Financing to purchase an existing business

VietBank’s chair of the board of directors Bui Xuan Khu

VietBank has announced that Duong Ngoc Hoa resigned from the post of chair of the board of directors on February 23 and the office has been taken by Bui Xuan Khu, who was Deputy Minister of Industry Trade.

Khu became a member of the bank’s board of directors in 2011 after he retired. Later, he acted as deputy chair of the board of directors until he was appointed president of the bank.

Khu is the next former high-ranking official to become a bank president. Le Thi Bang Tam, former Deputy Minister of Finance, is now president of HDBank and president of Vinamilk.

Tam joined Vinamilk in 2013 as an independent member of the board of directors. She has been president of the nation’s leading dairy producer since 2015 and president of HDBank since 2010. She is also a senior advisor to some foreign financial institutions.

A lot of former government officials became businessmen after their retirement. Tran Xuan Gia, former Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Xuan Gia, became the president of ACB in 2008-2012. Gia, together with a lot of former senior managers of the bank, including Ly Xuan Hai, Le Vu Ky and Trinh Kim Quang, were investigated in a case related to Nguyen Duc Kien, or ‘Mogul Kien’.

Kieu Huu Dung, former director of the Banks and Non-bank Credit Institutions Department, served as president of Sacombank in 2014-2017. He later became president of ACB Securities and president of Sacombank Securities.

The other officials included Pham Viet Muon, who was Vice Chairman of the Government Office, Cao Sy Kiem, former Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and Truong Van Phuoc, former head of SBV’s Foreign Exchange Management Department.

Former Deputy Minister Bui Xuan Khu, who joined VietBank in 2011, also has a lot of business experience as he was general director of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Corporation (Vinatex), the largest garment producer in Vietnam, general director of Viet Tien Garment and deputy president of the Global Petroleum Investment JSC.

In mid-2019, VietBank put VBB shares into transactions on the bourse.

VietBank was established in December 2006 as a rural bank with charter capital of VND200 billion. Its founding shareholders have relations with Hoa Lam Group, ACB and Dieu Hien Company. The bank now has charter capital of VND4.19 trillion after five capital increases.

ACB has divested from VietBank, while Dieu Hien is no longer mentioned in documents and information about the bank. The shareholders from Hoa Lam Group still maintain their stake with Duong Ngoc Hoa as the representative. Duong Nhat Nguyen is now deputy chair of the bank.

V. Ha

Shopping on Shopee e-commerce platform. — Photo congthuong.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese e-commerce market is forecast to continue to boom in 2021, with revenue surpassing last year’s figure.

A report by the Việt Nam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that with 53 per cent of the population participating in online shopping, the e-commerce market in Việt Nam grew 18 per cent, reaching $11.8 billion last year, accounting for 5.5 per cent of total retail sales of consumer goods and services nationwide.

Nguyễn Thế Quang, the agency’s deputy director, said e-commerce had had an impressive year of growth and would continue to explode this year and beyond.

According to the national master plan on e-commerce development in 2021-2025, by 2025, up to 55 per cent of the population will participate in online shopping, with the average value of online purchases of goods and services reaching US$600 per person annually.

The revenue of the B2C e-commerce model increases by 25 per cent each year, reaching $35 billion, accounting for 10 per cent of the total retail sales of goods and services in the whole country.

Việt Nam has a growth rate of retail market share among the top three countries in the region.

From 2015 up to now, the growth rates of the three largest internet economies in the region have averaged 35 – 36 per cent, of which, Việt Nam grew by 36 per cent, Indonesia 41 per cent, and the Philippines 30 per cent.

Nielsen research shows that, since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the demand for shopping on e-commerce floors has increased sharply.

Last year, 70 per cent of Vietnamese people had access to the internet and 53 per cent of e-wallet users made payments when buying online, up 28 per cent compared to 2019.

In Hà Nội and HCM City, e-commerce activities grew strongly and accounted for 70 per cent of the total number of e-commerce transactions of the country.

According to Amazon Việt Nam, Vietnamese sellers exceeded $1 million in sales on Amazon last year, a three-fold increase from 2019.

Experts predicted e-commerce would continue to thrive in this year and created a new impetus for economic growth, at the same time, this was also an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to build new business strategies and approach modern distribution channels, helping to expand markets and recover from the pandemic.

Amid digital transformation and the development of the online shopping market, iDEA has implemented the Online Vietnamese Store programme on three major e-commerce floors in Việt Nam, including Tiki, Sendo and Voso.

The programme has created a new playground for manufacturing enterprises to develop distribution systems with digital transformation solutions and apply e-commerce and digital technologies in connecting the domestic market.

Đặng Hoàng Hải, director of iDEA , said the agency would implement the GoOnline programme to accompany businesses in the e-commerce application process.

