Members national security council

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Surging international crude oil price on improving demand has helped many oil and gas companies record big profits in the first quarter of this year, after losing in 2020.

In the first quarter financial result, Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex, PLX) posted a slight fall of 0.6 percent in net revenue to nearly 38.2 trillion VND (1.6 million USD). However, it was still profitable thanks to a cut in expenses in financial activities and others, and gains in other incomes.

Of which, the company’s profit after tax was nearly 736.2 billion VND in the first quarter after reporting a loss of 2.3 trillion VND in the same period last year.

During the period, Petrolimex’s domestic output rose 4.7 percent year-on-year to 2.27 million m3. Retail sales accounted for 55 – 60 percent of its total sales but contributed around 80 percent of its profit.

SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) said that the company’s production growth will continue until the first half of the second quarter, boosted by the Government’s restriction on illicit petrol, especially in the south.

Similarly, Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (BSR) witnessed its revenue reach 21 trillion VND in the first quarter with a profit of over 1.8 trillion VND, while it reported a loss of 2.33 trillion VND in the same period last year.

The main driving force for the recovery in profit was higher crude prices in the international market and crack spread of gasoline products.

Crack spread is the spread created in commodity markets by purchasing oil futures and offsetting the position by selling petrol and heating oil futures.

PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PVOIL)’s profit after tax was 190.6 billion VND, after losing 537.7 billion VND in the same period last year.

Notably, Thu Duc Trading & Import Export JSC (TMC) even reported net profit of more than 4 billion VND, nine times higher than that of last year.

Another company witnessing profit rise sharply was Nam Song Hau Trading Investing Petroleum JSC (PSH). The company’s revenue was up 10 percent over last year to more than 1.7 trillion VND, resulting in a profit of 44 billion VND, 2.1 times higher than that of the same period in 2020.

Even though there were still some companies recording declines in profit or even losses during the first quarter, in general, oil and gas companies’ results were quite positive.

With positive oil demand outlook, the oil price is expected to continue to rally. Therefore, there is still more room for oil and gas firms to recover.

SSI forecasted that Brent crude price will trade at an average of 68 USD per barrel in 2021, up 62.6 percent year-on-year, and can even go up to 70 USD in 2022.

According to SSI, developed economies are gradually opening again as they have pushed the vaccination rollout. Businesses activities will also recover quickly when countries continue to ease measures to contain COVID-19.

Brent crude was traded at 74.23 USD per barrel on June 17, and on track to head toward 75 USD./.

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– Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on May 14 emphasised the spirit of readiness as COVID-19 would break out in the community anytime.

Speaking at a meeting of permanent members of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, Dam, who is also head of the committee, said pandemic hotbeds in such localities as Ha Nam, Da Nang, Vinh Phuc and Yen Bai have basically put under control.

COVID-19 cases stood at 3,756, including 2,298 domestically-transmitted infections.

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Börje Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson

At the Ericsson Unboxed Office event held in early June, Börje Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson, said 5G is possibly the biggest platform for innovation. “With 5G, we will not only serve the consumer market like we did with 4G, we’re actually entering the enterprise space. The performance of 5G allows enterprises to choose cellular as their primary choice of connectivity.”

Mobile service providers are well-positioned to capture enterprise opportunities, he added, with potential for significant expansion in revenues compared to current business.

More opportunities in enterprise space

Asa Tamsons, head of Business Area Technologies and New Businesses at Ericsson, added by 2030, up to $700 billion of 5G-enabled business-to-business value can be addressed by communication service providers (CSPs).

Asa Tamsons, head of Business Area Technologies and New Businesses at Ericsson

According to findings from a recent Analysis Mason study conducted across 200 enterprises in different industries, CSPs are seen as key influencers in enterprise strategies and planning for private 5G networks.

Jan Karlsson, senior vice president and head of Business Area Digital Services, Ericsson, said that enterprises put more trust in CSPs to master 5G opportunities compared to hyperscale cloud providers or their system integrators.

“We believe that it’s smart for CSPs to build on their strengths and existing relationships, use 5G connectivity, and SD WAN evolution as a trigger to bundle with more advanced enterprise communication and collaboration offerings. For instance, CSPs can connect small- and medium-sized business offices with fixed wireless access or wireless/wired solutions or make standalone private networks the entry point for edge and evolve towards virtual private 5G networks with a combination of edge and network slicing,” he added.

