BUSINESS IN BRIEF 29/10 AgroViet 2016 to attract over 300 enterprises More than 300 domestic and foreign enterprises will participate at the International Agriculture Trade Fair (AgroViet 2016), slated to be held in the capital city from November 11 to 15.  Dao Van Ho, director of Viet Nam Trade Promotion Centre for Agriculture ,the event's organiser, said the forthcoming fair will showcase quality farm produce and introduce machines and technology use for agricultural production and food processing.  "The annual event will connect participating businesses with customers to effectively tap into the local market," he said. He added that a workshop on producing and distributing clean and safe agricultural goods and a meeting between Vietnamese and Chinese enterprises which specialize in farming machinery and equipment will be organised on the sidelines of the event.  The country generated US$12.5 billion from the export of main farming products in the first 10 months of this year, up 7.8 per cent against the same period last year, with coffee and pepper being the highest earners with $2.76 billion and $1.29 billion, up 25.4 per cent and 35.7 per cent year-on-year, respectively.  The KAfe to change CEO   The CEO of Vietnamese F&B startup the KAfe Group, Ms. Dao Chi Anh, has announced she is no longer in the position after three years in charge. “The position will be soon go to another person since I am no longer involved in the business activities of the KAfe Group,” she wrote on her Facebook page on October 27. The KAfe Group has also changed the information on its enterprise registration papers. Charter capital has been increased from VND16 billion ($720,000) to nearly VND245 billion ($11 million) and it is working in the form of a company with 100 per cent foreign capital. In the middle of this year it was accused by the Gia Tuong Company of delaying debt repayments of more than VND4 billion ($179,000). “We have sent written documents and made phone calls to ask the CEO of KAfe to work on resolving the debts but have received no response,” a representative from Gia Tuong told local media at June 28.  Then another company, International Training and Education Development JSC (ITED), also accused the KAfe Group of delaying debt repayments just a few days later. “ITED sent documents on April 14 and May 23 requesting the KAfe Group make specific plans to repay these debts,” a company representative told local media on June 29. “An inadequate response was received from staff at KAfe who lack the capacity to resolve the problem.” The KAfe told VET on July 2 that it is being attacked by one individual who is working on behalf of Gia Tuong and ITED. Founded in 2013, the KAfe Group Limited was the first urban fusion café chain in Vietnam offering fresh, affordable, and quality international casual dining for affluent consumers. It secured a $5.5 million Cassia Investments-led Series A funding arrangement in October last year and acquired local cupcake chain Mint Cupcakes Creations (MCC) early this year. The company currently operates 19 outlets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City under four brands - The KAfe, KAfe Village, KAfe Box, and The Burger Box, as well as its beverage merchandise The KAfe Cup, The KAfe Pressed, and MCC. This year the Group planned to continue to expand the KAfe chain to more cities while providing new models like Burger Box, KAfe Box, and Mint in Ho Chi Minh City. The startup community was quite surprised a year ago by information that the KAfe Group was receiving investment capital from London and Hong Kong investment funds totaling $5.5 million with the aim of expanding its markets. At that time, the KAfe Group said the investment would serve its planned expansion around Vietnam. The KAfe had four new locations in Hanoi in late October and planned to increase the total number to 26 by the end of the year. Ms. Dao Chi Anh was born in 1984 in Russia, studied at high school in Vietnam, then attended college in Singapore and worked for a large corporation. Before founding The KAfe Group she was known as an amateur chef. Building the KAfe Group was a dream of her and her colleagues for the three years. She said she will now spend more time with her family and also revealed she has many plans to work with startups, especially F&B startups. Citi Vietnam launches voice biometrics authentication Citi has announced the launch of its voice biometrics authentication system for customers who contact its call center, which will replace the existing system that involves customers remembering multiple PIN numbers and answers to personal questions. The bank is the first and only financial institution in Vietnam and Asia to introduce the cutting-edge technology into its daily banking activities. “Biometrics will play a critical part in the future of banking and Citi is paving the way locally as a premier global digital banking leader,” said Ms. Natasha Ansell, Citi Country Officer for Vietnam. “Call centers receive increasing numbers of calls annually, of which a large portion are manually verified. We are relentlessly focused on making it more convenient for our customers to bank with us. With voice biometrics authentication we make the verification process easier, faster, and more secure.” Citi Vietnam customers will no longer need to remember passwords or PIN numbers or answer a series of questions to verify their identity. Instead, they can enroll in Citi’s voice biometrics verification program, which will automatically verify their identity through a unique voiceprint. Once enrolled, customers who contact the bank’s call centers will have their