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Tag Archives: Vietnam
Chip Stocks Slump as Industry Eyes Vietnam – TipRanks.com – TipRanks
- Chip Stocks Slump as Industry Eyes Vietnam – TipRanks.com TipRanks
- New Partnership with Vietnam to Explore Semiconductor Supply Chain Opportunities – United States Department of State Department of State
- Marvell CEO Matt Murphy Joins President Joseph Biden and U.S. Business Delegation on Trade Meetings with Vietnam Yahoo Finance
- Vietnam unlikely to displace China in global chip ecosystem despite US wish Global Times
- FPT Announces US Investment, Workforce Development for AI and Semiconductor amid Biden’s Vietnam Visit Financial Post
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Majority of USWNT remains silent as national anthem plays prior to Women’s World Cup opener against Vietnam – Fox News
- Majority of USWNT remains silent as national anthem plays prior to Women’s World Cup opener against Vietnam Fox News
- United States vs. Vietnam Highlights | 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup FOX Soccer
- Sophia Smith kick-starts two-time defending champion United States with pair of goals in World Cup-opening win The Boston Globe
- Sophia Smith honors Katie Meyer with USWNT goal celebration Just Women’s Sports
- USWNT players largely silent during national anthem in 2023 World Cup opener against Vietnam, who proudly sang theirs New York Post
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Vietnam president quits as Communist Party intensifies graft crackdown
HANOI, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has resigned after the ruling Communist Party blamed him for “violations and wrongdoing” by officials under his control, the government said on Tuesday, in a major escalation of the country’s anti-graft campaign.
Phuc, a former prime minister widely credited with accelerating pro-business reforms, held the largely ceremonial post of president since 2021 and is the highest-ranking official targeted by the party’s sweeping corruption crackdown.
Vietnam has no paramount ruler and is officially led by four “pillars”: the party’s secretary, the president, prime minister and speaker of the house.
Phuc, 68, was ultimately responsible for offences committed by many officials, including two deputy prime ministers and three ministers, the government said.
“Fully being aware of his responsibilities before the party and people, he submitted an application to resign from his assigned positions, quit his job and retire,” it said in statement.
Phuc’s office could not immediately be reached for comment and it was not clear if a replacement has been chosen.
Vietnam has been rife with speculation he would be removed following January’s dismissal of two deputy prime ministers who served under him, as the party doubles down on a “blazing furnace” anti-corruption drive led by its powerful long-serving chief, Nguyen Phu Trong.
Last year, 539 party members were prosecuted or “disciplined” for corruption and “deliberate wrongdoings”, including ministers, top officials and diplomats, according to the party, while police investigated 453 corruption cases, up 50% from 2021.
Trong earlier this month said the party was “more determined” and “more effective and methodical” in its approach, and vowed to deliver results.
IMPACT UNCERTAIN
Opinions vary on the impact of the anti-graft drive on investment and policy.
Le Hong Hiep of the Vietnam Studies Programme at the Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute said the purge could pave the way for cleaner more capable leaders to rise.
“As long as the leadership reshuffles do not lead to radical policy changes, their impact on the economy will also be limited,” Hiep posted on his Facebook account.
However, Ha Hoang Hop, a senior visiting fellow at the same institute, said Phuc’s demise and uncertainty over the impact of the crackdown could unnerve investors.
“This could lead Vietnam to a time of instability that would worry foreign friends and investors,” he said.
Phuc’s resignation requires approval from the legislature, which sources on Monday said would hold a rare extraordinary meeting this week, adding to expectation that Phuc’s fate had been sealed.
Phuc, who was known in Vietnam for his friendly approach and love for the national soccer team, was once tipped as a future party General Secretary, the state’s most prestigious job.
As prime minister from 2016 to 2021, he oversaw an average 6% annual economic growth for Asia’s burgeoning manufacturing powerhouse and helped further a liberalisation drive that included trade deals with the European Union and Pacific powers.
Despite his downfall, the government on Tuesday praised his achievements, particularly his pandemic response.
