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Vingroup’s Phu Quoc United Center – Southeast Asia’s leading entertainment complex – was officially launched on Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island on Wednesday evening and is expected to open up many opportunities for night-time economic development.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Le Khac Hiep, vice-chairman of Vingroup, said the inauguration of Phu Quoc United Center will help the island grow rapidly and soon become an important economic center in southern Vietnam, as well as a paradise for tourism and luxury resorts not only in the country but also in the region.

It will lead to a new stage of development for businesses that have had a close and long-term relationship with Phu Quoc, including Vingroup.

“Since 2014, Vingroup has implemented ambitious projects with a long-term vision,” Hiep stated.

“Today, we officially put into operation Southeast Asia’s leading tourism-resort-entertainment complex.

“Phu Quoc United Center is a comprehensive ecosystem and a tourist destination that is able to meet all visitors’ needs.

“An inter-level school will also be established on the island in the coming time.”

Super entertainment complex

Phu Quoc – Vietnam’s first island city – is granted a lot of special mechanisms and policies to promote economic and tourism development, according to Huynh Quang Hung, chairman of the Phu Quoc People’s Committee.

A total of 328 projects worth up to US$16 billion have been established by major corporations on the island so far, Hung continued.

The number of visitors to Phu Quoc increases 25-30 percent every year, he said, adding that the island is expected to welcome three million visitors, who are mainly domestic tourists, in 2021.

“The brand new super entertainment complex plays a significant role in Phu Quoc’s tourism developmen,” Hung remarked.

Ry, a foreign visitor who has been in Vietnam for a year, said he was extremely excited at the opening of Phu Quoc United Center – an all-in-one resort complex.

Rod Beriver, a Canadian businessman, said he was surprised by the magnificence and cleanliness of the super tourism-resort-entertainment complex, especially the replica of Venice’s Grand Canal, which made him feel like he was in modern and glamorous Europe.

Beriver came to Vietnam about seven years ago and is running a business inside Phu Quoc United Center.

This ‘sleepless city’ can totally be compared with other leading destinations in Asia such as Japan and Hong Kong, the Canadian man added.

A food stall within the Grand World Phu Quoc Pedestrian Street – Night Market. Photo: Chi Cong / Tuoi Tre

Vietnam’s first ‘sleepless city’

Vietnamese singer Dang Khoi arrived at Grand World, part of the Phu Quoc United Center, not only as an artist but also an investor since he owns a shophouse in the complex.

“I’ve been looking forward to the grand opening of the complex and hope it will become an attractive tourist destination in the future,” Khoi said.

“I believe this ‘sleepless city’ will spur Vietnam’s tourism in the coming time.”

Nguyen Duc Duy, a Ho Chi Minh City resident, said he landed in Phu Quoc on Wednesday morning on the occasion of the Hung Kings Festival.

Duy and his friends rented some bicycles to tour the Grand World and planned on partying all night long following the opening ceremony of Phu Quoc United Center.

“I cannot believe Vietnam has such a unique and spectacular entertainment compound,” the visitors exclaimed.

Pham Van Anh, who resides in Duong Dong Town, Phu Quoc City, said she is happy that her hometown has such a special entertainment complex.

“I hope that Phu Quoc will continue to develop so that more tourists will come to and fall in love with the island,” Anh remarked.

The woman added her family had spent VND150,000 (US$6.5) on an enjoyable boat ride along the Venice Grand Canal.

About 300 agricultural products and specialties of various localities were also presented to visitors in the ‘sleepless city.’

Bustling promenade, night market

Grand World currently has three main projects, namely the Grand World Phu Quoc Pedestrian Street – Night Market, NightZone 68, and Saigon Seafood Hub Market, according to Huynh Van Son, general director of Sea Star Saigon JSC.

Open from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am daily, NightZone 68 is the first model to be developed in the night economic complex, Son elaborated.

“The night economy here is an example of a ‘sleepless city,’ which is completely different from the night streets in other urban areas,” he elaborated.

The Pedestrian Street – Night Market has 134 stalls selling food, souvenirs, specialties, local products, travel necessities, and fashion items.

