POTENTIAL OF VIETNAM WIND POWER

Located in the monsoon subtropical area with long coastline, Vietnam has fundamental advantages to develop wind energy. When comparing the average wind speed in the East Sea of Vietnam and the surrounding sea areas, the result showed that wind in the East Sea of Vietnam is fairly strong and seasonally change.

The World Bank (WB) conducted a detailed survey about wind power in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. According to this study, among the four surveyed countries, Vietnam has the largest potential for wind power and better than the neighboring countries like Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

Vietnam has 8.6% of the territory is rated as “good” and “very good” for the construction of large wind stations, while in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, the numbers are 0.2%, 2.9% and 0.2% respectively. The total wind power potential of Vietnam is estimated to reach 513,360 MW, more than 200 times the capacity of Son La Hydropower Plant, and more than 10 times the total forecasting capacity of the power sector in 2020.

Vietnam has up to 41% rural areas that can develop small wind powers. Comparing this figure with the neighboring countries, the rural areas that can develop wind power in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand are 6%, 13% and 9% respectively.  It is indeed a privilege for Vietnam.

In Vietnam, the areas that can develop wind power do not spread across the entire territory. With the influence of monsoon, the wind regime is also different in each area. If the northern of Hai Van Pass, the strong wind season coincides with the northeast wind season, in which the most potential areas are Quang Ninh, Quang Binh and Quang Tri. In the southern part of Hai Van Pass, the strong wind season coincides with the southwest wind season, in which the most potential areas are the Tay Nguyen area, the coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta and especially the coastal areas of Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan.

According to research conducted by the World Bank, in the territory of Vietnam, the two most potential areas for wind energy development is Son Hai (Ninh Thuan) and sand hills at the height of 60 – 100 meters from the west of Ham Tien to Mui Ne (Binh Thuan). The advantages of these areas are high average velocity wind, less storm and stable wind trend. They are the favorable conditions for wind energy development. During the monsoon months, the proportion of south and southeast winds are up to 98% with an average speed of 6 – 7m/s. It means that we are able to build the wind stations with capacity of 3 to 3.5 MW.

In fact, people in Ninh Thuan have also created a number of homemade small wind generators for the purpose of lighting. Both these areas are sparsely populated with hot and dry weather. Moreover, this is the ethnic areas with special difficulties of Vietnam.

Although there are many advantages as mentioned above, but when mentioning wind energy, we need to note a number of unique features to be able to develop it in the most effective way.

The biggest disadvantage of wind energy is the dependence on weather condition and wind regime. Therefore, at the design stage, the wind regime, terrain and type of wind without turbulence flows which badly affect the transmitter should seriously be studied. Moreover, although wind power is becoming more popular but it cannot be used as the main energy. However, the possibility of the combination between wind power and storage hydropower will open up opportunities for Vietnam to develop energy in areas such as Tay Nguyen, which has advantages in both of these kind.

Another noted point is that the wind power stations will cause noise pollution during operation as well as disrupt the natural landscape and could affect the signal of the radio waves. Therefore, when constructing wind power stations, it is needed to calculate reasonable distance to residential areas and tourist resorts in order not to cause negative impacts.

In order to meet the goal of ambitious growth, in the medium term, Vietnam should continue to exploit the traditional energy sources. In the long term, Vietnam needs to develop strategy and roadmap for the development of new energy sources. In this strategy, the economic costs (including internal and external expenses on the environment and society) need to be analyzed carefully, taking into account new developments in technology, as well as reserves and price movements of alternative energy sources. In these new energy sources, wind power has emerged as a worthy choice and therefore need to be fully assessed.

Vietnam has many advantages for the development of wind energy. If Vietnam does not invest in research and development of wind power will be a huge waste because the risk of power shortage is always permanent, affecting economic growth and national competitiveness. Meanwhile, the current national strategy for power seems only interested in hydropower and nuclear power – the energy sources with huge initial investment and many hidden risks on both environment and society.

In the world, the development of wind power is a major trend, showing the highest growth rate compared with other energy sources. Unlike nuclear power which needs a complicated technical process and strict supervision, the construction and installation of wind power does not require such rigorous processes. With the experiences of successful development of wind power in India, China, Philippines and the geographical advantages of Vietnam, Vietnam can completely develop wind power and contributing to the overall development of the economy.

