KTFA: Vietnam News

Henig:  Hanoi tourism meets recovery targets

06:00 | 09/01/2023

(VEN) - An estimated 17.02 million tourists visited Hanoi in the first 11 months of 2022, over five times the figure in the corresponding period last year. That includes 1.27 million foreign tourists, meeting the minimum target set for the year.

According to the Hanoi Department of Tourism, in November alone, Hanoi hosted 1.61 million visitors, including 1.35 million domestic tourists and 255,000 foreigners, and earned VND4.39 trillion from tourism, five times higher than in the same period last year.

Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism Dang Huong Giang said that in December 2022, the department will complete a report to the city People’s Committee on tourism planning to 2030, with orientation to 2050, and submit a cooperation program with CNN on 2023 promotion.

To attract more tourists, the department will coordinate with other localities, focusing on key markets in the north, Ho Chi Minh City, the southern provinces, and Central Highlands in order to build attractive and professional tours imbued with the capital city’s cultural identity. Plans also call for training in tourism management for grassroots-level staff and orientations for investment in agricultural and rural tourism for organizations, individuals and households.

Hanoi was honored recently as the World's Leading City Break Destination 2022 - an important category in the World Travel Awards that evaluates the attractiveness of short-term resort tourism and urban experience for cities around the world.

Earlier in September 2022, Hanoi was also honored as “Asia’s Leading City Tourism Destination in 2022”. Giang said that the “World's Leading City Break Destination 2022" is an opportunity for the capital to affirm its position, image and brand in the international arena, and to promote a “Safe - quality - friendly – attractive” Hanoi to tourists after the COVID-19 closure. “The award is clear proof of the efforts and achievements by Hanoi's tourism industry, showing the dynamism and daring, and promising breakthroughs in its tourism recovery and development,” said Giang.

In the last months of 2022, the Hanoi Department of Tourism will continue to direct travel agencies and destinations to develop attractive and unique tourism products focusing on the city’s advantageous products. It will also advise the city People's Committee on tourism events like the Hanoi Ao Dai Festival, a contest to select Hanoi tourism ambassadors and compose songs about Hanoi tourism.

Thanh Tam  LINK

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Henig:  HCM City to develop as regional centre of specialised medical care

January, 08/2023

HCM City is striving to become a centre of medical care for the ASEAN region, a leader of the city’s Department of Health said.

HCM CITY — HCM City is striving to become a centre of medical care for the ASEAN region, a leader of the city’s Department of Health said.

The health sector will also focus to improve the capacity of disease control and prevention, strengthen grassroots healthcare networks and intensive care ambulance services this year, said Tăng Chí Thượng, director of the department.

Development of human resources, proper investment in infrastructure and medical equipment are priority areas in order to fulfill these tasks, he said at a meeting late last week to launch the tasks for 2023.

Digital transformation and the application of advanced techniques will be fostered as part of measures to realise these tasks, he said.

A project to set up a hi-tech screening and diagnostic centre at Oncology Hospital No.1 is being developed as part of efforts to develop a specialised medical care centre for the ASEAN region.

The hi-tech screening and diagnostic centre will help locals and foreigners, especially expats living in Việt Nam, access high-quality health check services and examinations.

It is expected to reduce the number of patients travelling abroad for medical examinations and treatment and boost medical tourism.

Dương Anh Đức, deputy chairman of the city People's Committee, said that the health sector must be one of the pioneers of digital transformation to improve the quality of health services and promote the city as a centre of high quality medical care in the region.

He asked the department to coordinate with the University of Medicine and Pharmacy and Phạm Ngọc Thạch Medical University to train high-quality human resources.

— VNS     LINK

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Henig:  Positive news lifts the market's sentiment: expert

January, 09/2023

The smooth beginning raises hope that the market will run more actively, creating disbursement opportunities for short-, medium-, and long-term investors.

HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese stock market witnessed a strong performance with an improvement in liquidity in the first trading week of 2023. The positive news was attributed to the bullish trend, according to experts.

The smooth beginning raises hope that the market will run more actively, creating disbursement opportunities for short-, medium-, and long-term investors.

According to experts from VNDirect Securities Corporation, the market focused on several internal and external factors in the first week of 2023, including China officially announcing the opening of international flight routes on January 8; phase 2 of the East North-South Expressway Project being officially launched on January 1; and draft amendments to Decree 65 amending and supplementing several articles of Decree 153 on the offering and trading of a private placement of corporate bonds in the domestic and international markets being submitted to the Ministry of Justice.

Indices all posted outstanding performances. Of which, the VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) soared by 4.4 per cent to 1,051.4 points last week, while the HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) increased by 2.6 per cent to 210.6 points, and the UpCOM index jumped by 1.5 per cent to 72.7 points.

The market’s liquidity improved, with the average trading value of the three exchanges rising 9.3 per cent to over VNĐ11.7 trillion (US$499.5 million). Last week, foreign investors continued to be net buyers due to a stable macro-economic backdrop and appealing stock valuations.

Specifically, at the beginning of the new year, foreign investors net bought more than VNĐ1.6 trillion on HOSE, VNĐ87 billion on HNX, and VNĐ2 billion on UpCOM.

VNDirect said that after the positive week, the market’s benchmark VN-Index is heading to a strong resistance area of around 1,070 points.

Although there have been some positive macro signals, such as a cooling of exchange rates and a slowdown in rate hikes, cash flows are unlikely to improve dramatically as the Lunar New Year (Tết) is coming near.

