," said Quỳnh.
By product types, land slots took up 44 per cent of the pie and high-end housing followed with 37 per cent. Middle-end housing came next with 15 per cent whereas low-end apartments stayed at rock bottom with 4 per cent.
The chief of staff forecast that real estate sales would remain low in Q1/2023 but begin to improve in Q2/2023 on the grounds of a better macroeconomic situation. Average prices, meanwhile, are expected to fall slightly until mid-Q2 and then level off towards the end of the year.
Phạm Lâm, chairman of the DKRA Group, revealed that 1,081 real estate enterprises were dissolved and 2,379 temporarily ceased their operation in the first 11 months of 2022.
The situation is not better now as real estate enterprises face many setbacks. One of the setbacks is the tight supply of land, which falls between 40 to 83 per cent year-by-year across segments.
Lâm urged the enterprises to cut costs and cut staff wisely to get through this tough time. He said digital transition is a solution to the cost-saving problem as it significantly reduces overheads.
Cấn Văn Lực, chief economist at the JS Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, estimated total capital funneled to real estate in 2022 at VNĐ507 trillion (US$21.5 billion), of which 71.0 per cent come from bank loans and 10.8 per cent from corporate bonds.
The economist also revealed that he was urging the government to introduce a favourable mechanism to support the industry in its effort to repay VNĐ120 trillion worth of corporate bonds in 2023 and VNĐ110 trillion in 2024.
High-quality human resources help to boost FDI attraction
As a means of attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI), the nation needs to pay greater attention to training high-quality human resources, promoting administrative reforms, and developing and upgrading infrastructure, according to the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham).
The organization said that European businesses have initiated plans to expand their investment in renewable energy, hi-tech manufacturing and processing, and a research and development (R&D) centre next year.
In a recent report, Savills Vietnam also highlighted the attractiveness of investment in high-value manufacturing industries throughout Southeast Asia, and in particular Vietnam.
Compared to China, India, and other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam represents an attractive market for investment due to its relatively low risk. This therefore creates an impetus for the capital flow of many technology companies and businesses operating in other fields in the United States to invest in the Vietnamese market.
According to HSBC Bank (Vietnam) Ltd, the nation has become global a hi-tech production centre, with Large groups such as Samsung and LG of the Republic of Korea, as well as partners of Apple and Goertek, Foxconn and Pagatron, having poured tens of billion of US$ into the Vietnamese market.
Statistics compiled the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as of December 20, 2022, show that the total newly-registered capital, adjusted capital, and capital contribution and share purchase hit close to US$27.72 billion, equivalent to 89% of the same period from 2021.
In line with this, foreign businesses invested in 54 localities nationwide in 2022.
Recently, Samsung officially launched an R&D centre worth US$220 million in the country, with the firm intending to turn the nation into a strategic R&D base.
Dirk Hartmann, general director of Tesa Site Hai Phong Co., Ltd, said when it originally selected Vietnam as the location for its plant, the firm saw an attractive destination for investment thanks to the country’s stable level of economic growth.
Overcapacity contributed to low inflation rate last year
One of the factors behind Việt Nam's low inflation in 2022 was overcapacity which constrained firms from rising product prices, according to Nguyễn Đức Độ, deputy director of the Institute of Economics and Finance (IEAF) at the Academy of Finance.
Độ was speaking at the seminar 'Market development and price movement in Việt Nam: outcomes in 2022 and outlook for 2023' on Wednesday.
The deputy director underlined the mechanism of fuel price stabilisation as another factor that has kept inflation in check. This is because fuel prices are a major determinant of CPI, and the mechanism, centring around price subsidies and tax cuts, has helped ease the fuel-induced inflationary pressure.
He also forecasted that the year-by-year CPI growth would rise to roughly 5.1 per cent in January and then fall to around 3.0 per cent, resulting in a year-round inflation of 3.5 per cent for 2023.
Economist Nguyễn Minh Phong forecasted that interest rates in Việt Nam would not fall until the second half of 2023. He also said keeping interest rates high might be a double-edged sword for the economy.
On the one hand, high policy rates would drive down monetary supply and boost savings, thereby putting demand-pull inflation under control. On the other hand, high policy rates would drive up firms' production costs, contributing to cost-push inflation.
The economist also forecasts that cost-push inflation will rise in 2023 due to the wage-raising scheme, the expiration of some tax cuts, higher interest rates, and other unfavourable factors.