identity automatically verified within 15 seconds or less as they explain the reason for calling. This is a reduction from an average time of around 45 seconds, in which customers have to answer a series of questions to verify their identity. The voice biometrics authentication system identifies customers through their voice print, which, similar to a fingerprint, is unique to each person. Citi clients can opt to enroll by recording their voices, which the bank will use to generate and store their voice prints for matching subsequent calls. Each voice print will be uniquely tagged and cannot be reverse engineered once stored. Citi’s voice biometrics system has been rolled out in several countries after an initial run in the US. It is currently being implemented in Taiwan, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Vietnam is the seventh country in the Asia-Pacific region to have the service. Earlier this year, Citi introduced Touch ID, a technology that uses fingerprints to verify customers using Mobile Banking on an iPhone. Customers need not memorize their username and password, with a fingerprint being all that is needed, enhancing the customer experience and reducing the possibility of usernames and passwords being forgotten. To further improve customer convenience, Citi also introduced its Snap Shot feature in Mobile Banking (available on all smartphones), providing customers with a brief summary of all their Citi accounts without having to log on. Citi won Best Digital Bank for Consumer Banking in Vietnam in 2015 and 2016 and Best Digital Bank for Corporate/Institutional Banking in Vietnam in 2016 from Global Finance magazine. Twenty one percent SMEs connect with global supply chains Only 21 percent of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been able to connect with global supply chains, according to reports at a seminar hosted by International Finance Corporation (IFC), member of the World Bank, in HCMC on October 27. According to experts at the event, Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The country’s international trade has increased stably. Among ASEAN nations, Vietnam was the largest trade partner of the US with the turnover reaching US$29.4 billion in 2014. However, only 21 percent of Vietnamese SMEs have been able to join in the global supply chain, lower than other regional nations such as Thailand with 30 percent and Malaysia with 46 percent. Vietnamese enterprises will be able to attend more in the chain to promote their potentials and increase income if being supported with suitable financial services. Credit card spending jumps 7.7 pct on consumer price hikes South Korea's credit card spending increased 7.7 percent on-year in September, as the prices of agricultural products rose due to an unusual heat wave, data showed Thursday, according to Yonhap News' source.  South Koreans usually spend more before and during the Chuseok holiday, one of the largest annual celebrations. Chuseok, the equivalent of Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., fell on Sept. 15 this year. This year, especially, a record hot spell drove up the prices of agricultural, livestock and fishery products. The nation's consumer prices rose 1.2 percent last month from a year earlier, the highest since March. Those of agricultural, livestock and fishery products soared 10.2 percent. According to the Credit Finance Association's research center, credit card spending totaled 61.03 trillion won (US$53 billion) during the month, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier. The number of credit card payments also rose 13.2 percent to 1.34 billion.  Affected by the price hikes, individual credit card purchases, excluding utility bill payment, rose 7.7 percent to 43.6 trillion won (US38.3 billion). But corporate card use dropped 3.8 percent to 9.5 trillion won due to less working days. In the third quarter, meanwhile, South Korea's credit card spending jumped 10.8 percent to 184.3 trillion won from the same period in 2015. Nagano’s enterprises eyeing cooperative opportunities in HCMC Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong welcomed Nagago province’s Governor Shuichi Abe on October 26. At the meeting, the chairman stressed that the relations between Japan and Vietnam, and HCM City in particular have been developing well in recent years through close cooperation with Japanese ministries, departments, locals and Japanese enterprises. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong desired that the two sides will conduct deeper and wider cooperation, jointly discuss the mechanism and priorities for future cooperation in all fields.  With the good cooperation relations between HCMC and Japanese enterprises, Mr. Shuichi Abe expressed desire of Nagano’s enterprises in improving cooperative activities with the city in agricultural and industrial production in the upcoming time. Leaders of Nagano province are willing to support technology transfer and high- technology production to the city, added the governor. HCMC experiences slow consumption Consumption of goods and services in HCMC has ebbed in the past three months, with incessant heavy rains and severe flooding cited as main reasons, says a report by the HCMC Statistics Office. The statistics office put total retail sales of goods and services in October at some VND56.57 trillion, down 1.13% over the previous month, in which sales of catering and accommodation services have edged down 4% and travel service revenues have dipped by 10.7%.  