VIETNAM'S BUSINESS NEWS HEADLINES AUGUST 21 02:00       Wood exports recovering even in face of COVID-19 After a sharp fall due to adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, wood export revenue has seen signs of recovery since June thanks to exporters’ efforts to adapt to the situation. Statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs show that wood exports reached only 772 million USD in May, a year-on-year fall of over 15 percent. But in July, the figures rose to 1.05 billion USD, representing rise of 20.7 percent year on year.  In the first seven months of 2020, the export of wood and furniture fetched 6.09 billion USD, up 6.2 percent over the same period last year, including 4.44 billion USD from furniture exports. The growth is attributed to higher demands and impact of the pandemic on wood sector in many countries that forces them to import the product.  Meanwhile, domestic production has not been interrupted, which enables the country to maintain the sector’s supply capacity to make up the vacancy left by some countries.  At the same time, the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, which has become effective since August 1, has also helped raise the competitiveness of Vietnamese wood and furniture in the EU market./. Mekong Delta’s fruit farming area to be expanded A farmer covers mangoes with paper bags in a farm in Cai Be district, the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang (Photo: VNA) The fruit farming area in the Mekong Delta, the largest agricultural hub in Vietnam, is set to be expanded by 150,000ha between now and 2030 to help with local agriculture’s sustainable development and adaptation to climate change. The country earned some 240 million USD from fruit and vegetable exports in July, raising the seven-month figure to 2 billion USD. The revenues respectively fell 1.8 percent and 12.3 percent from the same period last year. The Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association attributed the decline to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has discouraged countries’ import of these commodities. However, despites export difficulties, fruit farming is still a good source of income for farmers as its profit is about three to eight times higher than that from rice cultivation, Mekong Delta localities’ departments of agriculture and rural development noted. According to the plan to sustainably develop and adapt the region’s agriculture to climate change until 2030 with a vision to 2045, rice production will be reduced while fruit farming increased. In particular, the land under fruit trees will be expanded by 150,000ha in areas with inefficient rice cultivation to reach about 650,000ha by 2030. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said the sector will develop and put into use climate change-resistant plant varieties with high yield and quality. It will also assist local farmers to apply sustainable farming practices and cut down costs while boosting farmers and cooperatives’ connectivity with businesses./. Bac Lieu moves towards country’s shrimp production hub The Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu is rolling out measures to turn it into a shrimp production hub of the country, said Deputy Secretary Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Committee of the province Duong Thanh Trung. The provincial leader said that Bac Lieu aims to take the lead in high technology research and application in shrimp industry, focusing on prawn seeds and commercial shrimp production and processing. Bac Lieu expects to lure investment and resources to create momentum to promote the national shrimp industry and supporting sectors in other nearby localities and the whole country. The locality aims to produce 32-35 billion prawn fry in 2020 and about 40-45 prawn fry in 2025, with higher quality through years. In 2025, shrimp farming area will be expanded to 147,900 hectares with an expected output of 249,000 tonnes. More than 30 percent of producers and businesses, and nine farming regions with total area of 3,890 hectares are hoped to use high technology in production, while 30 percent are subjected to meet VietGAP, GlobalGAP and ASC standards. In 2020, the volume of processed shrimps is expected to reach 98,300 tonnes in 2020 and 120,000 tonnes in 2025, while the export volume is hoped to fetch 73,000 tonnes in 2020 and 90,000 tonnes in 2025. The province is working towards 100 percent of processed shrimps meeting the standards of the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) as well as the requirements of the world and import countries. In 2025, the capacity of local shrimp processing sector is meant to reach 160,000 tonnes to take the leading position in the country in processing technology. The cost for the implementation of the scheme is 3 trillion VND (nearly 130 million USD), nearly a half of which comes from the central State budget and 34.22 percent is mobilised from local producers and businesses. According to Trung, the province will focus on attracting all resources, including mobilised and foreign-invested capital for the sector, with the focus on optimising foreign investment. Meanwhile, the province will increase investment promotion activities and enhance its provincial competitiveness index to lure more investors, he said. He added that Bac Lieu will organise investment promotion conference in local, regional and national levels. Alongside, the province will maintain and expand traditional markets of Japan, the US, the EU, China and the Republic of Korea, while exploring more markets in Asia, East Europe, Africa, and South America. The locality will strengthen the capacity in market forecasting