Jakarta surabaya high speed railway

A ceremony marking the handover was held April 9 at the offices of the 3rd Regional Coast Guard in the southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau.

Attending the ceremony were Vietnam Coast Guard commander Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Son, U.S. Consul General Marie Damour and other officials, the U.S. embassy said in a Facebook post Saturday.

Lt. Gen. Son said that Vietnam highly appreciated the U.S. gesture and considered the event “an important milestone of the Vietnam-U.S. partnership,” helping Vietnam improve its law enforcement capacity at sea.

The cooperation between the coast guards of both countries has strengthened in recent years.

In 2017, the U.S. Coast Guard handed over the Hamilton-class (the second-largest class of vessels in the U.S. Coast Guard) USCGC Morgenthau cutter to the Vietnam Coast Guard under their Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program. The ship was then commissioned for the Vietnam Coast Guard and renamed CSB 8020.

The U.S. has also sold a total of 24 Metal Shark high-speed patrol boats and is overhauling the USCGC John Midgett, another Hamilton-class vessel, to hand it over to Vietnam.

At a press conference in Hanoi, outgoing U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink had remarked that security cooperation was developing strongly between the two countries, especially between the two militaries.

He said that Vietnam and the U.S. have worked together to implement a United Nations resolution on North Korea and to promote a common stance on the East Sea. The U.S. has assisted Vietnam in building its defense capacity, especially maritime capabilities, and supported Vietnam in sending peacekeeping personnel to South Sudan.

Referring to East Sea disputes, Kritenbrink had stressed that the U.S. always stood by its partners and allies in building an international order based on rules, and opposed ” the provocative actions of China with the other countries in the region.”

Police force patrol on Hà Nội-Hải Phòng Expressway. — VNA/VNA Photo

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính has issued a directive urging ministries and government agencies to ensure traffic safety during the national holidays marking Reunification Day and May Day.

The directive was sent to the ministries of public securities, transport, information and communications, the National Committee for Traffic Safety, news agencies and provincial and municipal people’s committees.

Under the directive, PM Chính said efforts are needed to improve the capacity of public transport services to meet increasing demand for travel during the holidays.

Transport companies, stations, airports, railway stations, terminals and inland waterways were required to strictly comply with the traffic safety regulations; promote the application of electronic ticket sales; improve service quality; reduce traffic jams, delays and illegal price hikes and at the same time, strictly comply with regulations on prevention and control of the pandemic.

The PM asked the ministries and agencies to strengthen security and order at the major traffic routes, shopping centres, entertainment venues and major tourist and festival destinations. Illegal bus stations, vehicles that fail to meet technical safety standards and carry more than the prescribed number of people will be punished, the PM said.

Traffic infrastructure will be checked, including signals, warning signs and warning equipment in places that have a high risk of traffic accidents. Tollbooths will assign more workers to collect fees quickly to reduce traffic jams.

Drivers must ensure passenger safety by driving more carefully on steep roads and through level crossings, he added.

Increased inspections should be used to strictly punish traffic regulation violators, especially those who cause traffic accidents.

Public order disturbances, illegal racing and violations against public servants on duty should be strictly dealt with, at the same safety of COVID-19 prevention for enforcement forces and people need to be ensured.

Local departments of transport were also asked to remind people of the importance of wearing helmets and obeying regulations to minimise accidents and strictly comply with anti-virus protocols.

Hotlines to receive traffic complaints should be widely publicised, he added.

The PM also requested news agencies to regularly update traffic accidents, traffic jams, information to support travel guidance during the holidays and encourage citizens to strictly comply with traffic safety regulations.

Reports on these efforts will be sent to the National Committee for Traffic Safety before 3pm on May 3 to submit to the Prime Minister. — VNS

Thang Long II Industrial Zone in My Hao District, Hung Yen Province.

The provincial governments have shown further plans to establish new IPs of roughly 23,400 ha in the future, which are all in notable markets surrounding HCM City. The ready-built factory market was also buoyant, with the expected new launch of roughly 897,000 sq.m of ready-built factories by the end of 2021.