The declining purchasing power this month has resulted from severe flooding, caused by heavy rains and flood tides, the agency said. Total retail sales of goods and services last month in the city were expected to rise 1.99% against August to VND57.62 trillion owing to promotion programs initiated by the city to fuel local consumption. However, actual sales did not improve as much as expected, with a rise of only 1.28%. August’s total retail sales of goods and services reached VND56.9 trillion, down 1.8% against July, the statistics office said. As such, in the past three months, total sales of goods and services has plummeted, with the average monthly value falling below VND57 trillion compared to the average sum of VND59 trillion in June and July. Overall, HCMC’s total retail sales of goods and services in the first ten months of this year reached some VND575.9 trillion, still up 9.3% against the same period last year.  A report of Nielsen on the fast-moving consumer goods industry indicated that sales growth slowed sharply in the third quarter. Sunwah Group pours more investment in Vietnam Hong Kong-based Sunwah Group announced on October 26 that it would invest an additional US$100 million in Vietnam, having poured over US$1 billion on the local market over the years. The new sum will be managed by Sunwah Vietnam Investment Company (SVIC), a subsidiary of the group. SVIC will invest in strategic fields including food and beverage, real estate, e-commerce, communications, education, health care and green technology, said its investment advisor Louis Nguyen, CEO of Sunwah Kingsway Vietnam (SKV). In most of those sectors, SVIC will focus its investment on enterprises and projects that are expanding rapidly since they would need capital for further development. SVIC also wants to cooperate with companies that are about to launch initial public offerings (IPO) in Hong Kong or other international markets. Sunwah has invested more than US$1 billion in Vietnam and seen positive growth during the past 45 years of operating in the market which has posted remarkable growth, said Johnson Choi, chairman and general director of Sunwah Group. Sunwah has anticipated more investment opportunities in Vietnam and the additional sum proves its long-term commitment to Vietnam, he said. In Vietnam, Sunwah has invested in My Chau drug store chain, Sunwah Tower on Nguyen Hue Boulevard in HCMC, a coffee export business, and a microbial fertilizer plant. Metro Line No.1 may be extended to Dong Nai and Binh Duong The HCMC Management Authority for Urban Railways has proposed the municipal government discuss with authorities of Dong Nai and Binh Duong a plan to extend Metro Line No. 1 to these two neighboring provinces in the years to come. The agency asked the city government to hold a meeting in early November between the city and the two provinces to discuss issues over directions, locations of depots, and responsibilities of each party. Metro Line No.1 connecting Ben Thanh Market and Suoi Tien Park has a total length of over 19.7 kilometers, the agency said. According to a proposal of the two provinces, the HCMC Management Authority for Urban Railways has worked with Japanese experts over the possibility of extending the line, specifically to Di An Town of Binh Duong and Bien Hoa City of Dong Nai.  Early this year, the provincial government of Dong Nai has proposed the Ministry of Transport approve the extension of Metro Line No. 1 by 4.7 kilometers from Suoi Tien Park to Vung Tau intersection while Binh Duong suggested a 1.8 kilometer extension to the province. The overhead and underground sections of Metro Line No.1 are under construction. The 19 kilometer elevated track of the mass rapid transit railway from Ba Son Shipyard in District 1 to Long Binh in District 9 is expected to be complete in mid-2017 and will start operation in 2018. The whole project will be ready in 2020. China Southern Airlines to offer more services to Vietnam China Southern Airlines said on October 26 that it would operate more flights between China and Vietnam in the upcoming winter season to capitalize on growing demand of business and leisure travelers. The carrier will launch a daily service linking Shanghai and HCMC on October 30 using Airbus A320 aircraft.    As scheduled, aircraft of the airline will take off in Shanghai at 8:15 a.m. (local time) and land in HCMC at noon. Return services will depart from Tan Son Nhat International Airport at 12:55 p.m. and arrive in the Chinese city at 6 p.m. the same day. Cui Heng, general manager of China Southern Airlines for HCMC Office, said more Chinese firms have come to Vietnam for business and that the new air service would meet increasing demand for air travel between Shanghai and HCMC. It is expected to help spur trade and tourism links between the two cities. China Southern Airlines currently has three Shenzhen-HCMC flights a week and will introduce daily services on this route. As part of its expansion plan for the Vietnamese market, the carrier will conduct three daily flights from Guangzhou to Hanoi, four services a day to HCMC, and more flights to the resort island of Phu Quoc off Kien Giang Province. The carrier said the additional flights would offer passengers departing from Vietnam more options to search for connecting flights from China to Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea and Australia. The airline is selling promotional airfares starting from US$200 for its Shanghai-HCMC flights to attract passengers to its new route. With the frequency increase, China Southern Airlines will consolidate its position as the largest foreign airline active in the Vietnamese market. Vietnam welcomed more than 7.26 million international arrivals in the first nine months of this year, leaping 25.7% year-on-year. Of the total, Chinese accounted for over 1.98 million, surging 57.7% compared to the year-earlier period. Wheat imports double this year Wheat imports into Vietnam in the first ten months of this year soared to some 4.1 million tons, double the year-ago period, with Australia being Vietnam’s biggest wheat supplier. A report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the country imported 1.6 million tons of wheat from Australia, up 33% in volume year-on-year, while Brazil came second with nearly 334,000 tons supplied to Vietnam.  