and update requirements in import market to support local producers, said Trung. He said that Bac Lieu will consider the direct supply of shrimp to retail system in import countries instead of through importers, while encouraging and supporting local businesses to register their brand names and promote their products in association with the promotion of Bac Lieu shrimp trademark. At the same time, Bac Lieu will focus on training high quality human resources for the sector, including high technology officials who involve in fisheries sector management. Workers for high technology production in shrimp industry will also be trained, focusing on shrimp fry production, commercial shrimp farming, and shrimp processing. Personnel in market forecasting and promotion will also be trained. The province will also promote the transfer of high technology through fishery production companies and processors in the locality. Bac Lieu will attract high-tech human resources with deep understanding on market and economic management to engage in production, while giving preferential policies to lure high-profile researchers, engineers and managers serving the production, exploitation, processing and exporting of aquatic products, stated Trung./ Specific support packages needed for disadvantaged labour groups The General Statistics Office (GSO) has urged designing specific support packages for disadvantaged labour groups in the context of 57.3 percent of labourers from 15 years old and above seeing their income reduce under the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact. Those groups are women and workers without training. The agency said it is necessary to push forward with the implementation of support policies targeting enterprises and other business and production establishments, particularly those operating in sectors hard hit by COVID-19 such as processing and manufacturing, wholesale and retail, accommodation and catering services, and transport. According to the GSO, the State should make policies to encourage labourers to learn new knowledge and skills to meet employers’ requirements in the “new normal” state, while helping employers provide training to workers and apply new technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted employment and jobs of 30.8 million people of the working age, with women, workers without training and those working in the informal sectors being the hardest hit. The Government has issued several policies to ease difficulties for both employers and labourers, including Resolution 42/NQ-CP dated April 9, 2020 on measures to support people affected by COVID-19. Under Resolution 42, a 62 trillion VND support package has been launched. As of the end of June, more than 11.3 trillion VND had been distributed to 11.2 million beneficiaries./. Philippine economy to fall 9.2 percent in H2: ANZ Research ANZ Research predicts that the Philippine economy will fall 9.2 percent in the second half of 2020 as the economy is likely to book a double-digit contraction in the third quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic. ANZ Research expects the Philippines’ GDP would contract by 11.5 percent in the third quarter and by 7.1 percent in the fourth quarter. Kanika Bhatnagar, economist at ANZ Research, said as a result, the economy is now expected to contract by 9.1 percent this year, a reversal of the six percent growth in 2019. The economy stalled after Luzon was placed under enhanced community quarantine in the middle of March. The lockdown was relaxed as the National Capital Region (NCR) shifted to general community quarantine in June. However, Metro Manila and nearby provinces reverted to stricter modified enhanced community quarantine from August 4 to 18 as COVID-19 cases surged. The economist also cited the unprecedented fall in remittances due to the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers, a surge in unemployment rate to a record 17.7 percent as well as slow fiscal delivery. In addition, Bhatnagar noted the limited efficacy of monetary policy even if the Philippines’ central bank (BSP) slashed interest rates by a cumulative 175 basis points to a record low of 2.25 percent so far this year and lowered the reserve requirement ratio./. Thailand’s cross-border trade drops in H1 Thailand's cross-border trade fell by 9.18 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2020 due to lockdown measures and the slowing economies of neighbouring countries. The Foreign Trade Department reported overall cross-border trade, including transit trade, totalled 627 billion baht (over 20 billion USD) in January-June, with Malaysia the biggest partner by value. Of the total figures, exports were estimated at 365 billion baht, down 8.6 percent year-on-year, while imports shrank by 9.98 percent to 262 billion baht. Border trade with four neighbouring countries, namely Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, amounted to 370 billion baht, down 13.7 percent year-on-year. Of the total, exports stood at 219 billion baht, down 11.9 percent. Transit trade, mainly with Singapore, Vietnam and southern China, fell 1.7 percent in the six-month period to 257 billion baht./. Indonesia adjusts GDP growth goal for 2020 Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati recently adjusted the country’s GDP growth goal for 2020 down to -0.2 to -1.1 percent from the previous 2.3 percent, and 4.5 to 5.5 percent for the next year. Speaking at an online press conference, she added that to cushion the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, her government has been implementing special policies aimed at maintaining and restoring the heathcare sector, and improving the socio-economic