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Vietnam’s foreign ownership policies poses difficulties for foreigners to purchase properties as each administrative district offers only 250 landed properties and only 10% of each project can be sold to foreigners, creating a high demand, as landed properties are favored among the locals. Golden Emperor partnered with Malaysian developer Park City to launch ParkCity Hanoi- The Mansions, in Hong Kong the past weekend. This prestigious project is a one of a kind investment sitting at Ha Dong’s prime location one minute away from the BRT, offers private clubhouses, is nearby shopping centers and international schools. The seminar attracted many investors to purchase their desired homes.

Photo Above: Golden Emperor Properties hosted the Vietnam’s Landed Property Seminar.

Above Photo: Mr. Terence Chan, Managing Director of Golden Emperor Properties, discussed and analyzed the market trend of Hanoi.

Photo Above: The seminar over the weekend attracted a number of investors.

Photo Above: Investors can choose their most desired property.

Republic of Korea (ROK) has plans to shift its trade focus with Vietnam as China and US undergo a trade dispute. South Korean mega-corporations such as Samsung Electronics Corp have already migrated their production lines to Vietnam. Many predict that Vietnam will surpass US and become ROK’s second largest export market.

President of ROK, Moon Jae-In now seeks for partnerships with various countries in South East Asia to expand its Samsung manufacturing overseas and potential export markets. Moon Jae-In explained that the trade dispute between China and US will potentially produce a negative effect on the economy of ROK during his visit to Vietnam last month.

The ROK government predicts that under Trump’s policies on trades, US will place further restrictions onto imports from ROK creating an unreliable partnership between the two. Furthermore, ROK’s parternship has ceased progress with China for over a year since ROK’s development on its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

Exports of Korean corporation- manufactured products from Vietnam was a high 50% of the total exports last year, a 10% increase from the previous three years. The Korean International Trade Association (KITA) expects the Vietnamese export market to become its second largest export market by 2020.

According to a study by Korea Trade Promotion Corporation (KOTRA), ROK is one of the most prominent investors in Vietnam. From last year’s January to November, the country has invested a foreign direct investment (FDI) total of US $74 billion, a historic high. Currently, there are as many as approximately 5,500 Korean-invested corporations in Vietnam.

Indeed, ROK’s expansion in trades has its inclusions, and manufactured goods in Vietnam are to be exported mainly to US and China at the end. The Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) believes that although markets in ASEAN cannot completely replace US and China, but with the current trade dispute,  South East Asian countries and especially Vietnam, will be able to help ROK expands into the Asian markets.

Source: United Daily News

E-commerce is on the rise in Southeast Asia with more than US$10 billion worth of goods being purchased online in 2017, almost the double of 2015’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of US$5.5 billion.

According to a study by iPrice titled The State of eCommerce in Southeast Asia 2017, Vietnam leads in the total number of conversions when compared to other countries in the region, and Singapore is the biggest spender with an average basket size of nearly US$100 per order. The paper, released last month, details the e-commerce habits of consumers from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. The findings are drawn from data provided by over a thousand e-commerce merchants in the region, including Lazada, Blibli, Galleon Shopee and Bukalapak.

According to the document, e-commerce has been growing at a stunning 41% Compound Annual Growth Rate in the past years, fueled by smartphone adoption. In the past 12 months, mobile has grown on average 19%, now accounting for 72% of the overall e-commerce web traffic with Indonesia leading the pack at an 87% share of mobile traffic, followed by Thailand at nearly 79% and the Philippines at a little over 76%.

In terms of conversion rate, which refers to the percentage of website visits that turn into a product purchase, Vietnam is leading the way with a rate 30% higher than the average. It is followed by Singapore and Indonesia, both at about 10%.

While Southeast Asian consumers enjoy browsing e-commerce websites on their smartphones, the majority of purchases are made on desktop devices. Consequently, across the region, conversion rates are substantially higher for desktop computers than mobile phones.

Singaporeans are the biggest spenders, with an average amount spent for every order of US$91. They are followed by the Filipinos with an average of US$56, and the Malaysians at US$54. Vietnam is the last with a basket size of US$23. The figures correlate with the GDP per capita of each country with Singapore ranked first with US$90,530 and Vietnam last with a GDP per capita of just US$6,880.

Southeast Asia consumers tend to shop between 9am and 5pm, when people are traditionally at work or school. Singaporeans are the exception and seem to enjoy evening shopping more than other countries.

Southeast Asia’s Internet economy has exceeded expectations in the past years, reaching US$50 billion in 2017 and outpacing earlier growth estimations by 35%, according to the e-Conomy Southeast Asia Spotlight 2017report by Google and Temasek. By 2025, Southeast Asia’s Internet economy is predicted to reach US$200 billion with e-commerce weighting as much as US$88.1 billion. With 330 million Internet users, Southeast Asia has the third largest number of Internet users in the world – bigger than the whole population of the US. Since 2015, the region has added no less than 70 million new Internet users, the report says.