Besides corn and soybeans, wheat is one of the agricultural products used for processing animal feed. Australia is the biggest wheat supplier of Vietnam due largely to low import tariffs under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, according to the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Part of the wheat imported into Vietnam is processed for resale, as Vietnam is forecast to export some 150,000 tons of wheat flour to neighboring ASEAN countries in 2015-2016, the agency said. Reference, interbank exchange rates fluctuate The average daily reference exchange rate between the Vietnam dong and the U.S. dollar set by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has become strongly volatile in recent days. Meanwhile, the interbank exchange rate has fluctuated too while the SBV has not bought the greenback in the past two weeks. The exchange rate was VND22,318-22,320 to the dollar on the interbank market on Monday morning, and skidded to VND22,315 in the afternoon session before climbing to VND22,328 at the end of the day. The central bank on Tuesday announced the reference rate at VND22,033 to the dollar, up slightly from the previous session. This means commercial banks could trade the dollar in the range of VND21,372 and VND22,694. Credit institutions said higher dollar demand of foreign-invested enterprises was behind the dollar spike against the dong. They expected the dollar would continue strengthening in the next few days and may beat the resistance level of VND22,338 a dollar seen in September.    A major lender forecast that the exchange rate would hover in the range of VND22,300 and VND22,340 a dollar this week. Last week saw the exchange rate reaching VND22,307 to the dollar at banks, up slightly versus the week earlier. Meanwhile, the reference exchange rate rose by a hefty VND18. It fluctuated between VND22,005 and VND22,020 last week.    The exchange rate moved between VND22,307 and VND22,310 a dollar on the interbank market before topping at VND22,318-22,319 last Friday. The SBV did not buy dollars as the interbank exchange rate surpassed VND22,300 a dollar.   Commercial banks said the exchange rate depends on the dollar supply and demand of big companies. Dollar supply is ample now while demand is expected to surge in the rest of the year. Besides, the dollar has got firmer against other currencies on world markets, leaving certain impact on the dong-dollar exchange rate in Vietnam. Interest rates for Vietnam dong loans on the interbank market fell slightly last week. The annual overnight rate slid to 0.33%, the one-week rate to 0.43% and the two-week rate to 0.52%. They have been at record lows in as many years.  The coupons of treasury bills issued by the SBV have dropped steadily and stand at below 0.5% per annum now.  Liquidity inched up on the secondary Government bond market with bond yields staying low. Foreign investors took profit on G-bonds, which may cause bond coupons to hover in a wider range. Last week saw foreign investors net selling VND228 billion worth of debt for the third week in a row. However, they have net bought G-bonds worth over VND17.43 trillion in the year to date. Steel giant's profit triples in 9 months Thai Nguyên Iron and Steel Corporation (Tisco) earned after-tax profit of more than VND208 billion (US$9.28 million) in the first nine months of this year. The company nearly tripled the profit of the same period last year. This helped the steel giant wipe out its aggregated loss incurred in the previous year. At the end of 2015, Tisco incurred an aggregated loss of VND187.8 billion. According to the financial report which Tisco announced on October 20, the steel giant earned revenue of more than VND6 trillion in the nine-month period, increasing slightly over the same period last year. However, in the third quarter alone, Tisco's revenue and profit both decreased over the same period last year by 4.8 per cent and 52.8 per cent, respectively. Its report also revealed that the value of unfinished construction amounted to nearly 4.7 trillion until the end of September, of which, more than 4.5 trillion was of the second-phase expansion project. The expansion project was launched in 2007 but remains unfinished, with approved estimated investment doubling. Tisco has been listed on UPCoM since March 24, 2001. It traded at VND6,300 per share today.  