Nguyen Hong Van, JLL Vietnam’s Director of Markets, said since technology conglomerates continue to eye Vietnam for production relocation, the demand for industrial land and ready-built factory remains vibrant.

To lure foreign investments, localities in the Northern area have shown strong commitment to promote IPs, with roughly 10,500 ha of additional supply in the future, she said.

In addition to existing markets, second-tier provinces like Hung Yen, Hai Duong or further North of Hanoi like Bac Giang and Vinh Phuc are emerging as potential destinations for foreign investors, fostering the rents in those areas to speed up at an expected year-on-year growth of about 8-10 per cent.

The ready-built factory market remains upbeat, with the expected new launch of roughly 332,000 sq.m of ready-built factories by the end of 2021, predominantly in Hai Phong and Bac Ninh.

According to JLL Vietnam’s quarterly report on Vietnam’s property market in the first quarter of this year unveiled on Thursday, Dong Nai and Binh Duong accounted for the biggest supply of both industrial land and ready-built factory sectors on the property market in the first quarter of this year.

The other localities still have a long journey to catch up to Binh Duong and Dong Nai’s industrial park supply as these two are the oldest-developed industrial markets. Whilst in terms of ready-built factory supply, Dong Nai overwhelmed other provinces due to its well-developed industrial base and sufficient land bank for ready-built factory developers to penetrate, Van said.

However, the report said that no new supply of either industrial parks or ready-built factories was launched in the market in the quarter, she said.

Industrial properties in the Southern area remained significantly desirable for manufacturers to penetrate, although the pandemic still posed difficulties. Keeping the healthy demand momentum, both industrial land and ready-built factories recorded high occupancy rates at nearly 86 per cent and 82 per cent, increasing 0.60 per cent and 0.76 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, respectively. Of which, industrial land recorded transactions which have been negotiated since last year, whilst ready-built factories witnessed new leasing expansions of existing tenants rather than newcomers.

Industrial land remained the hottest sector for either newcomers or to meet the manufacturing expansion needs of existing investors, backed by Vietnam’s strong manufacturing fundamentals, Van said.

Therefore, most industrial park developers in Southern markets still maintained strong momentum to raise land prices reaching a new high at US$111 per sq.m per lease term, up 8.1 per cent year on year in the first quarter of this year. Whereas ready-built factory rents averaged $4.5 per sq.m per month across the region, increasing 3.1 per cent year on year, driven by the healthy demands of small and medium-sized enterprises as they expanded operations.

According to JLL Vietnam, in the first quarter, no new supply in industrial land and ready-built factories were introduced in the Northern market. The cumulative leasable land area in the market achieved roughly 9,500 ha, while the total supply of ready-built factories stood at approximately 1.8 million sq.m.

Bac Ninh and Hai Phong dominated the total supply in both sectors thanks to their strategic locations, strong footprints in the industrial market and improving business environment.

The third wave of COVID-19 swept the Northern area in late January has led to the postponement of new investments in the region, especially the lockdown in Hai Duong freezing most of the transactions in industrial parks in the first quarter.

Nevertheless, thanks to the strong influx of FDI in high-tech industries starting in the second half of 2020, the average occupancy rate of industrial parks recorded a healthy rate, reaching 75 per cent, whereas the occupancy rate of ready-built factories stood at 98 per cent in the quarter.

Given healthy demand, backed by Vietnam’s strong industrial fundamentals and combined with industrial park developers’ strong confidence in potential long-term investments, the land price continued its momentum to reach a new peak of $107 per sq.m per lease term in the first quarter, up 8.1 per cent year on year.

Meanwhile, ready-built factory rents also showed an increasing trend, at 5.8 per cent year on year, of which Bac Ninh recorded the strongest growth rate of nearly 9 per cent year on year fuelled by the launch of high-quality ready-built factories.

VNS