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BANKING SECTOR IN VIETNAM

1. Overview

Vietnam’s banking sector has shown significant improvement which results from stable inflation and interested rate, favorable environment for foreign direct investment and a shift from deficit to surplus of the country’s current account. This sector plays a crucial role in Vietnam’s economic development in recent years.

2.Banking system

There are two tiers in banking sector in Vietnam. The first one is State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) which is responsible for monetary policy and supervision/regulation of the banking system in Vietnam. The second one consists of commercial banks, financial companies, credit co-operatives, people’s credit funds, and insurance companies. The main activity driving banking system is commercial bank which includes 5 state-owned commercial banks, 33 joint stock commercial banks, 5 joint venture commercial banks and 5 wholly-owned foreign owned bank.

State owned commercial banks (SOCB) account for more than 40% of market share. The largest bank in terms of total assets, network and still 100% state owned share is Agribank. And four other SOCB areVietcom bank, Viettin Bank, BIDV and MHB.

Joint stock commercial banks (JSCB) have small capital/deposit base and more diversified shareholding structured compared to state owned commercial banks. There are currently 33 JSCB, which the leading ones are SaiGon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), Military Joint Stock Commercial Bank (MBB), Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (EIB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and SaiGonThuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB)

Also SBV had granted 5 licences to permit HSBC, Standard Charter Bank, ANZ Bank, Shinhan Bank and Hong Leong Bank to establish as wholly-owned foreign banks

3.Potential opportunities for foreign investment

There are solid evidences to prove that Vietnam’s banking sector has such a huge potential for foreign investment

• Government effort of reforming banking system

• Trade agreements facilitate foreign ownership and investment

• Vietnam- a destination of foreign investment in South East Asian market

• Market Entry

• Tax Advice

• Legal Advice

• Outsourcing Services

SBV suggested that merge and acquisition of loss making and incompetent bank would be necessary to improve efficiency within the industry. For example, in 2015, SBV forced merge of loss making Vietnam Construction Bank to Vietcom bank with purchasing share price for 0 VND. By forcing merge and acquisition of incompetent banks, SBV has increased exploitation of economies of scale and the reduced burden on regulators

Have taken part in variety of trade agreement such as Trans Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TTP),  Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Free Trade Agreement with different countries, Vietnam has made restructuring move to standardize banking system which will be compatible and accessible to other countries. Vietnam is required to have bilateral arrangement which eliminate the challenges of foreign establishment of banking services.

The government also encourages foreign investors to hold shares for five year period and partnering with the local bank to enhance management, capacity or new development. With the 30% limit of oversea ownership to domestic banks, the strategic foreign investors are allowed to acquire up to 15% of share in a bank, and up to 20% with Prime Ministerial approval. HSBC has also invested in a leading local bank, possessing a 20% stake in the Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank—Techcombank. It is also the sole foreign strategic partner of the BaoViet Finance-Insurance Group, Vietnam’s largest insurance company. In a vote of confidence in the insurer, HSBC increased its stake to 18% in October 2009.

There is a huge untapped market in Vietnam. According to SBV, only 20% of more than 90 million citizens in Vietnam hold bank accounts and 3% of the population have credit cards. With 87% of the population under the age of 54, there is a great opportunity for retail banking activity development in Vietnam.

Also it is agreed that SME and rural areas have had challenges to access bank investment and loan. The data of Asian Development Bank shows that “lack the capacity to assess the risk of investment into SMEs and find bankable projects” and lack of knowledge about loan and lending systems for rural citizens are the main reasons leading to currentunder-banked circumstances.

The stable economic with GDP growth of around 6% to 7%; low wage costs; a large population with a high savings rate and lack of innovative approach to the market are advantages for foreign investors to accelerate financial and industrial development in Vietnam market.

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:

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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HOW TO MANAGE RISK?

Depending on the size and characteristics of the enterprise that they may establish a risk management department consists of experienced professionals, or at least they should use the risk management services of professional consulting and law firms with extensive experiences in this field. The risk managementde partments have to perform many tasks but should focus on three main functions: risk identification, risk analysis and risk response.

First, we need to identify the risks. It is the process of gathering information, data and analysis of factors that may impact negatively on the achievement of goals, including the inside and outside, macro and micro factors. We can use analysis tools such as brainstorming, interviewing, root-cause analysis, checklist, SWOT analysis… along with other tools that are used in the strategic planning process. Enterprises need to create and regularly update the information and data system to serve for the analysis.