Kien Long Bank posts loss in Q3 Kien Long Bank is the country's first bank to have reported a loss of VND8.8 billion (US$392,000) in the third quarter of this year. In the same period last year, the bank had made a profit of VND27.6 billion. As per the the bank's financial report, its pre-tax profit in the first nine months also dropped nearly 90 per cent year-on-year to VND19.8 billion. In Q3 alone, the bank posted a profit reduction of nearly 12 per cent, at VND172 billion, while operation costs rose 21 per cent to VND153 billion and provision funds inched up to VND50 billion. Between January and September, the bank mobilised a total capital of VND22 trillion, up 10 per cent; and lent VND17 trillion, up 6.2 per cent. By end-September, Kien Long Bank's non-performing loans rose to 1.46 per cent from 1.12 per cent in early 2016. The bank's total assets at the end of September were more than VND26 trillion, up 4 per cent against early this year. Deputy minister urges measures to boost bond market Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Van Hieu urged measures to boost the bond market at the third general assembly of the Viet Nam Bond Market Association. The assembly was held on October 26 in Ha Noi. Hieu said the Government would focus on developing the Government bond primary and secondary markets towards stability, together with introducing new Government bond products to meet demands of investors. Hieu said that restructuring the Government bonds would be implemented to ease the pressure of debt payment on the Government. In addition, the legal framework on corporate bond would be improved to create favourable conditions for companies to raise capital through issuing bonds and attract foreign investors to the corporate bond market. Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam Nguyen Thi Hong urged the association to work closely with relevant agencies on raising measures to boost the bond market in line with the monetary market, developing derivatives market and diversifying bond products to ease pressure on the banking system. At the meeting, the association elected the executive board for the 2016-19 term, including 23 members, with deputy general director of Vietcombank, Pham Thanh Ha, becoming the association's chairman.  PTSC pushed off project by retracting province After the central province of Quang Binh decides to withdraw from previous commitments over the second phase of Hon La Port, the port operator Petroleum Technical Services Corporation (PTSC) is now at risk of losing the project to a domestic contender. The Quang Binh People’s Committee and the Quang Binh Economic Zone Management Authority had plans to develop the second phase of Hon La Port, aiming to relieve the overload of the existing facility. However, instead of authorising PTSC to develop the project as per the deal the two parties signed in 2009, the province entrusted another domestic firm operating in the province to study the project. The name of the contender has yet to be disclosed. PTSC director Hoang Tuan told VIR that in August 2009, the province’s leadership signed a deal to transfer Hon La Port to PTSC. Under the contract, PTSC will take over the port to continue operations, exploit and invest in the following phases.  PTSC will take over the rights and duties of the former owner and benefit from local preferential polices to develop the port under the government’s sea port development plan. However, at present, the province has broken the commitment and refused PTSC to develop the second phase. The company will hold a working session with the province to work out a solution to this debacle. “Arranging capital to develop Hon La Port is not a challenge for PTSC, thus, if the company receives the province’s approval, it will be determined to implement the project,” Tuan added.  Belying the importance of the Hon La Port extension, the Quang Binh People’s Committee and the Quang Binh Economic Zone Management Authority issued numerous incentives, including land lease fee and enterprise income tax, and other incentives in the Law on Investment to call for investors to join developing the second phase of Hon La Port. According to Pham Van Nam, director of the Quang Binh Economic Zone Management Authority, Hon La Port is located in the economic zone (EZ), thus investors in the extension project will be accorded the highest incentives the EZ can legally provide. These benefits extend to discounts on the land lease fee and the corporate income tax, among others. A representative of the Quang Binh Economic Zone Management Authority stated that extending Hon La Port is becoming vital because it has been operating way beyond its designed capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of cargo per year in recent years. Notably, in 2015, the port handled 1.5 million tonnes of cargo. In addition, the port is located on a strategic point along the North-South sea transport route, at a crossroads to Central Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. The authority plans to increase the port’s capacity to five million tonnes and extend the harbour area to receive up to 50,000 deadweight tonnage vessels. The authority estimated that the total investment capital for enhancing the port would be about VND300-400 billion ($13.2-17.6 million). Pay up PVI-Bibica’s $5.16 million insurance claim enforced Insurer PVI, a PetroVietnam member company, is going to pay a total compensation of VND115.2 billion ($5.16 million) to customer Bibica in a claim that has been going for three years. The appeal sentence issued on October 11, 2016, stipulated that confectioner Bibica is entitled to the hefty compensation Of the amount, PVI has already paid VND53.88 billion ($2.41 million) in advance, leaving VND61.33 billion ($2.75 million), of which VND53.88 billon ($2.41 million) is compensation and VND7.45 billion ($334 million) is interest due to slow payment. On June 16, 2010, Bibica signed a mandatory fire and explosion risk insurance with PVI’s Ho Chi Minh City branch, covering the office, workshop, warehouse, equipment, materials, ingredients, tools, and goods at the Bibica Binh Duong plant. The contract was valid for one year, starting from 4pm of June 15, 2010 and had a premium of VND229.9 million ($10,300) with the insured assets of VND220 billion ($9.86 million). In 2011 there was a fire at Bibica Binh Duong, causing severe damage to the plant’s equipment. The reason for the fire was established as a power mishap. The two sides could not agree on insurance compensation, despite Bibica’s willingness to accept progressively lower sums.  