Five national records at Phu Quoc United Center

Phu Quoc United Center is holding five national records recognized by the Vietnam Record Association, namely the largest complex with diverse entertainment and resort forms, the largest bamboo construction, the first Teddy Bear Museum, the 3D multimedia show with the most Vietnamese historical references, and the largest floating multimedia show inspired by European culture.

The largest bamboo construction in Vietnam, named Bamboo Legend and designed by famed Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia, is made from more than 32,000 bamboo trees with curved arches inspired by traditional and unique communal houses of the Southeast Asian country.

Covering more than 1,500 square meters, the Phu Quoc Teddy Bear Museum has become the eighth member of the global Teddy Bear Museum network.

The museum houses over 500 teddy bears, including the first teddy bear to be manufactured in the United States.

Recognized as the 3D multimedia show with the most Vietnamese historical references, ‘The Quintessence of Vietnam’ show comprises nearly 3,000 daytime mini-shows and 365 nocturnal events each year.

The show recreates the life, culture, and history of Vietnam in ancient times and conveys profound traditional and cultural messages.

Recognized as Vietnam’s largest floating multimedia show inspired by European culture, ‘The Color of Venice’ super show has a 15,000 square-meter underground stage and the most advanced equipment, recreating the picturesque Venice through Waltz dances, lighting, music, and performances on the water surface.

The show trilogy in Phu Quoc United Center ended with the world-class water music performance named ‘Once Show,’ performed by world-renowned Quantum Creative Studios.

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However, these challenges are also an important lever, helping the country’s agricultural sector be more mature in its integration process on the basis of promoting restructuring via improving product quality and deep processing towards an organic and modern agricultural system.

Promoting the processing industry

The EVFTA is the free trade agreement (FTA) with the highest level of commitments for Vietnam among all signed FTAs thus far, with more than 99% of import tariff lines between the two sides being eliminated across a 7-10-year roadmap. In particular, tax rates applied on many agricultural products that Vietnam has advantages in producing and exporting, such as rice, seafood, coffee and cocoa, will be cut immediately or in a short time.

Currently, the EU’s importation of agricultural, forestry and fishery products accounts for about 8.4% of the total. Therefore, Vietnam’s agro-forestry and aquatic products still have plenty of room for export growth in this market.

However, Europe prefers processed products, so in order to increase the quantity of goods as well as export turnover, the agricultural sector needs to focus on strongly developing the processing industry in the coming time. Specifically, Vietnam’s tropical fruit products are very welcome in Europe but the geographical distance makes it difficult to transport and preserve fresh produce.

Therefore, the development of post-harvest preservation and processing technologies is the “golden key” to help Vietnamese fruits penetrate the EU market, especially in the context of the tax rate of 85.6% of processed fruit and vegetable products from Vietnam to the EU having been reduced to 0% once EVFTA came into effect.

However, at present, Vietnam’s export of processed fruits and vegetables accounts for less than 19% of the total export value of vegetables and fruits, so if these products do not increase rapidly, it is likely the fruit and vegetable sector will miss out on a sizeable proportion of the tax advantages that EVFTA offers .

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Dong Giao Food Export Joint Stock Company Dinh Cao Khue said that according to statistics, there are currently more than 150 fruit and vegetable processing establishments on an industrial scale with total capacity of more than 1 million tonnes of product per year, but the processed products sector is still small, accounting for only about 5-10%, while the average designed capacity utilisation rate is only 56.2%.

Meanwhile, processing plays a very important role in agriculture. In addition to meeting the tastes of European consumers, processed products, especially processed fruits, also have a long shelf life, thus avoiding losses where they cannot be exported. This was most clearly demonstrated during COVID-19 outbreak peaks, when fresh fruit exports were jammed, but processed products were still exported smoothly, even strongly welcomed due to the fear of using fresh goods by consumers globally.