The next process is risk analysis, in which we need to analyze to assess risk that has been identified at the main aspects: the root causes of risk, risk probability and condition to occur, scope and displaced persons entitled to, impact of the risks, factors that change the level of impact…

Finally is the process of responding to risks. More specifically, it is the process of choosing the way to respond to risk, which may include measures to: (i) risk aversion (abandon risky activities); (ii) risk prevention (eliminate the root causes of risk); (iii) reduce the likelihood of risk; (iv) eliminate the negative impacts; (v) reduce the negative impact; (vi) risk sharing; (vii) risk transferring (buy insurance, use derivative instruments); (viii) take risks and preparing resources to overcome the consequences.

Principles

Risk management must ensure the main principles: (1) create value (cost of risk management has to lower than benefit that it brings); (2) is an integral part of the business activities; (3) attached to the decision making (all important decisions have to consider risk management); (4) to be systematic and follow a throughout process (5) are regularly evaluated and improved.

It can be said, at the present, only the financial institutions and the banks are interested in risk managementactivities (although not enough) while most other companies have not focused on this activity. Towards the sustainable development, enterprises cannot just “take risks” in the passive and desperate ways, they should be towards to manage risk in proactively and wisely ways.

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“Bun cha” of Hanoi

“Bun cha” is a signature dish of Hanoi people with special and delicious taste; it is certainly an indispensable dish for Hanoi cuisine lovers.

“Bun cha” is made with familiar ingredients such as noodles, pork, vegetables, fish sauce.

“Bun cha” with slices of grilled pork, grilled chopped pork, add a few pieces of green papaya, enjoy with raw vegetables and fish sauce. In some places, we can also enjoy “bun cha” with traditional spring rolls.

“Bun cha” of Hanoi is voted by CNN into the list of the world’s most delicious summer dish. Earlier, “bun cha” is also included in the list of 10 best street foods in Asia by CNN.

“Bun cha” is not only preferred by foreigners but also many generations of Vietnamese people enjoy it. “Bun cha” is the traditional dish of Vietnam.

Further information   

Risk Prevention in Vietnam

 Trade promotion in Vietnam

Fraud Management in Vietnam

Due diligence corporate investigations

Vietnam entry strategy

Vietnam market intelligence

 Business consultants in Vietnam

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VIETNAM AND EUROPEAN UNION WILL ELIMINATE OVER 99% IMPORT TARIFFS ON EACH OTHER

At a press conference on October 30^th in Vietnam informed of important agreements between Vietnam and European Union (EU), Mr. Bruno Angelet – Ambassador, Head of Delegation of the European Union (EU) said that early August 2015, the EU and Vietnam has announced the conclusion of negotiations but the negotiation group continues to resolve the remaining technical issues, while improving documents.

Once completed, the Agreement must be approved by the National Assembly of Vietnam, the Council and the European Parliament. Accordingly, Vietnam and the EU will eliminate over 99% of import tariffs.

For the few remaining tariffs, both parties will grant each other tariff quota or tariff reduction. This can be seen as the highest level of commitment that Vietnam has achieved in the FTA has been signed so far.

In the investment sector, the commitments to ensure an open business and investment environment to help promote high quality investment flows of both the EU and other partners in Vietnam. Thus, Vietnam has the opportunity to become the connection for trade and investment activities between EU and other countries in the region.

In addition, the commitments related to investment, liberalization of trade, service, Government procurement and intellectual property protection… will also open up opportunities for both sides to approach each other’s market sand ensure balance overall benefit.

EU can become the best partner in the future of Vietnam because Vietnam is also becoming one of the most dynamic countries and have good relationship with EU in the region. EU can support Vietnam in many fields such as governance models and provide excellentservices in the field of infrastructure, training and education, the judiciary and law, health, social insurance and sustainable energy.

Further information   

Risk Prevention in Vietnam

 Trade promotion in Vietnam

Fraud Management in Vietnam

Due diligence corporate investigations

Vietnam entry strategy

Vietnam market intelligence

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EMART HYPERMARKET (KOREA) OFFICIALLY JOINS VIETNAM MARKET

After 5 years of conducting the survey and researching the market of Vietnam, the leading retail group from Korea – Emart (owned by Shinsegae Group) has officially entered Vietnam market by opening the first Emart hypermarket in Vietnam on December 28^th 2015 in 366 Phan Van Tri street, ward 5, Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

Go Vap Emart Hypermarket has over 3 ha in area with a total investment of up to 60 million USD (equivalent to 1,350 billion VND). Starting construction from early 2015 and went into operation at the end of the year,  Emart Go Vap is expected to meet the shopping needs and create modern consumption habits of Vietnamese people with quality products and reasonable price.