“He has made great efforts in leading, directing and administering the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control, achieving important results,” it said.
Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Martin Petty
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Vietnam rescuers race to save boy trapped down 115-foot concrete hole since New Year’s Eve
Hundreds of rescuers in Vietnam were battling for a third day Monday to save a 10-year-old boy who fell more than 100 feet down a shaft at a construction site on New Year’s Eve.
The boy was reportedly heard calling for help shortly after he fell into the shaft of a hollow concrete pile just 25 cm (10 inches) in diameter at a bridge construction site in the Dong Thap province Saturday morning while searching for scrap metal with friends.
But as of Monday, he hasn’t been responding to rescuers, who lowered a camera to help locate the boy’s position down the estimated 115-foot-long support pillar, according to Reuters.
Efforts to lift the pile with cranes and other heavy equipment have so far been unsuccessful.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, ‘INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT’ LEAVES 3 DEAD, OTHERS INJURED AT CONSTRUCTION SITE
Rescuers work to free a 10-year-old boy trapped in a deep shaft at a bridge construction site in Vietnam’s Dong Thap province on Jan. 2, 2023.
(STR/AFP via Getty Images)
“I cannot understand how he fell into the hollow concrete pile, which has a diameter of a [25 cm] span only, and was driven 35 meters into the ground,” Le Hoang Bao, director of Dong Thap province’s Department of Transport, told Tuoi Tre News, a local newspaper, according to Reuters.
Rescuers in Vietnam on Monday worked to free a 10-year-old boy who fell into a deep shaft at a construction site two days earlier.
(STR/AFP via Getty Images)
The newspaper reported that rescuers “are not sure about the current condition of the boy,” as he “has stopped interacting with the outside though oxygen had always been pumped into the” hole.
AFP identified the trapped 10-year-old as Thai Ly Hao Nam. Video showed the boy’s distraught family members being carried from the scene while awaiting news on his condition.
Various rescuers and construction workers dig around the concrete shaft to save the boy.
(Reuters Connect)
Crews have also been drilling and softening the surrounding soil to attempt – so far without success – to pull up the concrete pillar.
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According to AFP, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Monday tapped federal rescuers to join local authorities’ efforts to save the boy.
Vietnam carries out ‘substantial’ expansion in South China Sea, US thinktank finds | South China Sea
Vietnam has conducted a major expansion of dredging and landfill work at several of its South China Sea outposts in the second half of this year, signalling an intent to significantly fortify its claims in the disputed waterway.
Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has said on Wednesday the work in the Spratly Islands, which are also claimed by China and others, had created roughly 170 hectares (420 acres) of new land and brought the total area Vietnam had reclaimed in the past decade to 220 hectares.
Basing its findings on commercial satellite imagery, CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said the effort included expanded landfill work at four features and new dredging at five others.
“The scale of the landfill work, while still falling far short of the more than 3,200 acres of land created by China from 2013 to 2016, is significantly larger than previous efforts from Vietnam and represents a major move toward reinforcing its position in the Spratlys,” the report said.
Vietnam’s US embassy has not responded to a request for comment on the report.
AMTI said Vietnam’s midsized outposts at Namyit Island, Pearson Reef and Sand Cay were undergoing major expansions, with a dredged port capable of hosting larger vessels already taking shape at Namyit and Pearson.
Namyit Island (47ha) and Pearson Reef (48ha) were both now larger than Spratly Island at 39ha, which had been Vietnam’s largest outpost. Tennent Reef, which previously only hosted two small pillbox structures, now had 26ha of artificial land, the report said.
AMTI said Vietnam used clamshell dredgers to scoop up sections of shallow reef and deposit the sediment for landfill, a less destructive process than the cutter-suction dredging China had used to build its artificial islands.
“But Vietnam’s dredging and landfill activities in 2022 are substantial and signal an intent to significantly fortify its occupied features in the Spratlys,” the report said.
“[W]hat infrastructure the expanded outposts will host remains to be seen. Whether and to what degree China and other claimants react will bear watching,” it said.
