Vietnam fitness retreat

Vietnam records five new Covid-19 cases

February 26, 2021 by e.vnexpress.net

“Patients 2422, 2423, 2425 and 2426” from Hai Duong were already in quarantine. They are being treated at field hospitals in the northern province.

“Patient 2424” is a 24-year-old woman from Thoi Lai District, Can Tho City, who entered Vietnam illegally through the border at Hong Ngu District, Dong Thap Province on February 23 and was quarantined soon after. Her test results returned positive for the novel coronavirus on February 25.

In the past 29 days, Vietnam has recorded 831 community transmissions in 13 localities. Hai Duong is the biggest hotspot with 647 cases, following by Quang Ninh with 61 and HCMC with 36. Ten of these localities haven’t recorded new community transmissions for the past 14 days.

With the latest cases, the nation’s Covid-19 tally has increased to 2,426 with 1,839 recoveries and 35 deaths.

Investors confident in Vietnam’s innovative startup ecosystem

February 26, 2021 by en.vietnamplus.vn

Head of the Vietnam representative office of Genesia Venture s Hoang Thi Kim Dung speaks at a workshop on attraction of venture investment capital for innovative startups (Photo: hoilhpn.org.vn)

Hanoi (VNA) – Investor s are confident in the potential of Vietnam’s innovative startup ecosystem, and believe the country will become a big investment market in the region and the world, according to head of the Vietnam representative office of Genesia Ventures, an investment fund of Japan, Hoang Thi Kim Dung.

According to a report published by Do Ventures – a venture capital fund that focuses on making investments in tech startups in Vietnam and Southeast Asia – in 2020, Vietnam’s innovative startup ecosystem ranked third in Southeast Asia, after Singapore and Indonesia.

Vietnam’s national innovation startup ecosystem is likely to earn a berth in the top 15 emerging ones in the Asia-Pacific region by 2030, the report said.

The Prime Minister in 2016 approved a project to support the national innovative startup ecosystem through 2025 under Decision No. 844/ QD-TTg (Project 844), which was designed to promote and support the formation and development of startup projects or startup enterprises and urgently complete the legal system to support innovative startups.

To further promote the development of Vietnam’s innovative startup ecosystem in an intensive manner, recently the PM has approved the amending and supplementing of a number of articles in Decision No 844/QD-TTg.

Accordingly, an additional target is to build a system of innovation centres to support research and development (R&D) and creative startups, in tandem with ensuring their successful operation with specific, outstanding and highly competitive mechanisms and policies to make sure that they will be on par with other regionally and internationally leveled ones.

The green light will be given to developing national creative startup support centres in Vietnam’s three largest cites: Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, and innovative startup centres at ministries, sectors and localities, and organizations which boast potential for innovation and startup.

Attention will be paid to encouraging more interaction amongst innovative startup centres across the country and innovative startup ecosystems at home and abroad.

Vietnam hopes to establish international cooperation programmes with partners in at least five prestigious innovative startup ecosystems in the world by 2025, and attract more foreign resources to support domestic innovation startups.

According to statistics from the Project 844’s office, there are nearly 100 venture capital funds in Vietnam, including about 20 domestic funds. Each investment fund has different networks and strengths, so startups need to thoroughly research and group potential investors in accordance with their development orientation and goals./.

VNA

Vietnam’s delivery e-commerce startup Loship raises funds from Skype co-founder

February 26, 2021 by www.vir.com.vn

Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn is the latest big tech name to invest in Vietnamese startup Loship

Tallinn’s investment in Loship puts him on a list of global tech leaders betting on Vietnamese tech startups, which has shown resilience and growth even amidst COVID-19. Thus, Loship is poised to become a prominent tech figure for any seasoned investor looking at Vietnam, according to Loship CEO Trung Hoang Nguyen.

“MetaPlanet’s investment will help us build a much stronger image of Loship as a National Startup Hero. The competition will be much steeper in the long term, and we hope to pick up deep tech insights from Jaan Tallinn that can be applied to the Vietnam market,” he further opined.