Emart Go Vap has two main parts with an area of 6,000m2, serving diverse items from staples, fresh products to household goods, electronics, fashion…; the utility service areas include restaurants, children’s education and entertainment park… The modern shopping space, nonstop improving and upgrading services are differences that help Emart Go Vap conquer local consumers.

Mr. Choi Kwang Ho, CEO of Emart Vietnam said that the growth of Emart will accompany the development of Vietnam. Thus, 95% of goods in Emart are domestic goods. With the quality and best price as well as services that match with shopping habits of Vietnamese, Emart commits to put on great efforts to become a close shopping destination for local people.

Come to the opening of Emart from December 28^th, customers will have chance to visit and shopping with many attractive 50% discount programs plus thousands of gifts and awards such as Emart helmets, Emart environmental bags, SH 150i motorcycles, Samsung TV… At the same time, customers can also participate in many exciting activities such as taking pictures with snow, the rotation of luck, darts and face painting… Especially, customers visit Emart Go Vap will enjoy unique dishes from Korea as traditional kimpap and many other unique Asian dishes… With the shopping discounts and attractive activities, Emart Go Vap promises to bring consumers an exciting and attractive shopping space, especially in the time of Lunar New Year is coming very close.

As the first Emart Hypermarket in Vietnam, Emart Go Vap is an important step in the launching plans and the ambition to penetrate the Vietnam retail market. Pursuing the motto “Every day of customers will be full of joy”, Emart committed to providing goods and best service to customers.

With the desire to grow in breadth and depth in new markets as well as to realize the goal to brand Emart to the world, Emart promises to continue a-20-year-history of impressive development with Emart Go Vap and the future system of Emart in HCMC and Vietnam.

Since the opening of the first low cost shop in Korea in 1993, Emart has achieved impressive growth steps in the past 20 years. Currently, Emart Hypermarket is the no 1 hypermarket chain in Korea with over 160 hypermarkets in Korea and foreign countries. Emart is the largest and oldest low cost store chain in Korea with sales exceeding 13.2 billion USD as of 2014. Through the launching of new series of trade centers and acquired Walmart Korea in 2006, Emart is confirming the leading position in the field of retail and supermarket chains.

Further information   

Risk Prevention in Vietnam

 Trade promotion in Vietnam

Fraud Management in Vietnam

Due diligence corporate investigations

Vietnam entry strategy

Vietnam market intelligence

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CONTRACTS SIGNED WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA VISITS VIETNAM

There have been series of cooperation contracts that are signed between the AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam) members and Vietnam businessesafter the first day that President Barack Obama visits Vietnam.

On the trip to Vietnam of President Obama, AmCham and VCCI jointly organized the corporate event in Hanoi. At the event, the signing of agreements between member companies of AmCham and Vietnamese partners are took place.

In particular, the signing of treaties on climate change and clean energy includes 7 records:

– Memorandum of GE on the development of 1000MW of wind power: Estimated that in 2025, there will be 1,000 megawatts from wind power projects. With that capacity, wind power will be enough to supply for 1.8 million households in Vietnam over the next 10 years.

– Agreement on nuclear safety training: US will help Vietnam to train the human resources, equipped with the knowledge of nuclear procurement, design and build factories, licensing and safety checks of nuclear reactors in the future. At the same time, US experts will also advise about the effectiveness of this technology as well as economic benefits when developing.

– Memorandum of Understanding between the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group and Murph Oil Company: Murphy has participated in oil and gas exploration in Vietnam since 2012 and currently is cooperating to exploit gas in Nam Con Son. This memorandum will open up many opportunities for cooperation between the two sides in oil and gas, energy joint venture, accelerating the negotiation of the project in Tho Chu Island and many other contracts.

– Cooperation agreement of the solar energy projects between First Solar and Thien Tan: Thien Tan Investment and Construction Company have signed two major contracts to purchase solar panels worth 35 million USD to serve the solar photovoltaic plant, which has started construction since mid 2015. The plant has a capacity of 19.2 MW with total investment of 800 billion VND and is built on an area of 24 ha in Quang Ngai.

