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In Viet Nam, Emirates currently operates three flights from Ha Noi and four flights from HCM City to Dubai and onward to over 95 destinations around the globe. — Photo Emirates

Emirates has announced the latest updates to its booking policies, offering customers even more confidence and flexibility to make their travel plans.

Customers holding tickets issued before September 30, 2020 for travel before December 31, 2021, can now rebook to travel anytime within 36 months, an extension of 12 months from the previous policy.

Those holding tickets issued after October 1, 2020 for travel before December 31, 2021, can utilise their tickets anytime within 36 months from the date of their original booking.

Fees for reissuing any ticket will be waived, and vouchers or unused portions of Emirates tickets may be refunded without penalty.

Customers who hold tickets issued directly by Emirates, whether via emirates.com or the airline’s retail and contact centres, do not have to contact Emirates as the tickets are automatically extended. Customers who purchased their tickets via a travel agent will need to contact their agent before the expiry date to reissue their tickets.

Emirates was the first airline to provide global multi-risk travel insurance cover for all passengers, and the airline is now extending this facility beyond March 31, 2021 until further notice, offering added value and peace of mind for its customers.

For its loyal frequent flyers, Emirates Skywards is extending the Tier Status of its Silver, Gold and Platinum members until 2022. The validity of any Skywards Miles due to expire since April 2020 has been further extended until August 31, 2021, providing Skywards members with more opportunities to utilise them for an extensive range of flight and partner rewards as well as other privileges.

In addition, Emirates Skywards is offering members a chance to earn double Tier Miles on all Emirates and flydubai flights booked from April 1 until June 30, for travel until December 30, 2021. — VNS

Vingroup’s billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong

Bloomberg has cited a source as saying that Vingroup Group (VIC) of billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong is considering an initial public offering (IPO) in the US for its VinFast auto company, which is expected to mobilize about $2-3 billion.

VinFast expects a valuation of at least $50 billion or even up to $70-75 billion. With this valuation, the capitalization of VinFast will surpass the famous car maker Ferrari (capitalization at $52 billion), Honda ($51 billion), Ford ($49 billion), Kia ($30 billion) … and only behind some famous brands such as Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, GM, BMW and others.

This is an unexpected move, but it is in line with his aim of conquering the top market in the world.

The information was released when Vuong’s VinFast company began receiving the first orders for electric cars in Vietnam last month and had models shown on CNN, paving its way into the US market.

VinFast has also registered two electric car models in the US and will sell a number of models in Vietnam, the US, Canada and Europe from late 2021.

In the trading session on April 12, Vingroup shares (VIC) – VinFast’s parent company – increased by 5.7% to VND132,000/share, helping the group’s capitalization reach more than $19 billion to be the largest capitalized enterprise in Vietnam’s stock market.

During the morning session of April 13, Vingroup shares continued to rise by more than 4 percent, to nearly VND138,000 per share.

As the price for VIC shares soared, Vuong’s assets rose to over $9 billion and he became the 262nd richest person in the world.

If the IPO is successful, VinFast will set a new record, surpassing the record of $1.4 billion in capital mobilization in 2018 of Vinhomes (Vingroup’s real estate management company).

At that time, VinFast was also the first Vietnamese company listed in the US.

VinFast is Vingroup’s company that manufactures motorbikes, and gasoline- and electric-powered cars. The business, only a few years old, began delivering gasoline fueled cars (using engines licensed by BMW) in 2019.

In the mobile phone segment, Vingroup has achieved many positive results, with the sale of Vsmart phones in the country increasing over the past year, even though the No. 1 private corporation in Vietnam just entered the smartphone market in 2018. Vingroup has become the 3rd largest smartphone manufacturer in Vietnam, behind only Samsung Electronics and Oppo.

On the website of the leading US carrier – AT&T – an image of the first Vingroup smartphones has appeared, a testament to the group’s plan to enter the American smartphone market.

Pham Nhat Vuong has great ambition in the field of technology and industry, with Vsmart phones, Vinfast cars and electric cars.

In recent years, Vuong’s Vingroup had to withdraw from many fields, selling the retail segment to billionaire Nguyen Dang Quang and recently presenting the Youth Football Training Center to Van Lang Education Group, even though it had many achievements in these fields.

V. Ha

According to a report of the Department of Agricultural Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), Vietnam exported 1.1 million tons of rice in the first three months of 2021, earning $606 million, down 30.4% in volume and 17.4% in value over the same period of 2020.