conditions for the people and enterprises. Accordingly, the national economic restoration programme will be implemented to halt the economic fall and revive demands such as consumption, investment and export, as well as increase the supply. Those steps are expected to have positive impact on the economic growth in the last two quarters of the year. The minister added that the fiscal policy through the tools of state budget will continue its important role in keeping the economy from the danger of further decrease in the rest of the year as well as in the next year. Besides, the Indonesian government will continue disbursing 356.2 trillion rupiah (24.3 billion USD) to packages aimed at reviving the national economy./. COVID-19 pandemic causes disproportionate impacts on youth employment The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a massive disruption of economies and labour markets with disproportionate impacts on youth employment in Asia and the Pacific, said a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Asian Development Bank (ADB). According to the report, young people’s employment prospects in Asia and the Pacific are severely challenged as a result of the pandemic. Youth (15–24 years) will be hit harder than adults in the immediate crisis and also risk bearing higher longer-term economic and social costs. Through the report, ILO and ADB call on governments in the region to adopt urgent, large-scale and targeted measures to generate jobs for youth, keep education and training on track, and to minimize future scarring of more than 660 million young people in the region. “The pre-crisis challenges for youth are now amplified since COVID-19 hit. Without sufficient attention, our fear is that this risks creating a ‘lockdown generation’ that could feel the weight of this crisis for many years to come,” says Sara Elder, a lead author of the report and Head of the ILO Regional Economic and Social Analysis unit. The report cites three ways in which young people are affected in the current crisis: (1) job disruptions in the form of reduced working hours and earnings, and job losses for both paid workers and the self-employed; (2) disruptions in their education and training; and (3) difficulties in transitioning from school to work, and moving between jobs in a recession. Youth unemployment rates in the region increased sharply in the first quarter of 2020 from the last quarter of 2019. Compared to the first quarter of 2019, the youth unemployment rate increased in six of the nine economies with available data: Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Viet Nam, as well as in Hong Kong, China, which showed the largest increase of 3 percentage points. In all these economies, youth rates increased more than adult rates. Between 10 and 15 million youth jobs (full-time equivalent) may be lost across 13 countries in Asia and the Pacific in 2020, according to the report’s projections. In Cambodia, Fiji, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand, youth unemployment rates are expected to reach at least double the 2019 estimates. According to the report, one of the reasons young people in the region face greater labour market disruption and job losses than adults is that nearly half of them (more than 100 million) were employed in the four sectors hardest hit by the crisis: the wholesale and retail trade and repair; manufacturing; rental and business services; and accommodation and food services. Young women are overrepresented in three of the four most affected sectors, particularly in accommodation and food services. Compounded by the forced suspension of education and training, the COVID-19 crisis will affect young people’s transitions to and within labour markets, and could result in scarring effects, as seen in previous crises, says the report. The report recommends urgent, large-scale and targeted responses, including youth-targeted wage subsidies and public employment programmes, and measures to mitigate the impact on students of the disruption to their education and training. Governments should consider balancing (i) the inclusion of youth in wider labour market and economic recovery measures, with (ii) youth-targeted interventions to maximize effective allocation of resources. “Prioritizing youth employment in the COVID-19 recovery process will improve Asia and the Pacific’s future prospects for inclusive and sustainable growth, demographic transition and social stability,’’ says Chris Morris, Head of the ADB NGO and Civil Society Center, and leading ADB’s Youth for Asia initiative./. Malaysia’s fishing industry faces foreign labour shortage The Malaysian government’s suspension on hiring foreign labourers has left the fishing sector in the country severely understaffed, with fishermen facing a tough future, according to the Malaysian Insight. Malaysia Fish Industry General Association president Chia Tian Hee cited that about 70 percent of fishing boats are idle at the Perlis, Kedah, Pantai Remis, Pangkor and Bagan Panchor jetties, which together supply some 50 percent of Malaysia’s fish. “Fortunately, the yield was great during the movement-control order, so there was no seafood shortage. But, we estimate that by year-end, supply will no longer be able to meet demand, and seafood prices will spike as a result,” Chia said./. Priority given to dragon fruit exports through Lao Cai border gate The management board of the Lao Cai Economic Zone has instructed the local authorised agencies to give priority to the export of dragon fruit through Kim Thanh Border Gate to minimise wasted time and ensure the quality and value of the fruit. The main harvest season of dragon fruit has begun in central and southern