– Memorandum of Biomass Minnesota Plant: Tin Thanh Electricity Company cooperates with US businesses, negotiating the terms related to design and build of boiler biomass power. That helps saving of 10 – 20% electricity, reducing 200,000 tons of carbon each year.

Along with other agreements such as joint researching on lower Mekong, Memorandum of Understanding on climate change in the Mekong Delta…

The signing ceremony of the future investment projects includes the Memorandum of Understanding that The Grand Ho Tram Strip develops its 2nd hotel tower; Memorandum of Traffic Safety Program.

Accordingly, The Grand Ho Tram Strip has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cotec Construction Joint Stock Company (CotecCons) on the expansion of The Grand Ho Tram Strip worth 75 million USD.

The construction of the 2^nd hotel tower with 559 rooms of The Grand Ho Tram Strip will be undertaken by CotecCons, bringing the total number of room of The Grand Ho Tram Strip to 1,100 rooms when completed.

After the completion of the hotel building, the actual total investment for the whole project has reached 1 billion USD.

In addition, in a memorandum on traffic safety program, the US will pour about 1 million USD to help Vietnam solving the challenges of traffic safety problems such as accidents, give helmets for citizens…

In the aviator industry, Vietjet Air (Vietnam) and Boeing (US) have signed contract worth 11.3 billion USD in the presence of President Tran Dai Quang and President Obama. With this contract, Vietjet Air will buy 100 Boeing 737 MAX 200 from Boeing.

Besides the contract signed with Boeing, Vietjet Air also signed contract with United Technologies Corp to buy engines for the aircrafts that Vietjet has signed and ordered with aircraft suppliers. The signed contracts worth up to 3.04 billion USD.

According to the executive director of the US Trade Association (AmCham), the visit of President Obama will further promote cooperation relations between the two countries in many fields; including economy, friendship between the two countries, security, human right, global and area issues of mutual interest.

The timing of the trip to Vietnam of President Obama has very important meaning because this is the time Parliament is preparing to consider ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at the end of this year.

AmCham believes that the TPP will bring many benefits and opportunities for companies, investors, workers, farmers and consumers in both the US and Vietnam. When fully deployed, the TPP will pave the way for the digital economy, strengthen the creative industries; contributing to a fair play ground for businesses and investors.

In addition, TPP will bring many important changes to the business environment in Vietnam and opens up many new opportunities, helping Vietnam to speed up in the industrialization, modernization and globalization process. This Agreement will help the private sector to have more opportunities to reach important markets, stimulating competition, attracting foreign investment and contributing to the construction of supply chain infrastructure; from that creates great opportunities for Vietnam enterprises, creating jobs and raise incomes for Vietnamese employees.

Further information   

Risk Prevention in Vietnam

 Trade promotion in Vietnam

Fraud Management in Vietnam

Due diligence corporate investigations

Vietnam entry strategy

Vietnam market intelligence

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VIETNAM RETAILING 2015: FIERCE COMPETITION

It is easy to see that 2015 was a very active year of Vietnam’s retail market, especially in merger and acquisition (M&A), association and joint venture activities… both in manufacturing and trading of retail businesses such as Kinh Do, Citimart, Metro and Nguyen Kim.

According to Euromonitor International – a market research firm, the retail sales in Asia – Pacific was about 4,000 billion USD in 2012 then the top 500 leading retailers accounted for 1,000 billion USD, representing for 24% of total sales. Vietnam retail market is considered attractive and high potential despite the world economy remains difficult.

In 2014, most of the domestic businesses tend to cluster and maintaining position, except some large enterprises like Co.opmart and Saigon Trading Corp (Satra). Even a few enterprises withdrew locations like Fivimart withdrew all locations in the South or Intimex, Hapro also withdrew some locations in the North. This was intended to reinforce the quality of the business and rebranding. Excepting for Satra and Co.opmart still have more new locations this year. Currently, Saigon Co.opmart has presented on 71 locations including 29 supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and expanded to 42 nationwide supermarkets, along with around 100 Co-op Food convenience stores.

According to the experts, the retail market of Vietnam is shifting from the model of mature market to postmodern market. The market is gradually concentrated and the number of companies decreased. Some large retailers failed, saturated real estate market. The model of hype supercenters dominates the retail industry in the postmodern period. At the end of the growth period will be an important change in the retail market for both retailers and suppliers.