In March 2021, the average export price of Vietnamese rice reached $547 per ton, up 0.5% compared to that of February 2021 and 19.1% compared to March 2020. On average, in the first quarter of 2021, the average export price of rice increased 18.6% year on year. The price for Vietnamese rice was higher than that of Thailand and India.

According to the Department of Agricultural Processing and Market Development, the price for Vietnamese rice was high during this period thanks to the high demand for new winter-spring rice from Vietnam from foreign partners.

Vietnamese rice has held the top spot in the world in selling prices. The price for 5% broken rice of India rose sharply in late March, but it only reached $401 per ton. Indian rice currently has the lowest price among the three largest rice exporting countries in the world. Meanwhile, the price of Thai rice of the same type reached $538 per ton in early March but fell to $509 per ton in late March.

In 2020, Vietnam surpassed its competitors in selling prices, with an export volume of 6.15 million tons, earning $3.07 billion, officially overtaking Thailand to become the second largest rice exporter in the world, after India.

According to the Vietnam Food Association, since late March 2021, rice exports will increase as the supply of commodity rice is abundant and businesses have completed processing rice for export.

T.A

Rice exporters gear up to penetrate EU arena

On September 22, Loc Troi Group JSC exported the first batch of 126 tonnes of fragrant rice to the EU. To reach this, LocTroi upped its planting methods and quality control for the EU market in 2018. So far, the company has exported over 10,000 tonnes of rice to the EU market.

Backed by the tariff exemptions under the new EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), LocTroi chairman Huynh Van Thon said that the group aims to become one of the major rice exporters to the EU. The company will mobilise all its resources to satisfy the EU’s strict quality requirements, expanding its growing area and export volume and diversifying varieties.

Meanwhile, at the end of August Trung An Hi-Tech Farming JSC also exported its first batch of fragrant rice in line with EVFTA commitments. Pham Thai Binh, the company’s general director, said that the shipment is part of the company’s current contract to export 3,000 tonnes of rice to Europe.

Binh said the company made early preparations during the EVFTA negotiation process to increase its rice exports. Among them, food safety standardss were Binh’s focus as the bloc refuses products exceeding pesticide residue limits. Therefore, Trung An focused on international standards for planting, harvesting, preserving, and processing.

Elsewhere in 2019, Vinaseed also exported over 2,000 tonnes of rice to the EU with turnover of $2 million. The group inaugurated the Centre of Seed and Agricultural Product Processing Industry in Dong Thap province last year. Covering five hectares, the centre has capacity to process and preserve 100,000 tonnes of rice and 50,000 tonnes of seeds per year.

Nguyen Quang Truong, general director of Vinaseed said, “With modern lines and technology from Japan, the new centre can help us to produce rice meeting the EU’s rigorous inspection procedures, while preserving its natural taste.”

In addition, Vinaseed has also purchased an 800ha forest in Kien Giang’s Hon Dat district. The company will spend 3-4 years on preparing the land for agricultural use.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam’s rice exports to the EU reached over $1.2 million in August, up 93.5 per cent against July and 35.6 per cent on-year. Currently, many Vietnamese rice producers are negotiating new contracts with European partners.

While these efforts show the hard work of domestic companies in trying to raise their exports to the EU, it will remains tough to conquer the market for some time.

Quach The Phong, co-chair of the Food, Agri, and Aqua Business Sector Committee under EuroCham, said that rice and products thereof are a sensitive category in the EVFTA. The agreed export quota from Vietnam to the EU is set at 80,000 tonnes per year, including all types of rice. For comparison, in 2018 Vietnam exported only around 20,000 tonnes to the EU.

The EVFTA only helps with a fraction of the Vietnam’s total export volume, which is expected to reach 7 million tonnes this year. In the short-term, it is expected that there will be a positive price impact for the country’s rice exports. However, over the medium and long term, benefits include many aspects for improving technology transfer and trusts for a larger quota.

In addition to consumption rates, Vietnamese rice is facing tough competition from Thailand and Cambodia. Between September 2019 and March, the EU imported 30 per cent of its rice from Thailand and 27 per cent from Cambodia as well as 16 per cent from Pakistan, 15 per cent from India, and only 6 per cent from Vietnam, according to a report by the European Commission in April.