Phạm Minh Thụy, head of the Department of Price and Market Research, IEAF, remarked that fuel management in Việt Nam had shown some cracks in the past few years.
Specifically, fuel firms are required to reserve an amount of fuel sufficient for 20 days of consumption. However, in reality, many firms fail to reach that reserve level, leading to fuel shortages during volatile periods.
Additionally, fuel prices must be adjusted periodically on the first day, eleventh day, and twentieth day of every month. Thụy said such a requirement is inflexible and needs to be revised.
Economist Vũ Minh Phú underlined several factors that elevated fuel prices in Việt Nam in 2022. One was the tight global supply caused by geopolitical conflicts, and another was a large number of middlemen in supply chains, which added substantially to fuel end prices.
The economist also said the price adjustment period of ten days is problematic because it causes a delay in fuel price management. He called for the period to be cut to five days to be more responsive to global price shocks.
Dak Lak records highest-ever coffee export volume
The Central Highlands province of Dak Lak – Vietnam’s capital of coffee – pocketed 798 million USD in coffee exports in 2022, accounting for 53.2% of the locality’s total export turnover.
This year, the province shipped abroad 380,000 tonnes of coffee bean out of its 550,000 tonnes harvested, the highest ever export volume.
The average export price of local coffee in the 2021-2022 crop reached 2,037 USD per tonne, 363 USD higher than that of the previous crop.
Business integrity passport to global supply chains
Experts are urging Vietnamese firms to incorporate integrity principles into their corporate governance since they believe business integrity would be the passport to global supply chains.
Dinh Thi Bich Xuan, deputy director of the Office for Business Sustainable Development (SDforB), Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said business integrity had become the norm in the international business scene.
As such, Vietnamese firms need to embrace it as an indispensable part of their corporate governance, otherwise they would face the risk of losing ground internationally.
She also said Viet Nam had signed 15 free trade agreements (FTAs), of which corporate social responsibility is among the most important. That means Vietnamese firms are obliged to act in the best interest of society as a whole.
A survey conducted by VCCI last year shows that the proportion of Vietnamese firms incurring unofficial fees declined from 44.9 per cent in 2020 to 41.4 per cent in 2021.
More importantly, those that had to set aside over 10 per cent of their revenues to cover the fees fell significantly from 9.1 per cent in 2016 to 4.1 per cent during the period.
However, 'intentional delays in administrative processes to obtain speed money' has become more common with 57.4 per cent of firms facing the problem in 2021 against 54.1 per cent in 2020.
Tomas Kvedaras, a specialist at the Judicial Integrity Network ASEAN, said Viet Nam was among the few countries in which the Government and firms had worked closely to improve business integrity and met with some success.
However, he stressed that integrity enhancement needs more than a close government-firm cooperation. Rather, it requires a comprehensive approach based on the involvement of all stakeholders in the economy.
He also urged Viet Nam to put corporate social responsibility high on its agenda since global companies normally view it as an acid test of a good investment destination.
Ruth Turner, political and development counselor of the British Embassy in Viet Nam, said business integrity is of vital importance to countries aiming to integrate deeply into global supply chains as the notion lies at the heart of many FTAs.
As part of its effort to improve business integrity, Viet Nam has pushed ahead strongly with its fight against corruption. Remarkably, the country has moved up from the 113th position in Corruption Perspective Index in 2017 to 87th in 2021.
Vu Tien Loc, president of the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre, said that corporate social responsibility and business integrity hold the key to the viability and profitability of Vietnamese firms in the future.
From his observations, firms socially accountable to their stakeholders and the public are more likely to be resilient during crises as they gain more support from their customers, partners, and employees.
Central bank to raise solutions to tackle credit bottlenecks for real estate sector
The State Bank of Viet Nam would raise solutions to tackle credit congestion into the real estate sector to ensure the healthy and stable development for the market, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam Dao Minh Tu said recently.
Tu said at the conference to implement tasks in 2023 of the banking sector early this week that the central bank planned to organise workshop about credit for the real estate sector to clarify the responsibilities of the banking industry, real estate management agencies and project developers and how to promote the healthy and stable development of the market.
Being a member of the Prime Minister’s working group about the real estate sector, Tu said that he found that real estate companies were encountering many difficulties and problems.
The working group would continue to evaluate the situation and report to the Prime Minister about short-term credit solutions for the market, Tu said.
According to Ha Thu Trang, deputy director of the Credit Department, the central bank had issued many policies to remove difficulties for the real estate market.