China claims most of the South China Sea and has established military outposts on artificial islands it has built there. Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines all have overlapping claims in the sea, which is crisscrossed by vital shipping lanes and contains gas fields and rich fishing grounds.
Exclusive-U.S. defence companies in talks to sell Vietnam helicopters, drones: sources
By Francesco Guarascio
HANOI (Reuters) – U.S. defence firms and top Vietnamese government officials have discussed supplying military gear, including helicopters and drones, two sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters, a new sign the country may reduce its reliance on Russian arms.
Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Textron and IM Systems Group met with the officials on the sidelines of the country’s first large-scale arms fair last week, according to the US-ASEAN Business Council, the industry body that arranged the meetings.
A source who was present at the weapons discussions said they involved the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of National Defence.
The preliminary talks, which may not lead to any deals, come as the Southeast Asian nation seeks new suppliers and the Ukraine conflict strains the capabilities of Russia, for decades Vietnam’s main military partner. The war, which Moscow calls a “special operation”, has also led to strict sanctions against Russia.
“This marks the beginning of a more open-minded Vietnam People’s Army to U.S. weapons, and a willingness to engage deeper with the U.S. in defence as a whole,” said Nguyen The Phuong, a military expert and researcher at the University of New South Wales.
Military deals with the U.S. face many potential hurdles, including that Washington might block arms sales over human rights; concerns about the impact on Hanoi’s tense relations with China; high costs; and whether U.S.-made systems can be integrated with Vietnam’s legacy weapons, analysts said.
The person who attended the meetings said the companies offered a range of military gear and had “promising” discussions about non-lethal equipment, including helicopters for internal security, plus drones, radars and other systems to keep watch on the air, the sea and space.
Vietnam’s defence and foreign ministries did not respond to a request for comment.
A second person familiar with the matter said talks on drones and helicopters began before the arms fair and have involved more weapons.
Lockheed Martin, which showcased fighter and military transport planes at the event, declined to comment.
A Boeing spokesperson referred questions to Vietnam’s defence ministry. Raytheon, Textron and IM Systems Group did not respond to requests for comment.
The discussions show the United States’ growing efforts to gain influence with Hanoi, nearly half a century after the end of the Vietnam War. Since an arms embargo was lifted in 2016, U.S. defence exports to Vietnam have been limited to coastguard ships and trainer aircraft, while Russia has supplied about 80% of the country’s arsenal.
The arms fair attracted dozens of defence companies from 30 countries, all hoping to get a share of the estimated $2 billion Vietnam spends annually in arms imports amid on-off tensions with its neighbour China.
Both sources, who asked not to be named because the talks were confidential, said Lockheed Martin separately had discussions with Vietnam about a new communication and defence satellite, which could replace one of the two from the U.S. company Hanoi already operates.
The U.S. embassy in Hanoi declined to comment, but Ambassador Marc Knapper has said the U.S. stood ready to discuss any military item Vietnam might want to acquire.
The U.S. military has already supplied two relatively small naval cutters and transferred two T-6 Texan trainer aircraft, of which another 10 will be shipped by 2027. It has also pledged Boeing ScanEagle reconnaissance drones, which have not yet been delivered.
Sources and analysts said Vietnam is also considering deals with suppliers from Israel, India, and European and Northeast Asian countries. In the last decade, Israel has been the second-biggest seller of weapons to Vietnam after Russia.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Millennial’s beauty startup Social Bella raised over $225 million
When the Covid pandemic was raging in 2020, much of the world was in lockdown and more turned to online shopping.
But Chrisanti Indiana did the unexpected: she expanded her e-commerce business — offline.
Her beauty and personal care e-commerce startup, Sociolla, had just two brick-and-mortar stores in Indonesia in 2019. By the end of 2021, that number grew “10 times” more, she said.
“A lot of people actually told us that it’s a very bold move to actually open an offline presence, while everybody was closing their offline stores [during the pandemic],” she added.
But that was a “well-calculated” move for Social Bella, which operates Sociolla.