provinces in Vietnam with increasing volume of the fruit transported to Kim Thanh Border Gate in the northern province of Lao Cai to ship to China. Ha Duc Thuan, vice chairman of the management board of the Lao Cai Economic Zone, said that an average of 150 container trucks carrying dragon fruits with an estimated volume of 3,000 tonnes travel through Kim Thanh Border Gate each day to transport the fruit to China. Relevant forces including the customs agency, border guard, and plant quarantine and medical quarantine forces are working together to conduct both customs clearance, security checks and quarantine procedures at the border gate to ensure both the prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic and the acceleration of customs clearance for fresh dragon fruit. Because the Chinese side has implemented strict anti-COVID-19 measures and strict border trade procedures for Vietnamese dragon fruit, the clearance time has been extended, resulting in a reduction in the amount of cleared goods. Thus, the management board of the Lao Cai Economic Zone proactively arranged two parking areas to gather trucks carrying fresh fruit and have upgraded the warehouses of local logistics companies to facilitate the gathering of trucks carrying dragon fruit. Tran Anh Tu, Deputy Director of the Customs Division at the Lao Cai border gate, said that the import-export revenue through the border gate since early this year has reached 73% of the figure from the same period last year, of which, the export revenue measured 62% of that from the same period last year. Approximately 355,000 tonnes of dragon fruit have been exported through the border gate, equivalent to 72% of the volume from the same period in 2019, Tu noted./. Thai economy sees biggest contraction in more than 20 years The Thai economy contracted the most in more than two decades due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Economic and Social Development Council announced on August 17 that the country’s GDP dropped by 12.2 percent from a year ago – the biggest decline since the Asian financial crisis in 1998. The figure, however, is lower than an estimate of a 13 percent contraction in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The second-quarter unemployment rate was at 1.95 percent, and an additional 1.8 million workers may be at risk of losing their jobs. Thailand has to date reported 3,377 COVID-19 cases, including 58 fatalities. The country has resumed economic activities since August 13./. Seafood exports increase after EVFTA comes into effect The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has said that seafood exports to Europe have seen many positive signs since the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into effect at the beginning of this month. The number of orders in the European market alone since the beginning of this month has increased by about 10 percent compared to last month, specifically, for shrimp and squid. Online newspaper VietQ reported that Tran Van Linh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thuan Phuoc Seafood and Trading Corporation, said the company had exported 3,000 tonnes of shrimp and products made from shrimp to EU with a value of about 31 million USD, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent in volume and 6 percent in value respectively over the same period last year. Nguyen Thi Anh, Director of Ngoc Xuan Seafood Corporation, shared EU customers had started negotiating orders with the corporation again recently. Although it had not increased strongly, this was a positive signal for businesses to recover after a long delay and contract cancellation, said Anh. Assessing the initial results since the EVFTA's implementation, Truong Dinh Hoe, Secretary-General of VASEP, said the association expected the EVFTA would help seafood exports grow by about 20 percent in the EU, however, in the current pandemic context, an increase of 10 percent was encouraging. Regarding future prospects in the EU, Hoe said the growth rate could not be fully forecast as European countries were still facing the pandemic. As for the issue of removing the yellow card for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, localities are implementing many measures to combat illegal fishing, while enhancing the control and supervision of the installation of monitoring equipment on fishing cruises and having strict sanctions for violations of the use of positioning equipment. The EVFTA took effect from August 1 and many key products of Vietnam will benefit from this agreement. Vietnam has advantages in producing and exporting agricultural, forestry and aquatic products while the EU has a great demand for these items with import value accounting for 8.4 percent of the region's total annual import value. Therefore, room for growth in exports to the EU remains huge. Vietnamese businesses can access a huge seafood consumption market with an average consumption of 22.03 kilogrammes per person, 5.34 kilogrammes higher than the world average./. Nearly 60 percent of Singaporean firms need 1-2 years to recover Almost 60 percent of Singaporean companies said it will take them one to two years to recover to pre-pandemic levels, even when they seek new sources of revenue and speed up technological adoption. According to a survey recently announced by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), 80 percent of respondents said their revenues were hit while 76 percent saw profit margins decline. Additionally, they also faced challenges related to financing and cash flows, rising business costs and uncertain economic and political conditions overseas. The poll done in June and July gathered responses from 1,020 companies, 