Stock market to growth sustainably in 2023: Deputy Finance Minister
After 2022, the stock market will move toward sustainable development, Deputy Finance Minister Nguyen Duc Chi said at a conference held by the State Securities Commission (SSC) to review the Vietnamese stock market in 2022 and deploy tasks for 2023.
The Deputy Minister highly appreciated the results achieved by SSC, adding that in 2022, the securities industry has strengthened supervision, inspection, and examination, thereby detecting and strictly handling violations.
Although the stock market struggled and was under significant pressure from international market movements, with correction sessions, it was still regarded as an attractive market in comparison to others in the region in 2022, as foreign capital flows returned strongly in the final months of the year.
Under the close direction of the Government and the Ministry of Finance (MoF), has completed the assigned tasks, increased inspections on illegal acts, strictly handled manipulation activities of securities prices, stabilised investor sentiment, and helped increase market liquidity.
According to the Deputy Minister, after 2022, the stock market will head toward sustainable development. As a result, solutions must be implemented to ensure that the market develops substantively and sustainably, increases liquidity, and continues to be an important capital channel for the economy in 2023.
Chi recommended that the SSC concentrate on examining the Securities Law to update it to reflect current market conditions, creating a strategy to implement the Securities Market Development Strategy until 2023, and continuing to implement disciplines at a higher level.
The commission also needs to improve service quality, ensure timely and legal regulations, focus on applying the KRX project, strengthen the human capacity of SSC, exchanges, and the Vietnam Securities Depository Center (VSD), and enhance communication about the market as well as policies so that market participants always have full and timely access to official information from SSC and exchanges.
Banking sector suffers difficulties in 2022
The State Bank (SBV) has looked back on the many difficulties for the sector in 2022, which relate to a number of areas, including credit, exchange rate, and liquidity.
At a conference on December 28 to deploy tasks of the banking sector in 2023, Nguyen Thi Hong, governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), said that the industry had experienced many difficulties due to complicated and unpredictable fluctuations in the global and domestic economy.
The global economy has witnessed rising inflation, rising oil and material prices, and tightened monetary policy of the Fed and many other central banks, which led to raising interest rates and pushing up the US dollar worldwide.
Production and business in Vietnam have entered a post-pandemic recovery period, but many challenges remain. The stock market, real estate, and corporate bonds have faced difficulties, and investor confidence has fallen, which has put great pressure on monetary policy.
The conference highlighted many issues. Firstly, how to manage credit policies to support economic growth in line with ensuring the banking system's safety. Some monetary indicators, such as credit-to-mobilised capital and credit-to-GDP ratios, are still at a concerning level.
Secondly, how to stabilise the foreign exchange market in the context of Vietnam’s economy. Domestic production depends significantly on imports, and the US dollar has appreciated strongly. Vietnam also faces the risk of being monitored strictly for currency manipulation by the US.
Thirdly, how to stabilise the money market and system liquidity amid declining market confidence amid the Saigon Bank (SCB) issue, which caused people to withdraw money from this bank ahead of the maturity dates.
Hong emphasised that the banking sector had contributed significantly to strengthening the macroeconomic foundation, such as controlling inflation at a low level of 3.2 per cent on average and economic growth recovering at a high rate of about 8 per cent.
Ho Chi Minh City suburban real estate market set for revival
After a lengthy period of inactivity, the real estate market in and around Ho Chi Minh City is resuming deals, mostly in new full-scale developments.
Property prices in the central district of Ho Chi Minh City have risen to such an extent that many young people are choosing to purchase homes in the suburbs, where costs are more affordable.
In the southern area, the provinces bordering Ho Chi Minh City, such as Dong Nai, Long An, and Binh Duong, more and more items catering to the requirements of locals and Ho Chi Minh City workers are surfacing at affordable costs, and the link to the centre is strengthened.
According to existing evidence, several significant metropolitan districts in Long An are catching the attention of individuals with genuine housing requirements and investors.
In Nam Long Group's Waterpoint Urban Area, for instance, in addition to townhouses, villas, and riverfront villas, there are also economical EHome Southgate apartments, starting at around $42,400 per unit. The project's current phase involves the development of a new subdivision, while prior stages include heavily inhabited areas.
Unpredictability stemming from housing market
Even if the threat of recession seems to be on the wane in Vietnam, the real estate sector may encounter more battles in 2023, necessitating the elimination of legal and capital barriers, including real estate corporate bonds.
