Great Opportunity in Vietnam – Japan Aviation Cooperation

Not only contributing to the trade connection between the two countries, the aviation industry also opens up opportunities for investment cooperation for investors in Vietnam and Japan.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has appointed Mr Koji Shibata, Senior Vice President, Asia – Pacific Strategic Director to be a member of the Board of Directors at Vietnam Airlines Corporation. (Vietnam Airlines). It showed the respect and high appreciation of the cooperation opportunities of the leading Japanese aviation corporation. Mr Koji Shibata also represented the capital and exercised the rights and obligations of ANA with 107,668,938 shares, equivalent to 8,771% charter capital of Vietnam Airlines.

Ealier, on July 1st 2016, ANA has transferred to Vietnam Airlines the amount of 109 million USD to complete the company’s largest offshore investment transaction, and officially became a strategic shareholder of Vietnam Airlines.

According to Mr Pham Ngoc Minh, Chairman of Vietnam Airlines, ANA is truly a strategic partner, capable of cooperating, supporting and accompanying Vietnam Airlines in the process of developing and expanding the market, upgrading quality, service and corporate governance.

Currently, Vietnam Airlines flight routes are connecting to 20 domestic destinations, 29 international destinations with high frequencies and concentrating to connect through gateway airports in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, participating in exploiting large customer flows in the region, directly competing with major transit centers such as Hongkong, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and the Greater Mekong Subregion. In addition, Vietnam Airlines is operating 66 flights a week to Japan, while ANA has not cooperated with any airline for the same flight route.

As known, in addition to passenger transport, another aviation sector which is attracting the attention of Japanese investors is the air traffic management.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, the Japanese party is proposing the establishment and operation of a special purpose company (SPC) to collect, analyze and provide information for air traffic management for relating companies. The SPC will be a joint venture with 51% Vietnamese capital and 49% Japanese capital. This model is being considered by the Vietnamese authorities, considering for implementation.

In addition, the investment in the Long Thanh International Airport project (Phase I), worth 3.53 billion USD project is still open to international investors, including Japanese companies, those who pursue this project from the first days.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, based on the current agreements, the two countries’ airlines are allowed to operate without restrictions between destinations in Vietnam and Japan (except Haneda Airport in Tokyo). Currently, three Japanese aviation corporations that are ANA, Japan Airlines and Vanilla Air are operating five routes from Tokyo (Narita and Haneda) to two destinations in Vietnam (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City), with a total frequency of 42 flights/way/week.

Meanwhile, Vietnam Airlines is the only Vietnamese airline that operate the Vietnam – Japan flights, but with great frequency. As of the end of January 2017, Vietnam Airlines is operating 10 flights from three destinations in Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang to 4 destinations in Japan: Tokyo (Haneda/Narita), Nagoya, Fukuoka and Osaka, with a total frequency of up to 66 flights/way/week. Furthermore, Vietjet Air and Jetstar Pacific have been licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam to operate flights from Hanoi/Da Nang to Osaka in 2017.

To sum up, in 2016, the total air transport between the two countries reached nearly 2 million passengers, increased by 18.6% over the same period in 2015, with an coefficient of average seat use of 80%, of which Vietnam Airlines has transported 1.28 million passengers, accounting for 66% market share, with coefficient of average seat use of over 82.2%.

ANT Consulting is here to assist you from the outset; providing corporate intelligence, risk advisory, management consulting services that assist market entrance, and ensure efficient business start-up operation.  Our services are as following:

• Advisory
• Market Entry
• Tax Advice
• Legal Advice

We strive to save your cost by guiding you towards economical solutions that comply with local legislation and procedures. We support you through early logistic solutions and carry you through as your business grows.  We aim to bridge the gap between international best practices and local cultures and assist foreign companies and organizations entering Vietnam market to overcome commercial and regulatory issues.

We could be reached at email: ant@antconsult.vn or tel: +848 3520 2779 .  To learn more about us, please visit www.antconsult.vn

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Google Shows Interests in Vietnam IT Industry

E-commerce, IT and software development have been developing incredibly fast in Vietnam over the years making it potential for IT business to be set-up.

With more than 93 mil of population which 52% having access to internet.  The average Vietnamese using Google to extract information from internet is three times higher than world average.  Vietnam has been rated top 10 Asian countries with fastest growth rate of internet users. Those are the reasons why Google considers Vietnam as important market for penetration, localization and business development.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google will arrive in Hanoi on December 22nd to talk with the start-up technology in Vietnam, showing the practical interests of Google in Vietnam.  Technology so far appears to be one of the most attractive areas for foreign investment.

According to Google’s communications department in Vietnam, the initial interaction of Google CEO with Vietnamese audience including programmers, students and the media, will be held on a small scale in one hour, for the purpose of sharing experiences and inspiration. Sundar Pichai will also meet with three unidentfied individuals of Vietnam whom are supposed to be influencial in Vietnam IT industry.

Sundar Pichai joined Google since 2004, played role as orientation for the Google Toolbar and Google Chrome, the key products of Google that hundreds of millions of consumers are using.

In 2014, Sundar managed the product parts, engineering and research for all products and technology platforms of Google, including Google Search, Maps, Google Play, Advertising and solutions using cloud platforms for consumers, businesses and the education sector, which were known under the name of Google Apps and Cloud Platform. The two most important platforms in the computer industry as Android and Chrome are also within his administration.

After years of closely working with Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Sundar has been accredited and formally undertaken the CEO position of Google since August 2015.

This is the first time that a senior leader of Google comes to Vietnam. In early December,Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak also came to Ho Chi Minh City to attend an event on social networks, mobile, statistical data and cloud computing in Vietnam.

In previous years, many well-known personalities of the world technology industry visited Vietnam. In 2006, Bill Gates as the Chairman of Microsoft visited Hanoi to launch the project to disseminate information technology.  In May 2010, CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer had a talk with students of the Hanoi University of Science and Technology and Vietnam National University, focusing on new technologies such as cloud computing. In 2013, Stephen Elop, head of Nokia’s mobile segment (at that time belonged to Microsoft) also presented in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to meet the domestic software partners.

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