95 percent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises. On August 17, Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced support measures amounting to 8 billion SGD (5.84 billion USD), which includes an extension to the wage subsidy scheme for Singaporeans until the first quarter of next year. The Singaporean economy is predicted to contract by 5-7 percent this year./. Tax officials reduce inspections to help businesses amid COVID-19 After collecting 11.6 million USD from violations since early 2020, the General Department of Taxation (GDT) said it would reduce regular tax checks at businesses to help them focus on production to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. The GDT said it had collected more than 269 billion VND (11.6 million USD) from their recent inspections and examinations of 104 enterprises across the country. According to the tax officials, most of the violations were found in associated transactions and value added tax refunds. Although the inspection and examination work was still a concern, due to the difficulties amid the current COVID-19 pandemic, the GDT has instructed its tax departments to suspend planned inspections and examinations of many businesses. A representative of GDT said: “To help reduce procedures, the tax department has stepped up inspections at the tax office instead of checking at places of business. Only when there are signs of tax risks, inspections and examinations will be conducted at the enterprise's headquarters.” The report by the general department showed that as of July 15, 2020, the entire taxation sector has carried out 32,851 inspections, reaching 35.53 percent of the yearly plan and about 82.69 percent compared to the same period in 2019. The total amount collected was nearly 30.4 trillion VND and the total amount of tax paid to the state budget is more than 5.1 billion VND. According to HCM City’s Tax Department, as of July 31, 2020, there were more than 28,000 businesses, organisations and nearly 24,500 business households and individuals that are subject to extensions of the tax payment time limit and land rent with a total tax of 8.8 trillion VND. Of which, the value of added tax proposed for extension was 4.4 trillion VND, the corporate income tax proposed for extension was estimated at 3.55 trillion VND, the land rent proposed for extension was 684 billion VND, and for business households it was 166 billion VND. HCM City’s Tax Department said many firms faced the double influence of COVID-19 and recent decree No 100 that clamped down on drunk driving in Vietnam. In the first seven months of the year, the tax revenues on domestic and imported beer and wine, which accounted for more than 51 percent of the revenue of special consumption tax, was down nearly 15 percent, or more than 1 trillion VND over the same period. In the same period, the total special consumption tax collected decreased by nearly 11 percent from the same period last year. The city tax office also said it had been minimising the number of inspections and examinations at businesses affected to help them focus on their production and business activities./. Viet Nam and Denmark co-operate in pushing forward energy saving efforts The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has issued the Guidelines for Developing Provincial Action Plan on Energy Efficiency for the 2020-25 period. The guidelines, drafted with the support of the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership Programme, will help all 63 provinces and cities of Việt Nam to map energy use and prepare their own action plan to implement energy saving efforts. This set of guidelines is one of the key outputs of the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership Programme as it provides an essential base for the energy efficiency efforts in Việt Nam towards the target of achieving 5-7 per cent energy savings on a national level in the 2019-25 period. The set of guidelines is a result of more than two years of close work between MoIT, the Danish Energy Agency and the two partner provinces of Đồng Nai and Bắc Giang.  “The MoIT highly appreciates the Danish government’s support to Việt Nam in the energy sector. The set of guidelines for developing  provincial action plans on energy efficiency is an important deliverable of the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership Programme and will serve as one of the valuable tools for Việt Nam in our efforts to achieve the national energy efficiency targets,” said Hoàng Quốc Vượng, Deputy Minister of MoIT. “The Government of Việt Nam has on many occasions shown its strong commitment to green development. The Government’s decision to adopt a cost-effective energy pathway, in my opinion, is very wise and encouraging since energy efficiency plays a key role in the green transition of any country. I am delighted to see that the good cooperation between Danish and Vietnamese experts in the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership Programme has yielded strong outputs and partly contributed to Việt Nam’s realisation of its national targets on energy saving and consequently reduction of greenhouse gases,” said Kim Højlund Christensen, Ambassador of Denmark in Việt Nam. Another important component of the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership is the release of the biennial ‘Việt Nam Energy Outlook’ report. The report emphasises energy efficiency as a cost-efficient tool for Việt Nam’s green transition towards 2030 and 2050 and recommends investments in energy saving technology.  