At the end of 2022, Vietnam’s housing market has issued a clear message: high interest rates eliminate the possibility of purchasing a home at a decent price, and 2023 might be a difficult year for the mid- and high-end segments.
Buyers of a first home are currently eligible for a loan with a fair interest rate, and the unit price cannot exceed $76,000. This was the primary topic of a paper that the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) presented to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly (NA) this month to resolve pressing problems in the real estate market.
The association suggests in the paper that the NA considers handing over budget resources to compensate for preferential credit interest rates for homeowners extended by commercial banks.
Nguyen Quoc Hiep, head of the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors, said that it is “quite difficult” to purchase a property for roughly $1,270 per square metre in northern Vietnam. He believes that the current price of a 70-sq.m flat is around $90,000 in the north, well over the HoREA paper’s figure.
According to Hiep, constructing a home at those costs is currently impractical and the pricing is only appropriate for low-quality social housing without an elevator, he insisted.
Hiep observes that, while buying power has declined, prices have remained high because of restricted supply. The cost of materials and labour is also set to continue to rise and, after July 2023, the government is set to raise the minimum wage.
The view of the market by real estate investors indicates the future trend of the number of new homes that will be constructed. According to projections by the Ministry of Construction (MoC) for the period 2021-2030, Vietnam still needs 70 million sq.m per year of urban housing.
Given this circumstance, the lack of supply may lead to a rise in housing costs, and the number of people who are required to purchase a property will grow with the urban population, which is projected to increase by almost 45 per cent this decade.
RCEP: New opportunities with familiar partners
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement between ten ASEAN countries and the five partners having already signed trade pacts with ASEAN, which are China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
According to the WTO Centre under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, RCEP, which took effect on January 1, 2022, has created a large market of 2.2 billion consumers, accounting for 30% of the world population, and a GDP of nearly 27 trillion USD, accounting for 30% of global GDP.
RCEP is the largest free trade area in the world, with commitments on market opening in goods, services and investment, customs simplification, and the rules of origin that facilitate trade.
Therefore, Vietnam’s RCEP signing marked an important milestone in its international integration process and offered more new opportunities and substantive benefits when all RCEP members are familiar partners of ASEAN in general and Vietnam in particular.
After one year of implementation, RCEP is assessed to have contributed to the creation of a new trade structure in the region, promote and facilitate trade liberalisation sustainably, and help Vietnam to access consumer markets that are twice the size of those in the CPTPP.
Vietnam has greatly benefited from the large demand for farming produce and manufactured goods in RCEP member countries. Data released by the General Department of Customs show that in the first nine months of 2022, Vietnam’s exports to the RCEP countries reached 108.48 billion USD, up 16.4% over the same period in 2021, while the figure for the CPTPP market was only 41 billion USD. With RCEP commitments, the export-import procedures are simplified, helping to reduce time and costs and increasing the profitability rates for Vietnamese enterprises.
Besides forming a large market, in the coming time, Vietnam and the RCEP partners will eliminate about 90% of tax lines, to create a more sustainable intra-regional free market, without unfair competition. It will ensure that Vietnamese enterprises can participate in the markets of regional countries, including trade and investment.
But for an expanding playing field, competition is an inevitable trend of international integration. All free trade agreements have both opportunities and challenges, especially for RCEP because its traditional challenges may be much greater than those of other trade pacts, since RCEP member countries have a roughly similar export structure with Vietnam, making it harder and harder to export to partner countries.
Transport Ministry approves VND8-trillion bridge project in Mekong Delta
The Ministry of Transport has given the nod to the Dai Ngai bridge project linking Tra Vinh and Soc Trang provinces in the Mekong Delta region at a total cost of VND8 trillion.
The bridge project will start at an intersection with National Highway 54 in Tra Vinh Province’s Tieu Can District and end at an intersection with Nam Song Hau Road in Soc Trang Province.
The project, which will comprise the Dai Ngai 1 and 2 bridges and approach roads, will have a total length of 15.1 kilometers of National Highway 60 and four lanes and allow a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour.
Besides, the project will also include building five bridges and seven interchanges.
The project aims to promote the transportation of goods in the region and enhance connectivity with HCMC.
When in place, the Dai Ngai Bridge will reduce transport costs, ease the burden on National Highway 1 and shorten the distance from Ca Mau, Soc Trang and Bac Lieu to HCMC by some 80 kilometers.
Source: VNA/SGT/VNS/VOV/Dtinews/SGGP/VGP/Hanoitimes
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