Southeast Asians spend more time on the mobile Internet than anyone else on the planet. Thailand is top of the list with 4.2 hours per day, with Indonesia a close second at 3.9 hours per day. To compare, the US spends 2 hours per day, the UK 1.8 hours per day, and Japan 1 hour per day.

Source: FinTechnews

The total agriculture, fishery and forestry exports turnover in Vietnam reached US $36 billion in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 13 percent  and is expected to reach US $40 billion this year in which US $4.5 billion will account for the strong performance of exports of vegetables and fruits. In 2017, exports of fruits and vegetables (with mangoes and dragon fruits overtaking as the major exported products) which grew by 40.5%, totaled to US $3.45 billion, into Vietnam’s biggest markets of China, Japan, US and South Korea.

Vietnam is now gradually increasing its exports into Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Forestry and seafood exports to North America reached US $16 billion in 2017 in total value. In the same year, Vietnam exported 353,000 tonnes of cashew nuts overseas to US, Netherlands and China, which accounted for an overwhelming export value of US $3.52 billion. Despite other countries’ effort into producing high quality cashews using advanced technology, experts suggest that the country could become the world’s main processing hub for the global market due to its steady quality output and efficiency.

In the Mekong Delta, the largest agricultural sector in the country, farming still faces issues with poor harvesting technology, increased competition and lack of linkage between farmers and export businesses. The government has signed agreements and partnerships with countries including Singapore with which Vietnam will adapt new agricultural practices to improve its crops productivity and quality and to expand its livestock export industry. Last year, Vietnam exported its first batch of poultry to Japan. More plans to expand the export of pork are being processed by the Ministry of Foreign Agriculture and Rural Development, but the government is now in the proceeding to ensure that livestock exports are processed to meet globally standardized procedures and regulations.

The country will be pairing up with Singapore, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands to promote and revamp its agricultural policies and technology this year. Secretary General of Singapore Manufacturing Federation described Vietnam as a major market with the potential of being South East Asia’s agricultural and food industry hub. In turn, Singapore can provide the support in technology, supply chains and logistics for Vietnam.

Besides partnering with multiple countries for partnership relationships to increase its exports, Vietnam’s national banks, Arigbank, BIDV, Vietcombank and Vietinbank have implemented new subsidiary policies as an effort to support individuals and organizations to transform the agricultural sector. The new subsidiary policies will allow Vietnam’s production sector to improve its quality to meet supply requirements, hygiene and standards worldwide in order to become a leader in agricultural exports compared to its neighboring countries.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is the spotlight of international leadership in March. Economic leaders from 11 countries signed a trade agreement that will forge a trans-Asia Pacific economy. The CPTPP is one of the most visionary trade agreements yet signed. Officials from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam met in Santiago, Chile, on March 8^th, to set rules and standards for the trade expected to be effective end of the year to early 2019.

The CPTPP is a free trade agreement involving 11 countries and represent a population of over 500 million people. The agreement surpasses that of the European Union and will account for 13.58% of world GDP. The goal for the agreement this year, is to reduce tariffs on exports and imports between the membered countries by 98% and to protect the economy against steep tariffs that the US government has imposed this year. The trade agreement of these 11 countries is estimated to increase by 6% by 2030 and each country will benefit from a US$157 billion revenue per annum estimated by Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).

The report by Asian Trade Center has analyzed the benefits that CPTPP will be able to bring as tariffs and policies on imported goods will be lifted. Such agreement will aid products to be integrated and introduced into foreign consumer market, where products can be widely dispersed. The center predicts that during the first few days of the trade agreement when effective, tariffs on exported goods will largely decrease and continue onwards with other products. This is good news for the product market as well as manufacturing businesses.

The export performance of Vietnam, as a membered country of the CPTPP, has grown strong as a global exporter. In the last decade, its export and import growth has increased 3 times with a 17.6% growth per annum and ended 2017 with a strong performance with US $210 billion worth of exported goods and a total revenue of US $2.7 billion. Vietnam places 50^th in the World Trade Organization (WTO) index in 2007, and today, ranks 26th with an exceptional achievement in the worldwide trade sector.

Economists from Voice of Vietnam forecasted that the benefits from CPTPP will bring the country closer bonds with global economies and be able to forge additional trade partnerships. Moreover, Vietnam’s exports will also be able to reach markets in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile and Australia, and further grow in Japan, the 5^th largest trade and 3^rd largest investment partner. Apparel manufacturing, shoes and other similar manufacturing businesses will likely increase in export revenue in addition to agricultural products.

On the other hand, CPTPP is a highly standardized law agreement. With its participation, Vietnam must implement new strategies and reformation work within its government structure and policies to prepare for the upcoming competition with other markets in order to become a leading economy.

According to ETtoday, CPTPP is now recruiting more country members to join its agreement including Thailand, Korea, Philippines, Sri Lanka and even UK. This suggests the potential for CPTPP to expand with participation from global economies which will in turn, increase Vietnam’s prospering export growth.