PVI only agreed to pay an amount proposed by independent appraisal company Crawford Vietnam, which was VND108 billion ($4.85 million). Bibica took its claim to the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court, which determined a compensation of VND115 billion ($5.15 million). Both parties appealed. Vu Bao Lam, deputy general director of PVI, said that the company is going to pay Bibica soon. He said the company had been provisioning for this payout. “Also, we reinsured a part of this contract, so the reinsurers are going to bear a part,” he said. Though Bibica is soon coming into cash, this seemingly good news failed to raise enthusiasm for the company’s stock.  Some observers claimed that positive reaction has been tempered by the lengthy judicial proceedings and the outcome falls short of Bibica’s expectations at the time of starting procedures. US businesses eye increased investments in private sector US businesses want to increase their investments in Vietnam’s private sector to lift total investment to US$500 million over the next three years, said Elizabeth L. Littlefield, the Chief Executive Officer and President of Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). us businesses eye increased investments in private sector  hinh 0 Mrs Littlefield who led an OPIC delegation to visit Ho Chi Minh City recently told the media that under President Obama Administration, total OPIC investment into Asia tripled to US$4 billion, however, US investments in Vietnam remained modest with only several major projects. In the new context of Vietnam gradually joining the global supply chain, US investors have showed their keen interest in the lucrative market, especially in renewal energy, agriculture and information technology. Mrs Littlefield said she had learned about the reason why numerous US-invested projects have not yet got underway in such a potential market like Vietnam. The OPIC representative said her organization only provides financial resources for private projects which meet Vietnam’s development criteria, have feasible business plans with good partners, strictly follow rules for labour safety and environment protection and have not yet received capital from any commercial banks.  It is worth noting that these projects must be invested by US businesses, she noted, adding that OPIC can provide flexible investment capital levels ranging from USD1 million to hundreds of millions of USD. Bac Giang seeks to facilitate RoK businesses Authorities of the northern province of Bac Giang and investors from the Republic of Korean (RoK) met to discuss boosting investment on October 26. The firms’ representatives mentioned difficulties that need solving at the meeting. They suggested Bac Giang build waste treatment systems, upgrade the power grid and roads to aid enterprises, simplify administrative procedures for Korean workers and zone off areas for new factories. Nguyen Van Linh, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, lauded the contributions of RoK businesses to developing the province. He called on RoK investors to consider employing more Bac Giang students to work at their enterprises and hoped they will use services provided by the International Logistics Centre to be set up in Bac Giang city. He also asked them to protect the environment. The Korean business representatives praised incentives offered by local authorities to tackle difficulties and support operations. Heng Ok Song, Director of Hana Kovi Inc Company, expressed his desire for more meetings to exchange opinions with local authorities. Bac Giang is now home to 250 foreign-funded projects with total capital exceeding 3.1 billion USD from 14 countries and territories. The RoK has 151 projects with 559 million USD of total capital in the province, focusing on manufacturing industry, import-export activities and merchandise distribution. In 2015, RoK firms earned nearly 20 trillion VND (899 million USD), exported 580 million USD worth of products and contributed over 670 billion VND (30.2 million USD) to the State budget. To date, RoK businesses in Bac Giang have provided jobs for more than 41,000 people. During the meeting, local leaders presented a certificate of investment license to the investor of the Hoa Phu Industrial Zone project in Hiep Hoa district. Sunwah, SAM pour $100m into joint venture Hong Kong-based Sunwah Group's Sunwah Kingway and Saigon Asset Management have set up a joint venture to provide inbound and outbound investment solutions for companies operating in Viet Nam. The latter's chairman, Louis Nguyen, who is also the CEO of the HCM City-based Sunwah Kingway Viet Nam (SKV), said: "The increased global interest in Southeast Asia, especially Viet Nam, was the genesis of the formation of SKV, and it is to address the needs of many high-growth Vietnamese companies seeking strategic capital as well as initial public offerings in Hong Kong and other overseas markets." SKV offers proprietary investments and services in corporate finance, capital markets, private equity, real estate, fund management, and managed accounts in Hong Kong through its local associates. Sunwah Group also announced on Tuesday a new investment of US$100 million in Viet Nam, organised as Sunwah Viet Nam Investment Company. "We have invested more than $1 billion here in Viet Nam and have seen positive developments over our 45 years of