The programme has the companionship of telecommunications, technology and e-commerce systems in the country, targeting manufacturers, businesses and individuals nationwide who want to access and apply e-commerce.

Promoting e-commerce in parallel with perfecting the electronic payment system and improving the quality of shipping activities would create a very exciting and potential shopping and trading environment. — VNS

Many effective models

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Lieu Province, through the process of agricultural restructuring, many models of the linking value chains in the production, processing and consumption of agricultural products have been formed, bringing high economic efficiency. Currently, the province’s many companies and units of shrimp farming in the form of a closed value chain were recognised as agricultural enterprises applying high technology or certified by international standards of aquaculture such as GlobalGAP, BAP, ASC, and Organic. In addition, the province has steadily developed the rice industry following a large production model, joining the value chain, with rice output increased from 1.066 million tonnes in 2015 to 1.15 million tonnes by 2020.

In Hai Duong, the agricultural sector has also been promoting the formation of value chains for agricultural products. Accordingly, the province has been focusing on building agricultural production zones for export processing, high-tech agricultural zones, and expanding production scale according to the GAP assessment process. Up to now, the whole province has 335 hectares of organic rice, 114 rice-growing models of “one zone, one variety, one time”, with the minimum scale of 30 hectares per zone. Specialised vegetable growing areas with high efficiency continue to be maintained and expanded. Thanks to production in value chains in 2020, many agricultural products of the province will be exported through official channels to high quality markets, such as: lychee, longan exported to Japan and the US; carrots to the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan, and Middle Eastern countries; cabbage to the ROK and Japan; pickled cucumbers to Russia and the ROK; and onion and garlic to Malaysia.

Meanwhile, according to the Hung Yen Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province has successfully implemented the project “Building and developing models of production and consumption chain of agricultural products” in the direction of producing quality goods, ensuring food safety. The project spent more than VND26 billion to support science – technology, infrastructure, and promoting product consumption, including applying advanced technology in production chains, food business, disseminating knowledge and guidance on cultivation and husbandry techniques. Through project implementation, in Hung Yen, many typical models appeared, such as: Hoang Minh Chau Co., Ltd. with a group of turmeric products including: Nano Curcumin, Nano Collagen turmeric milk, turmeric cream, turmeric starch; and the Mien Thiet longan cooperative with Hung Yen longan.

Towards sustainable development

Building value chains for agricultural products is one of the important solutions towards the sustainable development goals of the entire agricultural sector. Over the past time, several models of value chains have been formed and have been remarkably effective, but they are not high in quantity nor evenly distributed in fields and trades. This is attributed to the fact that agricultural production in many regions of the country is still small and fragmented, it is difficult to form concentrated production zones to apply science – technology as well as control issues related to food safety and hygiene. Therefore, in the coming time, it is necessary to promote the formation of value chain models in the forms such as cooperatives, cooperative groups associated with enterprises; Manufacturing enterprises associated with distribution firms; Enterprise performing all stages in the chain.

Therefore, localities should soon plan concentrated agricultural production zones, as a basis for the formation of value chains. In Bac Lieu Province, according to the plan, by 2025, the province will promote investment in building an aquaculture zone, a high-tech aquatic seed production area with 4,000 hectares of farming; implementing large fields associated with rice consumption to reach 100,000 hectares, accounting for more than 51% of the cultivated area. In addition, the local agricultural sector also continues to guide and support production and business establishments in the direction of scaling up, ensuring all the conditions to convert activities into new-style cooperatives or business. At the same time, the province will also support businesses, cooperatives, and business households to participate in the programme “One Commune, One Product” (OCOP) to link production and consumption in the value chain to increase high added value.

* China and India should firmly follow the right path of mutual trust and cooperation between neighboring major countries, and not go astray with suspicion and distrust nor fall back on a road of negative retrogression, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday. Wang made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, stressing that the two sides should maintain the strategic consensuses reached by their leaders.

* As COVID-19 transmission rates seemingly decline across the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge expressed health concerns over “long-COVID” or “post-COVID” symptoms at a virtual press conference on Thursday.

* Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Armenia in a telephone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday, the Kremlin said.

* The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that the US military had conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria. The Pentagon called the operation a “proportionate military response” carried out after consultations with coalition partners.

* China approved two more vaccines for public use, raising the number of domestically produced vaccines that can be used in China to four.

* Japan on Friday is preparing to lift the state of emergency over COVID-19 for five prefectures where the situation has improved, although the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area will likely be kept under the emergency period for the time being, according to government sources.

* The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Friday 2,651 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase since Oct. 17 last year, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 571,327.

* Leaders of the European Union (EU) called for an accelerated production and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines late on Thursday as the bloc is struggling with supply shortfalls.