Traditionally, investors tend to lower the margin ratio to reduce interest expenses ahead of the long holidays. Therefore, it is difficult to expect the market's momentum to be maintained in the weeks leading up to Tết.

Therefore, short-term investors should consider reducing their holdings of stocks when the market enters strong resistance areas around 1,070 points and buying them back once it corrects.

Long-term investors, on the other hand, can continue to hold stocks and wait for stock indices to break out when cash flows improve post-Tết holidays.

Meanwhile, Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) said that the market had sent many positive signals at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, given the net buying streak from foreign investors and positive movements of some pillar stocks, including bank stocks.

At the current state, the VN-Index is expected to escape the downtrend shortly. Previously, the market fell for four consecutive weeks.

Even if the VN-Index exits the bearish trend, the market is unlikely to enter the bullish phase immediately. Instead, it will move in recovery waves with narrowing ranges to accumulate more before the uptrend occurs. Therefore, at the moment, investors can participate in the market with a short-term position, as SHS recommended.

From a medium- and long-term perspective, SHS said that it is clear that after a year of trading in the downtrend, the stock price levels have dropped sharply and become more attractive, even though the market still faces many challenges this year.

Many obstacles exist, such as rising interest rates, diminishing cheap money sources, and the gloomy global economy.

The discounted stock prices to the current levels will open up new attractive medium- and long-term investment opportunities.

— VNS    LINK

Henig:  Key traffic projects poised to enhance HCM City’s infrastructure

January, 07/2023

Major transport projects are expected to create infrastructure breakthroughs for HCM City.

HCM CITY — Major transport projects are expected to create infrastructure breakthroughs for HCM City.

Ring Road No 3, identified as one of the city’s key and urgent traffic projects in the 2021-25 period, runs through HCM City and the southern provinces of Đồng Nai, Bình Dương and Long An.

With an investment of VNĐ75.4 trillion (US$3.2 billion), the Ministry of Transport is the investor of the project.

The project has a total length of 76.34km, including 47.51km in HCM City’s Thủ Đức City and the districts of Củ Chi, Hóc Môn and Bình Chánh.

Construction on the project restarted on the Tân Vạn - Nhơn Trạch section in September last year after prolonged delays due to a lack of funds and difficulties in site clearance.

The Tân Vạn - Nhơn Trạch section consists of a 1.92km segment in HCM City, and a 6.3km segment spanning across Đồng Nai.

The project is expected to be completed in 2025 and put in official operation in 2026.

The second key project is Metro Line No 1 between Bến Thành Market in District 1 and Suối Tiên Theme Park in Thủ Đức City.

The line has a total length of nearly 20km, including 2.6km underground, running through 14 stations, with three underground stations.

It has a total investment of more than VNĐ43.7 trillion ($1.9 billion)

The project has received investment of over VNĐ43.7 trillion ($1.85 billion), VNĐ38.2 trillion ($1.62 billion) of which is from loans.

Construction on the first metro line began in August 2012 and is 93 per cent complete, according to the city Management Authority for Urban Railways.

A test run was conducted on an elevated section from Suối Tiên Station to Bình Thái Station in Thủ Đức City on December 21 last year.

The line is expected to be put into operation at the end of this year.

Metro Line No 2 will connect Bến Thành Market in District 1 and Tham Lương Depot in District 12, with an investment of VNĐ47.9 trillion ($2 billion).

With a total length of 48km, the second metro line will run across districts 1, 3, 10, 12, Tân Bình and Tân Bình.

Its first phase will be 11.3km, including a 2km elevated section and a 9.3km underground section, with 11 stations, including 10 underground and one elevated.

The city strives to start the project in 2023 and finish it in 2028. It will connect with the first metro line.

Crossing the Soài Rạp River, Cần Giờ Bridge is expected to connect Nhà Bè and Cần Giờ districts, and replace the Bình Khánh ferry.

The Bình Khánh ferry is currently the only way to reach Cần Giờ from the city and is badly overloaded.

The new bridge will have a total length of more than 3.6km, with four motor vehicle lanes and two mixed lanes.

It will cost nearly VNĐ10 trillion ($424 million).

The city is carrying out investment preparation to start construction in the following year, and complete it in 2028.

The HCM City-Mộc Bài Expressway will connect HCM City with Mộc Bài, which is an international border gate between Việt Nam and Cambodia in Tây Ninh Province.

Currently, the only road connecting HCM City and Tây Ninh Province is National Highway 22, which has become overcrowded.

The expressway will have a total length of 53.5km, including 23.7km in HCM City, with total investment of VNĐ16.7 trillion ($707.8 million).

It is the beginning of the Ring Road No 3 project and connects with the Ring Road No 4 project.

The project’s first phase is expected to start next year and be completed at the same time as Ring Road No 3 in 2026.

HCM City and Tây Ninh signed a cooperation agreement for the road in 2019.

The authorities of the two localities are also building shopping malls and service facilities along the project to raise revenue for construction of the expressway.

HCM City and Tây Ninh Province are among eight provinces and cities that make up the southern key economic zone.

The new HCM City-Tây Ninh Expressway is expected to ease congestion and facilitate economic growth in the southern region, especially in industrial parks, export processing zones and the Mộc Bài Border Gate Economic Zone.

It will enhance transport connectivity and promote trade between Việt Nam and neighbouring countries.

A number of key transport projects began construction at the end of last year such as upgrading and expanding National Highway No 50 in Bình Chánh District, building the third passenger terminal at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in Tân Bình District and An Phú Intersection in Thủ Đức City.

— VNS   LINK