“Even though Vietnamese rice has advantages in terms of pricing, it is still difficult to change the consumption habits of European customers, which is likely to pose obstacles for local producers to fully take advantage of the EVFTA,” Binh said.

On the same note, Phong added that some firms able to export to the EU will have opportunities to strengthen their production locally as well as to understand and further adapt to EU standards as both the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Ministry of Industry and Trade are closely observing and regulating the export process to follow commitments.

“With the help of government bodies here, this can become a reality to improve the entire rice export industry. This initiative is also important since the MARD has identified that a value-based export direction for rice will be the future for Vietnam, rather than a volume-based one,” Phong stated. VIR

Thanh Van

Since March 20, the 7-day moving average of new COVID-19 cases in the country has consistently remained higher compared with the previous 7-day moving average, according to data of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The current 7-day moving average of daily new cases stands at 67,530 cases, up around 6 percent from the previous seven days.

Meanwhile, new COVID-19 hospitalizations also went up 7.3 percent from the previous 7-day period, according to the CDC.

As of April 10, the United States had recorded more than 21,000 infection cases of coronavirus variants, according to the latest data of the CDC.

Among those variants cases, 20,915 cases were caused by the variant known as B.1.1.7, which was originally detected in Britain.

There were 453 cases of a new strain initially discovered in South Africa, called B.1.351, and 497 cases of the P.1 strain first discovered in Brazil.

In addition, the B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants, two coronavirus strains first detected in the US state of California, are also being closely monitored by the CDC.

The five coronavirus strains are currently classified by the CDC as “variants of concern,” as evidence shows that they have a stronger transmissibility, increase hospitalizations or deaths, and reduce effectiveness of treatments or vaccines.

B.1.1.7 is the most common variant circulating in the United States and has been reported in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, while variants P.1 and B.1.351 are relatively less, according to the CDC.

Even as the country picks up its COVID-19 vaccination pace, the coronavirus variants are spreading rapidly, and health experts warn the variants infections could potentially stall the nation’s recovery from the pandemic.

The Vietnamese economy is forecast to grow seven percent per annum in 2021-22, largely driven by increased export and investment, Fitch Ratings said in a post on its website on Tuesday.

“Strong export growth and a successful campaign to contain the spread of COVID-19 have supported Vietnam’s economy through the pandemic,” the American credit rating agency remarked.

Other parts of Vietnam’s economy have proved robust despite tourism, one of the country’s main sectors, hit the hardest by the coronavirus crisis.

The government posted 2.9 percent in GDP growth last year, placing Vietnam among a handful of nations globally that reported positive economic growth amid the pandemic stress.

“Growth was buoyed by external demand, with goods exports rising by 6.9 percent,” Fitch Ratings stated.

“Domestic activity was also supported by the limited spread of COVID-19 in the country.

“Just 1,465 cases and 35 deaths from the virus were officially recorded in 2020.

“We expect growth to remain strong, at around seven percent annually, in 2021-2022, buoyed by continued export expansion and higher investment.”

The Southeast Asian country’s COVID-19 tally has reached 2,733, with 2,445 patients having recovered from the respiratory disease, as of Wednesday evening, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.

Growth prospects will be reinforced by a pandemic fiscal package for 2020-21 of about VND292 trillion (US$12.7 billion), or roughly 3.6 percent of the 2020 GDP, Fitch Ratings forecast.

Goods exports rose 23.8 percent year on year in the first quarter of this year, supporting real economic growth in the quarter of 4.5 percent year on year.

Vietnam is benefiting from such new trade agreements as the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, as well as the country’s cost competitiveness.

“Rapid increases in public infrastructure investment and FDI should bolster the sustainability of strong medium-term growth,” Fitch Ratings said.

Vietnam’s generally robust economic outlook remains subject to risks, as its vaccination program has moved slowly, beginning only on March 8, the company observed.

The nation has so far received 928,800 coronavirus vaccine doses from direct purchases or the COVAX scheme, co-led by the World Health Organization, according to the health ministry’s figures.

Over 60,000 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Wednesday evening.

“Vaccine hesitancy among the public appears low, which is a positive sign, but Vietnam’s confirmed vaccine orders cover a lower proportion of the population than in some neighboring states, such as Indonesia and Malaysia,” Fitch Ratings said.

“Should the country experience a major COVID-19 outbreak before vaccines are widely rolled out – prompting lockdowns – growth prospects and public finances could be affected.”

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