The latest fundraising, which is part of the startup’s Series C round, comes just four months after its undisclosed bridge round led by Vulpes Investment Management. The new funding would fuel Loship’s path to becoming Vietnam’s leading one-hour-delivery e-commerce platform.

“We already have a winning playbook, and we look to expand it to more markets. Secondly, we know what we want to do with our product, and there are just 1 per cent of things that have been done. So, a huge portion of the funding will be poured into upgrading our app and increasing our tech capability. Also, we will ramp up marketing strategies to strengthen our foothold in the existing markets,” stated the CEO.

Founded in 2017, Loship traces its roots back to Lozi , a review app allowing users to find food, beverage, and coffee shops, before transitioning into a one-hour-delivery services platform. Loship had earlier closed its Series A and B rounds from several investors, including South Korea’s Smilegate Investment, Hana Financial Group, DTNI, Golden Gate Ventures, before announcing its Vulpes Investment Management-led bridge round in October 2020. The round was joined by DAAL Ventures and Wealth Well (Saudi Arabia-based VC Firms), Eucagi Ventures (Nigerian VC Firm), KI Group, and the vice president of Starbucks.

By Thanh Van

Vietnam’s biggest coronavirus hotspot records four more cases

February 26, 2021 by vov.vn

All of the four new patients had come into close contact with COVID-19 cases, the ministry said in its 18.00hrs update.

The outbreak has been brought under control in Hai Duong as only several cases have been detected these days as opposed to dozens a week ago.

Hai Duong has taken drastic anti-coronavirus measures, including a two-week social distancing order, starting on February 16.

The virus recurred in Vietnam less than a month ago and has spread to 13 cities and provinces across the country.

As many as 831 new infections have been since confirmed, including 647 cases in Hai Duong alone.

The same day, 35 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospital after making a full recovery from the disease. Of them, 27 are in Hai Duong province.

Also on February 26 the Ministry of Health announced another imported case returning to Vietnam from overseas.

The 24-year-old Vietnamese patient was said to have illegally crossed the land border into the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on February 23.

She tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus two days later.

Among active cases, an elderly patient in Da Nang city, central Vietnam, is in critical condition and has been relying on ECMO, a sophisticated therapy to save patients in critical condition. The patient has suffered from hypertension and diabetes for years.

Central Highlands corn farmer caught growing cannabis ‘cattle feed’

February 26, 2021 by e.vnexpress.net

The 25 to 145-centimeter-high trees were discovered covering 800 of 4,630 square meters cultivated by Tran Hung, 38, in Chu Se District on Thursday afternoon.

Police also found a nursery where baby cannabis trees were being reared.

Hung said the nursery is owned by his grandmother and that he was assigned to manage it two years ago.

In late 2019, an acquaintance gave him cannabis seeds to grow as cattle feed, he said.

Police, having seized the entire cannabis crop, plan to expand their investigation.

Cannabis is on the list of narcotics forbidden in Vietnam.

Those growing cannabis on a small scale could be fined VND2-5 million ($86.16-215.40). Farmers found cultivating 500 to 3,000 plants could face jail terms of six months to three years, while those operating on a bigger scale could spend up to seven years in jail.

Hanoi, Hai Phong get green light for private funding to buy Covid-19 vaccines

February 26, 2021 by e.vnexpress.net

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said on Thursday that the Ministry of Health and Government Office should draw up specific guidelines for the purpose.

No details of how or from whom they will mobilize funds are known yet.

Vietnam plans to procure 150 million doses from British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, global vaccine access mechanism Covax and domestic producers by 2022, the ministry has said.

The first batch of 117,600 doses from AstraZeneca was delivered on Wednesday.

Hanoi has decided it will provide free vaccination, and estimates it will need 15 million doses to vaccinate everyone above 18.

The northern port city Hai Phong plans to acquire more than two million doses.