operation in this rapidly growing country and a rising tide of investment opportunities," Johnson Choi, executive director of Sunwah Group and general director of Sunwah Viet Nam, said. Vietnam's middle class projected to double by 2020 Vietnam’s middle class population is believed to be growing the fastest in Southeast Asia, making the country a very attractive market for foreign brands. The so-called "middle and affluent class" earning US$714 a month or more in Vietnam will double to 33 million people, about a third of the population, between 2014 and 2020, the Nikkei Asian Review reported, citing Boston Consulting Group. Meanwhile market research firm Nielsen has estimated that the number of middle class Vietnamese will reach 44 million by 2020 and 95 million by 2030. Global brands ranging from retailers and electronics makers to fast-food restaurants and property developers are flocking to Vietnam to seize the market potentials. Samsung commanded 35.6% of the market for mobile phones in Vietnam last year, with Apple in second place with 24%, according to research company IDC. With rising incomes, Vietnamese consumers are switching from feature phones to smartphones, particularly of top brands. Vietnam is currently named in the top five in Asia and ranked 11th globally in terms of growth in the retail market. Its retail industry has expanded 8%-10% annually in recent years, said Sebastian Eckardt, a senior economist of the World Bank. Young population, higher disposable incomes, rapid urbanization and better living standards are said to be the main drivers of the sector's growth. Nielsen has found that almost 60% of 93 million Vietnamese are under 35 years old who are becoming better educated with more money to spend Foreign retail giants, including Thailand’s Central Group, Japan's Aeon and Takashimaya, and the Republic of Korea's Lotte, have already arrived. “It would be no surprise to see Vietnam to continue to attract huge foreign investment inflow into its retail market in the future,” said Eckardt. Aparna Bharadwaj from Boston Consulting Group told the Nikkei Asian Review that foreign companies should focus on selling cosmetics, telecommunications gears, high-end dairy goods, hygiene items and "experiences" such as travel. HOSE urges exchange for start-ups The chairman of the HCM Securities Exchange (HOSE), Tran Dac Sinh, has proposed that HCM City sets up a stock exchange for start-ups to help them  mobilise capital. Sinh made the proposal at a meeting with the People's Committee of HCM City on Monday when representatives of relevant ministries, sectors, major cities and provinces discussed start-up issues. However, he said each ministry and each locality had individual policies supporting the enterprises, with no links between the policies. Le Hai Tra, permanent deputy general director of HOSE, said the Government had created many policies to support start-up enterprises. But so far, ministries have had no specific guidance to implement policies. In 2015, only 67 start-up enterprises in Viet Nam had success in mobilising capital. HCM City should establish a securities exchange for start-up enterprises to connect parts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Sinh said. HOSE committed to provide support in terms of infrastructure and experience to establish the exchange and also propose policies related to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Vietnam News Agency reported. Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of the People's Committee of HCM City said that the city needed support from departments and sectors, including HOSE, to develop start-up enterprises and an entrepreneurial ecosystem. To develop start-ups, authorities of HCM City would focus on key sectors and build policies attracting more participants and meet start-up enterprises to support them, he said. HCM City would soon establish a start-up centre to consult start-up enterprises and co-ordinate the start-up enterprises in the city, Phong said. Viet Nam currently has 1,800 start-up firms, 21 start-up incubators, seven start-up accelerators and 20 workspaces. In addition, more than 20 foreign venture funds have opened offices in Viet Nam.  Facing donors, Vietnam urged to rethink coal-fueled growth International development partners and donors have called on Vietnam to commit to bigger greenhouse gas emission reductions, warning that fueling growth with coal will hurt the country with high environmental costs later. “No doubt adaptation is necessary but the less we invest in mitigation today, the more it will cost in adaptation in the future,” said Cecile Leroy, who attended a high level meeting in Hanoi on October 25 as a representative of the European Union. Renewable energy and economic growth can go hand in hand, she said, pointing out that emissions in Europe have been reduced by 20% since 1990. Under a high emission scenario, nearly 40% of the Mekong Delta could be wiped out by the end of the century, according to projections by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The risk is lower in a scenario of moderate climate change, which is only possible if the world successfully limits global temperature rises to 1.5-2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as agreed in the Paris Agreement last December. Achieving the target means the world must reduce carbon emissions by 40%-70% by 2050 compared to 2010. But according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body of the United Nations which advises governments, even if the world manages to keep this promise, median crop yields could drop by as much as 2% every decade, and fishery