* Brazil surpassed 250,000 COVID-19 deaths, while France and Germany said COVID-19 is here to stay after European Union leaders discussed ways to fight new variants of the virus, step up inoculations and save Europe’s tourism industry from another ruinous summer.

* Europe’s medicines regulator issued new guidance for drug makers that modify their vaccines to protect against variants of the virus to speed up the approval process.

* France will bring in new restrictions for the Moselle area around its common border with Germany, and impose measures including weekend lockdowns in Paris and 19 other regions from the start of March if signs of the coronavirus accelerating persist.

* Australia’s Victoria state will start easing restrictions from Friday night.

* Republic of Korea launched its inoculation campaign, with shots to be administered in some 200 nursing homes.

* US President Joe Biden’s administration plans to launch a campaign to educate Americans about vaccines in anticipation of a period later this year where supply may outstrip demand because of vaccine hesitancy.

* Brazil will purchase 20 million doses of the vaccine made by India’s Bharat Biotech for delivery between March and May.

* Canada’s vaccination campaign is ramping up after earlier supply disruptions and the number of inoculations last week hit a five-week high.

* Pfizer and BioNTech said they are testing a third dose of their vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.

* Mexico’s economy grew quicker than first estimated during the fourth quarter as the country recovered from its sharpest economic contraction in nearly nine decades.

* Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to the lowest level since 1995 as coronavirus restrictions limited travel. Data released by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources on Friday revealed that emissions fell by 4.4 percent in the 12 months to September 2020.

* Security personnel of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) rescued more than 80 Rohingya refugees who had been onboard a boat drifting in the waters of Andaman Sea for 10 days, and retrieved eight dead bodies.

* Republic of Korea’s quarantine authorities said Friday that it will extend the country’s five-tier social-distancing rules at the third-highest level in the Seoul metropolitan area for two weeks.

* US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would work to make US-Saudi relations “as strong and transparent as possible.” Biden made the remarks in the first phone conversation with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud since Biden’s inauguration.

* Germany’s Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure said on Wednesday that more than EUR5 billion (US$6.1 billion) would be invested in the modernization of over 3,000 railway stations across the country.

* Colombian President Ivan Duque announced a decision Thursday night to extend a declared national health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic by three more months, as the vaccination drive entered its eighth day.

* AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot said he hoped to meet the EU’s expectations on the number of vaccines the company can deliver to the bloc in the second quarter.

* The Czech prime minister said people’s movement needed to be “radically” limited over at least the next three weeks.

* Portugal extended until at least mid-March a nationwide lockdown.

* The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines.

* Israel has frozen its programme to send vaccines abroad to buy international goodwill, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said, after the initiative came under legal scrutiny.

* Bahrain has approved Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine for emergency use.

Sacombank continues to collaborate with IBM for transforming its security operations centre to strengthen its data security infrastructure. — Photo courtesy of the bank

HCM CITY — Sacombank continues to collaborate with IBM for transforming its security operations centre to strengthen its data security infrastructure.

The centre was established and operated to international standards earlier last year, and followed a three-year roadmap for modernising and improving its capacity as proposed by IBM.

The technology that IBM has sold Sacombank offers world-class intelligent threat detection capabilities and is powered by IBM QRadar Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) like at other IBM security operations centres (SOCs) world-wide.

The project will focus on deploying and integrating new tools and enhancing the existing SOC to detect and respond to cyber security incidents more effectively.

It includes upgrading QRadar infrastructure to a stable version by taking advantage of additional features and fixing errors in previous version, deploying and integrating seamlessly with security orchestration, automation and response platforms for agile incident response, implementing Qradar Network Insight to improve network security threat analysis to identify Indicators of Attack in real time, extending security monitoring to 250 additional log sources, and performing SOC maturity assessment annually.

Trần Thái Bình, head of the bank’s information technology division, said: “As one of the leading commercial banks in Việt Nam, Sacombank is well aware of its role in customer data protection and should have data security strategies. Right from the beginning of the digital transformation journey, the bank has focused on investing in building the SOC and phase 1 has been successfully deployed.

“Now with IBM’s world-class expertise and security standards, phase 2 of the SOC transformation will allow us to more effectively detect and protect against cybersecurity threats , ensuring that customer data is protected optimally and most securely.”

Phạm Thị Thu Diệp, country general manager of IBM Vietnam, said: “Cybercriminals are constantly developing cybersecurity attack tactics for financial gain, disrupting or damaging the reputation of businesses. In such situations, it is important for businesses to have SOCs with industry-leading technology in place to operate and respond in a timely manner.

“We are proud of IBM’s leading security technology and services that will provide an integrated system for network security threat analysis and detection to help Sacombank achieve its mission of providing comprehensive and classy financial and banking services to customers.” — VNS