Squids vs octopus

Speaking at the 34th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said ASEAN also needs to consider and acknowledge positive development in the negotiations for the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) between the bloc and China, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Phuc said that next year, as the ASEAN chair, Vietnam would work to raise ASEAN’s status on the global stage by enhancing its links with the U.N. Vietnam was elected non-permanent U.N. Security Council member for 2020-2021 term earlier this month. China lays claim to almost the entire South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, including waters close to Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.  It has occupied some archipelagos illegally and created artificial islands, turning them into garrisons. On June 9, a Filipino fishing boat with 22 crew members was sunk near Reed Bank in Vietnam's Spratly … [Read more...] about Vietnam asks ASEAN to take note of threats against fishers in South China Sea

Weather and entertainment led the pack in Google's ‘Year in Search’ report, an annual ranking of the top search trends in various countries over the past 12 months. Vietnam’s search history was divided between nine categories for the report – trends, news, individuals, songs, movies, nearby locations, TV shows, questions, and domestic destinations. “ASEAN Cup 2019” (sic), took the number-two spot on the list – an apparent show of support from football fans who eagerly sought livestreams and information related to Vietnam’s performance at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, where the Golden Dragons made it to the quarterfinals before their elimination in a 0-1 defeat against Japan. While weather and sports led the pack, five of the top ten most-searched phrases in Vietnam were related to music and television, particularly locally produced songs and international films and dramas. ‘Storm Nakri,’ the sixth tropical storm to hit … [Read more...] about Weather dominates Vietnam’s 2019 Google search trends

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has proposed raising luxury tax on some car models with fewer than nine seats. The General Department of Customs (GDC) reported that 96,000 cars had been imported to Vietnam by the end of August, worth $2.1 billion, which represented a 229 percent increase in quantity and 205.6 percent in value in comparison with the same period last year. Of these, the imports from Thailand and Indonesia accounted for more than 70 percent of total imports. Vietnam’s domestically made output is far below that of Thailand and Indonesia, 200,000 products a year vs 2 million and 1.3 million products, respectively. Vietnam also has a lower localization ratio than the two countries, 20 percent vs 60-80 percent and 45-70 percent, respectively. For these reasons, MOIT believes that there should be solutions to develop the domestic automobile industry and help domestic products compete with imports. One of the solutions the ministry has proposed is … [Read more...] about Imported cars to be more expensive as VN raises luxury tax