resources around the world could be displaced, affecting catches in Vietnam. The country itself is currently committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 8% by 2030 compared to 2010. While its carbon emissions per capita are relatively low, 1.7 metric tons in 2013 versus an average of 3.5 metric tons in low and middle-income countries, there's an alarming trend of increased emissions compared to other countries in Southeast Asia. These neighbors have also committed to much bigger cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Outdated and energy intensive technology in power generation, industrial production and transport are to blame for Vietnam’s relatively high carbon intensity, said Pham Van Tan, deputy director general of the Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change. Carbon intensity is the amount of carbon emissions released per unit of gross domestic product. The energy sector is by far the biggest emitter in Vietnam, according to the environment ministry's 2015 technical report. Fuel combustion -- coal and gas fired -- accounted for 88% of CO2 emissions in this sector in 2010, at 124.3 metric tons of CO2 equivalent. This is set to triple by 2020. Under a national energy plan, by 2030, half of the country’s power will come from coal. To meet that demand, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has already allowed three energy giants -- PetroVietnam, Vietnam Electricity and mining group Vinacomin -- to import 70 million tons of coal by 2030. But coal imports may or may not be crucial:the Ministry of Industry and Trade has estimated that Vietnam's coal reserves are already enough to generate power for several centuries. Renewable energy, excluding hydropower, on the other hand, will contribute only 10.7% of electricity production in 2030 compared to the current 3.7%. It is in this context that United Nations Resident Coordinator Pratibha Mehta called on the Vietnamese government to research and review its emissions targets "carefully." "Vietnam must review the long-term effects of the use of coal for electricity generation and in industry," Mehta said. "Vietnam lags behind most countries in the region in terms of solar and wind power installations […] despite huge potential.” The message was echoed by representatives of other development partners at Tuesday's meeting. Vietnam's environment minister Tran Hong Ha agreed that the country "should abandon traditional industries that are heavily dependent on natural resources." "We should switch from black to green energy sources," he said. Vietnam has said greenhouse gas emission reductions could be 25% by 2030, instead of the committed 8%, if there is international support and adaptation continues to be its main focus. “Vietnam considers adaptation important because of the serious climate change impacts,” said Tan of the meteorology and climate change department. "In the short term, for Vietnam to deal with such impacts and develop, we have to adapt." "Mitigation is important but it requires huge resources," Tan said, adding that the country needs to consider carefully whether and how foreign loans could be used forrenewable energy. He told VnExpress International that even though renewable energy will likely be cheaper with time, it’s still expensive for Vietnam. “Vietnam’s electricity demand rises very fast, at more than 10% per year while in China it's only 2%. So it’s easier for China to move to renewable energy.” Growing budget deficit and public debt are placing further strain on Vietnam’s capacity to commit to more mitigation efforts, according to Nguyen Xuan Thao, deputy director general of Department of Debt Management and External Finance. “To switch to renewable energy, we’ll have to import the technology. So it’s very important to seek private funding but the question is how,” said Thao. She pointed out that even the Paris Agreement is not specific about funding mitigation projects, which is an important issue for developing countries like Vietnam, which is also dealing with a decline in official development assistance (ODA) resources. The Delegation to the European Union in Vietnam argued that a transition to renewable energy doesn’t require huge government funding but a suitable policy that will encourage the private sector to jump in. Martin Hoppe, First Counselor of the German Embassy, said “it’s expensive going down the coal path if you consider environmental costs.” Hoppe suggested Vietnam introduce feed-in tariffs, a kind of subsidy, for renewable energy to encourage the private sector and households to invest in green power. Currently, Vietnam offers no subsidies or tax credits for renewable energy. When it comes to power prices, coal power costs nine cents per kilowatt-hour, while for solar, the price is around 13 cents. Under the Support Program to Respond to Climate Change (SP-RCC) for 2016-2020, a policy dialogue platform that brings together the Vietnamese government, donor partners and NGOs, Vietnam is expected to work on new legislation to encourage wind and solar power projects. So far, the country has secured US$1.2 billion for the upcoming SP-RCC term from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD) to fund climate change-related investment, capacity building and policy actions. Minister Ha said Vietnam will ratify the Paris Agreement before the COP 22 Marrakech Climate Change Conference on November 7. The Paris Agreement will enter into force on November 4 and so far the world's biggest polluters including the US, China and the European Union have already ratified it. VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/VET/VIR