Việt Nam’s industrial sector is one of the most energy consuming sectors of the country and is, therefore, an important factor in the transition to a low-carbon society. Calculations show that if existing legislation is enforced, the sector could save at least 8 per cent of its current annual energy consumption by 2025. With new methods, tools and incentives based on Danish experiences, the saving rate could even be higher. Việt Nam has experienced a significant increase in energy consumption, especially power consumption with an annual growth rate of about 9-10 per cent in this decade. According to the revised National Power Development Plan 7 approved by the Government of Việt Nam, the total national energy consumption, especially fossil fuel consumption, will increase rapidly in the coming period in order to meet the country’s high economic growth. Meanwhile, the Government is committed to the Paris Agreement and aims to ensure sustainable development to protect the climate and the environment./.  Three MoIT projects to be removed from loss-making list Progress has been reported in three of 12 loss-making projects under the management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) more than a year after the Government’s steering committee on loss-making projects implemented comprehensive solutions. Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, head of the steering committee, who chaired the 11th session in Ha Noi yesterday said they would report to the PM to remove three of the 12 projects from the list in August. With better operations, DAP Fertiliser 1 Hai Phong, Binh Phuoc Ethanol and Phu Tho Ethanol were considered to be removed from the list of loss-making projects of the ministry. Speaking to representatives of related ministries, the Central Economic Committee, the Economic Committee of the National Assembly, and the State Capital Management Committee at enterprises and leaders of corporations, Binh said the hard work isn't over. “There is much work to do to solve all the problems in the projects that went behind the progress at the deadline in the first half of 2021," he said. He asked all ministries, branches, businesses and banks to uphold their responsibilities and to make more drastic efforts to speed up the handling of those projects. “Solutions for the projects must be feasible on the principle that enterprises and investors must be proactive and responsible for handling them according to the market while the State won’t allocate more capital to the projects," Binh added. Binh told the corporations of the projects to take comprehensive responsibility for handling their projects while ensuring compliance with regulations. He also told the State Capital Management Committee at enterprises to perform the supervisory function of the owner's representative agency for the corporations with such projects or enterprises in accordance with the law. The deputy PM asked investors and corporations of five projects with disputes regarding engineering, procurement and construction contracts to handle clear solutions to report to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc this month, adding that the reports would be the basis for the committee to restructure, sell capital and divest from the projects and the relating corporations as well as to clarify and handle violations for related organisations and individuals. Binh also told ministries and agencies to hire independent consultants to have an objective assessment of the project value of projects that have not yet finalised the EPC contracts. According to the MoIT, the total initial investment of the 12 projects was VND43.6 trillion then they were approved to increase to VND63.6 trillion./. Central bank grants licence for payment intermediary services provider 9Pay The State Bank of Viet Nam has licensed 9Pay Joint Stock Company to provide payment intermediary services. Under the licence, 9Pay can provide electronic payment gateway, authorised collection, payment and e-wallet services. The licence is valid for 10 years. 9Pay was founded on September 6, 2018, and is headquartered at No 34, Nguyen Khanh Toan Street, Ha Noi. As of August 6, the central bank had granted licences for 36 non-bank payment intermediary services companies. Cashless payments are developing rapidly in Viet Nam, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Under its banking development strategy, Viet Nam plans to reduce the proportion of cash payments from 10 per cent in 2020 to less than 8 per cent in 2025. The central bank is also studying mechanisms for developing a regulatory sandbox for financial technology./. RCEP to be signed soon: Indonesian trade ministry The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has entered the legal scrubbing phase and is expected to be signed soon without India, according to the Indonesian Trade Ministry. Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga said the participating countries now comprise the 10 ASEAN member states, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand, but the door is still open for India in case it decides to join the negotiations again. India withdrew from RCEP negotiations in November last year, he said. India is Indonesia's fifth-largest export market. According to data from the United Nations International Trade Statistics Database, Indonesia’s top export to its South Asian peer is coal, with value reaching 4.81 billion USD in 2019./. Indonesia to provide microloans for laid-off workers, housewives The Indonesian Government has unveiled a new microcredit program (KUR) for laid-off workers and housewives who own micro-sized businesses to help them recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Coordinating Economic Ministry’s deputy for macroeconomic and finance, Iskandar Simorangkir, the government aimed to disburse