We know that this is the time for us to actually prepare … to make sure that after the pandemic, we can serve more and more consumers.
Chrisanti Indiana
Co-founder and CMO, Sociolla
“We know that this is the time for us to actually prepare … to make sure that after the pandemic, we can serve more and more consumers,” she added.
Looking far ahead turned out to be the right move for the 31-year-old. Her online and offline approach transformed her e-commerce startup into a multimillion-dollar beauty conglomerate.
Since 2018, it has raised around $225 million, and drawn an impressive list of investors that include East Ventures, Jungle Ventures, Temasek and Pavilion Capital.
Indiana, the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Social Bella, tells CNBC Make It how she took her Jakarta-based startup to the next level.
Tackling counterfeits
The idea for Sociolla came about in 2015, when Indiana returned home to Jakarta, after studying in Australia.
The makeup junkie realized that in Australia, she had easy access to a wide range of beauty products from international brands. That was a stark contrast to Indonesia.
“There was lot of options for me, but then I came back and there’s basically none,” said Indiana.
“There wasn’t a platform that had it all — I had to find specific sellers on social media, ask friends who can help purchase the product for you [when they are] overseas.”
What made matters worse for her was the online proliferation of counterfeit makeup products that were sometimes selling at “a fraction” of the original’s price.
I still remember vividly in my mind that there’s a lot of like sellers online, especially on social media, that claim their products are 99% authentic. What does that mean, 99% authentic?
Chrisanti Indiana
Co-founder and CMO, Sociolla
“I still remember vividly in my mind that there’s a lot of like sellers online, especially on social media, that claim their products are 99% authentic. What does that mean, 99% authentic?”
Indeed, locally made counterfeits in Indonesia are rife, thanks to cheap labor costs and materials. According to a local report, Indonesian authorities seized illegal cosmetic products worth $9 million in 2018 — twice the previous year’s amount.
Seeing friends buying these products left Indiana perplexed.
“It’s skincare, it’s makeup. It’s something that you put on your skin. It’s just bizarre for me,” she said.
Sociolla has expanded into brick-and-mortar shops. It now has 47 stores in Indonesia and 16 in Vietnam.
Social Bella
Determined to build a space where consumers can get products that are safe and authentic, Indiana teamed up with her brother and friend to launch Social Bella, with a starting capital of $13,000.
“Since we started, we ensure that we only work with authorized distributors or brand owners,” Indiana said.
Building an ‘ecosystem’
Sociolla may have started off as an e-commerce platform, but the trio had bigger dreams.
Social Bella has since gone beyond offline shops — it’s also a distributor for beauty and personal care manufacturers worldwide.
“We become an associate partner for a lot of global brands in Indonesia. We help them not only to distribute their products to Indonesia, but we also help them understand the market,” said Indiana.
On top of that, the business also operates Soco, which Social Bella says is Indonesia’s largest online review service for beauty products. Soco has amassed more than 2.5 million reviews for around 36,000 products, the company added.
Social Bella was founded in 2015 by Chrisanti Indiana, her brother and president Christopher Madiam (left) and CEO John Rasjid (right).
Social Bella
The “beauty journey” for customers goes beyond putting something in their shopping carts and checking out, said Indiana.
“We realized that there’s a lot of touch points that are really important … finding the right products for yourself is not just about going to the store and picking it up. You will make sure that you read the reviews, talk to your friends, or Google first,” she added.
“Soco makes sure that they can access tons of product reviews before they purchase products.”
On top of that, Social Bella also runs Beauty Journal — a lifestyle website, and Lilla, an online retailer for mothers and babies.
That’s all part of building the business “ecosystem,” as Indiana calls it.
We want to make sure that we are scaling up and reaching more and more consumers. If Social Bella becomes a unicorn, it’s a bonus.
“We want to … to serve more and more women, not only in beauty and personal care, but also in other industries.”
The startup appears to be on the right track — it now boasts more than 30 million users across all its business units, said Social Bella, selling an inventory of 12,000 products from 400 brands worldwide.