To support 5G monetisation, Ericsson is building on its strengths in network automation and its leading 5G technology. With an openness to collaboration in different consumer and enterprise application ecosystems, it has highlighted many different business and revenue models that could emerge.

Ericsson is also focusing its growth investments to help CSPs capture new opportunities with enterprises. Asa Tamsons said, “We add value in three ways. We offer pre-packaged business-ready connectivity solutions for enterprises. We work with device application providers and industrial partners to make sure their solutions are the first service providers integrate, deploy, and bundle with third-party offerings. We also develop value-added offerings to help drive adoption and demand for 5G-powered solutions that help service providers capture value on top of connectivity.”

“Currently, we see a massive demand for private cellular networks. The market is forecast to reach $5.7 billion by 2024, according to a new International Data Corporation (IDC) report. I see enterprises and public sector organisations increasingly turning to cellular wireless technology to get better network performance, improved security, and predictable bandwidth costs,” Asa Tamsons added.

One example is critical national infrastructure such as nuclear energy sites that require high-level performance and reliability. Ericsson’s partnership with the energy company ODF and tech giant Telus is one of the latest examples of how Ericsson’s private network solutions are of huge benefit and dare to make this industry go wireless.

Another example is Cradlepoint that today powers wireless WAN solutions to help 25,000 enterprise customers connect their businesses with cellular wireless and security solutions. According to Cradlepoint, the market for private networks is exploding, with one retail customer in the US with over 1,400 stores in more than 47 states turning its entire WAN into a wireless network using cellular.

“Ericsson is committed to investing in this area and is looking forward to partnering with customers to tap into this growth opportunity,” noted Asa Tamsons.

Long-term journey

According to Fredrik Jejdling, executive vice president and head of Business Area Networks at Ericsson, the fifth generation of mobility has been growing faster than the previous one, and it applies for 5G as well. 5G is driven by compatible devices available earlier in the market, which is typically a driver for the uptake of technology. However, Ericsson added that 5G is being adopted across countries at around the same time, including the US, China, and various other markets.

Taking a long-term approach, Ericsson has sharply increased its investment in research and development (R&D). A few years ago, it increased its R&D investment by almost 30 per cent and hired more than 5,000 engineers. Today, about a quarter of its workforce is in R&D. It is one long-term view that also drives Ericsson to develop enterprise applications that can be used by customers as well.

Technology trend

The Ericsson Unboxed Office event has discussed the main technology trends that would define the shape of future business, highlighting Ericsson’s engagement and 5G opportunities in each trend.

Erik Ekudden, SVP & CTO, Ericsson

According to Erik Ekudden, SVP & CTO, Ericsson, the mobile industry has some 700 companies taking part in open standardisation, driving new specifications, new interfaces. And this is really the core of the collaborative culture. “Ericsson has been the leader and driver of open standards since long.”

Ekudden elaborated the second area is augmented and virtual reality and the third is climate change and sustainability. Ericsson’s own research indicates that by 2030, 15 per cent of global emissions can be reduced through the use of advanced digital technologies, with 5G being the change agent.

According to Erik Ekudden, CTO of Ericsson, if looking to 2025 and perhaps even 2030, networks need to continue to evolve, providing higher performance, lower cost of ownership, and serving new use cases through 5G and the evolution into 6G.

Ekudden noted four areas that will be important in the long term. The first is limitless connectivity with pervasive access both indoors and outdoors in rural and populated areas through technology that really scales.

The second area is cognitive networks where more intelligence is built in the network through data-driven operations and where value is unleashed for users of the platform.

The third area is providing higher performance on demand than current infrastructure, and this will come with monetisation but it would become an inbuilt part of critical infrastructure.

Ekudden added, “The fourth area is what we are doing when it comes to a fully distributed, pervasive network that is fusing the compute and networking functionality. And this is what allows every consumer application running on the edge, or an enterprise application that previously ran on a public cloud to be distributed all the way to the network infrastructure or beyond. And this is where we are unleashing capabilities from the network to the application ecosystem meeting the future application needs.”

“These are four key pillars going forward. But it starts already now, it’s really about orchestrating the change in the industry. And here, Ericsson is taking the role together with our lead customers and partners to really foster the change in the broader ecosystem,” he noted.