supermicro KUR loans worth 12 trillion Rp (814 million USD) to 3 million people by the end of this year. He said at a virtual press briefing that he expects this programmes, which will be launched by the end of August, can help laid-off workers and housewives build their micro-sized productive businesses. The latest data from the Indonesian Manpower Ministry shows that as many as 2.15 million workers have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) projects unemployment rate to reach between 8.19 percent and 9.2 percent this year, significantly higher than 2019’s figure of 5.28 percent. Iskandar further explained that the programme would cater to laid-off workers and housewives who have had a running business for at least three to six months and have never received KUR loans before. Although the programme is aimed at helping those affected by COVID-19, the government plans to continue the programme after the pandemic to encourage entrepreneurship, which is expected to contribute to the country’s welfare and economic growth, he said. The Coordinating Economic Affairs Ministry’s data shows that KUR loan disbursement reached 89.2 trillion Rp for 2.67 million debtors as of July. The Indonesian Government has raised the KUR loan disbursement ceiling for this year to 198.73 trillion Rp from the previous 176.53 trillion Rp./. Agriculture ministry vows to ensure progress, quality of public capital disbursement Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung held a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in Hanoi on August 19 to examine public investment disbursement in the agriculture sector. The ministry has been assigned to allocate over 17.32 trillion VND (749.9 million USD) in funds this year, including 1.8 trillion VND in foreign capital the ministry returned to the State as it is unable to disburse it. The sum also includes 9.9 trillion VND sourced from Government bonds, with about 8 trillion VND for construction and another 1.88 trillion VND for site clearance compensation. Though the greatest challenge facing construction is site clearance, the MARD has accelerated and completed many planned projects, it said, and affirmed it will disburse all of the funding for construction in 2020. It was also tasked with allocating 2.1 trillion VND for compensation and resettlement this year, but 223 billion VND has been transferred to fund construction due to slow capital disbursement for site clearance. Regarding projects funded through official development assistance (ODA), the ministry was given more than 3.6 trillion VND to disburse this year but actual needs are just 1.83 trillion VND. Given this, the MARD and the Ministry of Planning and Investment proposed the Prime Minister transfer the remaining capital to other sectors. As of the end of July, the MARD had disbursed 36.6 percent of all public funding sources and expects the rate to reach 94.1 percent for the year as a whole. Deputy PM Dung said the agriculture sector has many important projects in the pipeline and the disbursement of public investment is critical in developing agricultural infrastructure, which in turn creates conditions for attracting more investment to the sector and improving productivity and product quality. He asked the MARD to work with other ministries and sectors to remove obstacles facing project implementation, including in regard to site clearance and construction, while ensuring project progress and quality and preventing waste. He also suggested the MARD and other ministries build investment plans for important facilities like those regulating saltwater and freshwater in the Mekong Delta, wharves for fishing boats, reinforcement of reservoirs and dams, and natural disaster prevention efforts. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the progress and the efficiency of public investment disbursement are both important, noting that the building of saltwater control facilities in the Mekong Delta has been sped up to help mitigate the severe drought and saline intrusion seen earlier this year. He pledged that the ministry would work hard to ensure the progress and the quality of projects funded with public capital./. Imports of automobiles rise in July The import of automobiles increased significantly in July despite impacts caused by the second wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam. A report from the General Department of Customs showed that Vietnam imported 4,760 cars of various kinds worth 107.7 million USD in July, marking increases of 34 percent in volume and 10 percent in value compared with the previous month. Thailand and Indonesia are the two main import markets of Vietnam, accounting for 76 percent of the country's total imported cars in the month. Cars imported from Indonesia have the lowest prices in the market at about 250 million VND (10,713 USD) each on average, while cars imported from Thailand are priced at least 377 million VND each. Thailand continued to top the list with more than 2,300 cars exported to Vietnam, up 33.3 percent month-on-month, reaching nearly 38 million USD. It is followed by Indonesia with 1,300 cars, an increase of 664 vehicles (100.04 percent) compared to June, gaining more than 14 million USD. Other import markets include China with 719 vehicles, turnover of 27.2 million USD, the Republic of Korea with 121 units valued at 8.66 million USD, and Japan with 80 cars worth nearly 3.4 million USD. In July, Vietnam imported auto parts for locally-assembled production and spare parts worth 346.8 million USD, marking a sharp increase from 279 million USD in June. Major import markets include the Republic of Korea, China and Thailand./. Source: VNA/VNS/VNN/VIR/VOV/SGT/Dtinews