Indonesia’s next unicorn?
Over the last two years, Social Bella expanded aggressively, growing from just three Sociolla stores in Indonesia in 2020, to 47 stores there and 16 stores in Vietnam today.
While much of the expansion took place during the pandemic, Indiana said that had always been part of the plan for the e-commerce platform, lockdowns or not.
“It’s actually to create a seamless omnichannel experience … because we believe that we are serving the same customer whether she shops offline or online,” the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia honoree said.
“They can choose to do click-and-collect or … she can also deliver the purchases to her home. It’s making sure that she can shop the way she likes.”
Social Bella aims to serve more female customers.
Social Bella
Vietnam’s first monkeypox case tests negative for virus
A blister is seen on the hand of a woman infected with monkeypox in HCMC. Photo courtesy of the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases
Vietnam’s first monkeypox patient has tested negative for the virus after 12 days of treatment, director of the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases said Tuesday.
The 35-year-old woman no longer has fever and her blisters are beginning to heal, said Le Manh Hung, director of the hospital.
“All close contacts of the patient since she returned to Vietnam have not shown any potential symptom for monkeypox,” he added.
The woman displayed symptoms like fatigue, chills, muscle aches, headaches and coughing, as well as rashes on several body parts from September 18 while she was traveling in Dubai. She was confirmed infected with monkeypox in Ho Chi Minh City after returning on September 22. Viral genome sequencing revealed that she was infected with a monkeypox strain that has circulated throughout many regions of the world since the beginning of this year.
Hung said the disease has not been able to spread to the community, which aligns with other reports around the world saying monkeypox is not easily transmitted among the community. Most people would recover after 10-14 days and would stop being contagious after 21 days, he added.
HCMC authorities have deployed measures to monitor entrants for monkeypox detection and prevention, the municipal Department of Health said.
As of Monday, over 68,000 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in 106 countries and territories around the world. 25 deaths have been recorded.
Vietnam karaoke bar fire kills at least 32 people | Vietnam
The death toll from a fire that tore through a karaoke bar in southern Vietnam has risen to 32, state media have said.
The blaze engulfed the second floor of the building on Tuesday night, trapping customers and staff as dense smoke filled the staircase and blocked the emergency exit, reports said.
Many crowded on to a balcony to escape the flames, which spread quickly in the wooden interior, while others were forced to jump from the building, state media reported on Wednesday.
Vietnam’s prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, on Wednesday ordered a further inspection of high-risk venues, especially karaoke bars.
Photos showed plumes of smoke billowing out of the bar – located in a crowded residential neighbourhood in Thuan An city, north of commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City – as firefighters on cranes tried to extinguish the blaze.
Cong An Nhan Dan newspaper, the official mouthpiece of the Public Security Ministry, said the death toll had risen to 32, with 17 men and 15 women killed.
Mai Hung Dung, a top official with the ruling Communist party in Binh Duong province where the bar is located, earlier put the death toll at 23, with 11 injured. He told AFP officials were still searching for more victims.
State media reported that eight people were found dead in the toilet.
The initial cause of the fire was said to be an electrical short circuit, according to a report by Binh Duong authorities cited by state media.
Witness Nguyen Sang, who lives near the karaoke bar, told the VnExpress news site that when fire trucks arrived at the scene a receptionist said there were 40 people stuck inside.
“Many people ran outside through the main entrance, but many others could not stand the heat and they jumped down, breaking their hands and legs,” Sang said.
Rescue workers searched through the night for anyone trapped in the 30-room bar, according to state media.
The bar’s fire prevention regulations had been checked prior to the blaze, police told state media.
In what was previously Vietnam’s deadliest fire, 13 people died in a 2018 blaze in an apartment complex in Ho Chi Minh City.
In 2016, a fire at a karaoke facility in the capital Hanoi left 13 people dead, prompting a country-wide assessment of fire prevention measures at bars and clubs.
Last month, three firefighters died after trying to extinguish a fire at another karaoke bar in Hanoi.