Hai Duong (VNA) – Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of northern Hai Duong province Luu Van Ban has signed decisions fining two foreigners 40 million VND (1,739 USD) in total for entering Vietnam, working or engaging in other activities without permission of Vietnamese competent authorities.

Specifically, the first one is Wang Shoucheng , who is a Chinese national born in 1970 and now living in Lam Son commune, Hai Duong’s Thanh Mien district. Wang was granted a visa by the border guard station of Lang Son province’s Huu Nghi Border Gate with a temporary stay extension until June 23, 2021 to work at Kam Fung Vietnam International Company Limited in Quat Lam township in Nam Dinh province’s Giao Thuy district. However, on April 22, he quit this job and began working for Champion Product Vietnam Co., Ltd. in Lam Son commune one day later. Wang was fined 20 million VND for violating regulations at Point b, Clause 5, Article 17 of the Government’s Decree 167 dated November 12, 2013 on penalties for administrative violations in the field of security, social order and safety, and prevention of social evils; fire prevention and fighting, and domestic violence prevention and control.

The other was also given the same charge. The Chinese national, Ye Zhaoxin, was born in 1996 and is now living in Lam Son commune as well. He had a temporary stay extension until June 18, 2021 to work at Sun Vigor Vietnam Smart Toy Joint Stock Company in Hai Phong city’s Tien Lang district. However, on April 27, he also left his job and came to work at Champion Product Vietnam Co., Ltd.

With involvement with Wang Shouchen, Vu Van Buong, born in 1967, was fined 1.25 million VND for “letting foreigners stay overnight without declaring temporary residence, failing to instruct foreigners to declare temporary residence as prescribed or failing to comply with other regulations of competent agencies./.

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Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam received the second shipment of 1.682 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses through COVAX Facility – the global vaccine access mechanism on May 16 afternoon, according to the Ministry of Health.

The batch will be preserved at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for examination before distribution to localities for the third phase of vaccination .

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived the country on April 1.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that the ministry has spared no efforts to seek vaccine sources for the nation, and around 110 million doses will be supplied for Vietnam this year, 38.9 million doses of which are from COVAX Facility, 30 million from AstraZeneca, and 31 million from Pfizer/BioNTech.

Furthermore, the ministry has registered to buy additional 10 million doses through COVAX under the cost share mechanism.

Negotiations are underway to purchase more vaccines from Moderna, Johnson&Johnson, CureVac, Spunik V and Sinopharm, helping diversify vaccine source to serve the locals, he added.

Currently, four Vietnamese vaccines are under development, produced by Nagogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 (Vabiotech) and the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals (Polyvac).

Vietnam begun its inoculation campaign on March 8. As of May 15, as many as 977,032 frontline medical workers and members of the community-based anti-COVID-19 groups received COVID-19 vaccine shots./.

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Jakarta (VNA) – The ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises ( ACCMSME ) recently launched ASEAN Access, a one-stop business information gateway for international-oriented firms to expand their market outreach within the ASEAN and beyond.

The launch took place in commemoration of the upcoming International MSME Day, celebrated every June 27 annually.

Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Economic Community Satvinder Singh welcomed the ASEAN Access as the latest addition to ASEAN’s trade facilitation support for businesses operating in the region.

He called on the national focal points to actively play their roles to promote, contribute contents, and secure quality service providers to ensure the ASEAN Access serves its purpose for the ASEAN business community.

In her remarks, Dato Ahmad, Chair of ACCMSME and Secretary-General of the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives of Malaysia, noted that the launch of the ASEAN Access is timely, given the prevalent use of digital platforms among businesses as one of the adaptive measures employed to survive the pandemic.

With the tagline “Your Business Information Gateway to ASEAN and Beyond”, ASEAN Access sets to facilitate internationalisation efforts among MSMEs.

To help mitigate the risks of entering a new market, the portal is designed to connect businesses to service providers in areas of distribution, transportation and logistics, market research, and consultancy on intellectual properties, laws and regulations, among others.

The team behind the ASEAN Access, comprising the public and private sectors, would pool their resources to operationalise and provide services to the portal, including business matching services, which is scheduled to be available by the end of 2021.

The ASEAN Access contributes to the implementation of the ASEAN Strategic Action Plan for SME Development 2016 – 2025 which aims to create globally competitive MSMEs./.

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