Retailers seek future growth because there is no retail channel dominates the growth. Part of the development of hypermarkets in the mature phase will focus on the discount channel. According to the trend, the discount channel continues to grow in the postmodern period. Currently and in the coming time, retailers will frequently launch discount programs and deals to attract customers.

The factors that impact the globaldistribution market are the speed of technological change, change in demographics, buying behavior requires lasting communication connection and knowledge-based purchases. Therefore, retailers must take care of customers regularly with the best service.

As for foreign companies, except Walmart corporation (USA) is in the exploratory stage, most of the major corporations in the world have joined the Vietnam retail market such as Lotte, Big C, Metro, Parkson , Aeon… Foreign enterprises are entering Vietnam market by many different ways: joint venture, association, cooperative transfer location.

Vietnam retail market is very potential. Currently, Vietnam has more than 90 million people, in which the young population accounts for more than half. The average GDP of this country is approximately 2,000 USD / person. In the future, this figure will increase and that will be a prerequisite for the development of Vietnam retail industry, especially modern retail. According to statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the market share of modern retail in Vietnam makes up only 25% of total retail sales. The whole country has about 724 supermarkets and 132 shopping centers. Moreover, the number of truly convenience store, which is branded and operated in store chain, is just hundreds stores. Most supermarkets and shopping centers concentrated in major cities and urban areas. In rural areas and suburbs, they are virtually absent from the retail system, they are major distribute in installments. Therefore, the market share of modern retail market of Vietnam is still quite a lot.

However, this market will have fierce competition between domestic and foreign enterprises. Foreign investors are not only penetrating into Vietnam by the ways of joint ventures in the distribution chain right from production process. For example, C.P Company, which is belong to C.P Group (Thailand) is accounting for 50% market share of eggs, 30% market share of chicken, 7% market share of animal feed in Vietnam. Hence, foreign companies are holding a supply chain from production to distribution. Besides, foreign companies are mostly big enterprises that have advantages in capital and experiences. They have good strategies and that will be the biggest challenges for domestic businesses on the path to affirm its position.

2015 and the coming years, Vietnam retail market will continue to be active and witnessing fierce competition among enterprises, particularly between foreign and domestic firms. We will continue to witness the landing of foreign enterprises in Vietnam market such as: Aeon Japan with the Aeon Mall Him Lam project in Sai Dong, Long Bien; the Lotte Group plans to open 60 locations (now have 9 locations). The domestic businesses are making plans to expand the distribution points not only in the city center but also the suburban areas such as Citimart has extended an additional 70 locations with scale from 1,000 to 2,000 m2 / location in the coming time…

2015 is also a year full of opportunities and challenges for the retail sector of Vietnam. From the date of November 1^st 2015, Vietnam allows the establishment of 100% foreign investment capital retail companies under Vietnam’s commitments upon WTO accession. Besides, 2015 is year that ASEAN economic community (AEC) has officially been established, which allows the flows of resources, goods and human capital… to be freely moving in the area. Moreover, the TPP agreement with 12 participating countries that was signed in 2015. With this agreement, more than 10,000 kinds of goods from the member countries will be completely tariff eliminated. This will cause many difficulties and disadvantages for domestic goods but it is also the motivation for the production and distribution, enhance the competitiveness of enterprises in Vietnam.

According to the survey, the majority of retail brands that selected Vietnam in 2015 on par with Hong Kong, Singapore, even higher than Indonesia and Malaysia. Three big cities that are Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang belong to the top 10 of the most vibrant retail markets in Asia – Pacific region due to its large and young population, after-tax income growth rapidly, quality retail networks that can attract multinational enterprises.

Vietnam currently has about 8,546 markets, 1 million small shops, 724 supermarkets, 132 trade centers and more than 400 convenience stores. Currently, the rural market with nearly 70% of the population but almost completely overlooked. As planned by 2020, Vietnam would grow up to 1,200 – 1,300 supermarket, 180 trade centers and 157 shopping centers. This suggests that the Vietnam retail market is very attractive for manufacturers, businesses and retailers to penetrate.

Further information   

Risk Prevention in Vietnam

 Trade promotion in Vietnam

Fraud Management in Vietnam

Due diligence corporate investigations

Vietnam entry strategy

Vietnam market intelligence

Read More