Along with fruit, rice, seafood, pepper, cashews and wood also face high requirements for deep processing to increasing their output and export value to the EU market. In fact, the export of wood products could grow even more strongly if the processing industry reached a higher level of proficiency. However, at present, domestically planted wood material is still low, mainly serving the exploitation of young timber to make raw materials for paper, wood chips and pellets.

Meanwhile, the large timber material areas are mainly concentrated in the northern mountainous provinces and on the central coast, but these areas have very few processing enterprises, making the production of refined wood products very limited, not to mention most Vietnamese wood processing enterprises are small and medium in size, while the number of businesses with a design capacity of less than 500 m3 of log timber per year accounts for only 47%.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), most current agricultural products are still primary products with low added value, accounting for 70-85%, while processed products with high added value account for only 15-30%. In particular, processing technologies are still outdated, with the equipment innovation ratio of processing facilities at only 7% a year.

Therefore, the EVFTA with its high demands on deeply processed products has become a great driving force for domestic businesses to build sustainable raw material areas and innovate with processing technologies in order to diversify products in line with the needs of the European market. From which, they could form clusters linking production, preservation, processing and consumption of agricultural products together, in association with concentrated raw material areas in order to create products of equal quality, with traceability and assurance of all factors related to food safety, labour and the environment, according to the commitments in the EVFTA.

Boosting organic agriculture

Currently, the global market for organic agricultural products is about US$120 billion, half of which is in the European market. Europe is the largest consumer of organic products in the world, of which organic nuts, spices and fruits are the Vietnamese products currently favoured by the EU. According to the online offices of the Vietnam Trade Offices in Belgium, Luxemburg and the EU, in 2019, the EU imported 3.24 million tonnes of organic agricultural products, an increase of 0.4% as compared to 2018. Organic agricultural products account for about 2% of the total number of agricultural products imported to the EU, especially due to the fact that processed products still dominate and have a total value 15% higher than raw products. In particular, tropical fruits, nuts and spices were the organic products most imported into the EU in 2019, accounting for 27% of total organic imports (0.9 million tonnes).

Therefore, when the EVFTA came into effect, it opened the door for Vietnam’s organic agriculture sector, offering a “unique” opportunity for the rapid and strong development of organic agricultural products to best meet the product quality requirements of the EU market, while at the same time increasing competitiveness countries, especially in terms of rice, shrimp, fruits and spices. Organic agricultural products must meet many strict requirements but in return, their export value is very high. For example, for organic cinnamon spice, in the EU market, one tonne is priced US$1,000 higher than that of regular cinnamon.

According to general calculations, promoting organic agriculture would help Vietnamese agricultural products increase in value by 1.5-1.8 times as compared to conventional production. To realise that value, the Director of the MARD’s Crop Production Department Nguyen Nhu Cuong said that Vietnamese agriculture needs to make rapid changes from the traditional mode of production to standard-based farming, covering water and land sources and the use of agricultural materials, such as fertilisers and pesticides. The minds of managers, businesses and farmers also need to be thoroughly “refreshed”. Instead of chasing output, it is a must to prioritise quality and add value to agricultural products.

These changes can be realised, because at the end of June 2020, an organic agriculture development project for the 2020-2030 period was approved by the Government. Specifically, it sets targets such as by 2025, the area of agricultural land for organic production will reach 1.5-2% of the total area of agricultural land; the area of organic cultivated land will account for more than 1% of the total cultivated land focussed on key crops such as rice, vegetables of all kinds, fruit trees, tea, pepper, coffee, cashew and coconut; and the area of organic aquaculture will be about 0.5-1.5% of the total area of aquaculture. These goals are all geared towards the increasing demand for organic products from the EU as well as from other countries around the world.

MARD Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam also assessed that organic agriculture is a growing trend, one which will develop rapidly in the near future, so Vietnam must be determined to build its organic agriculture with a production level on par with advanced countries. Accordingly, Vietnam aims to promote the training of staff for the management, inspection and supervision of organic agricultural product certification organisations from ministerial to local level. In addition, training courses have been held for businesses, producers and traders of organic products to improve the quality of human resources in the field.

It can be seen that although the EVFTA has only been valid for a very short time, it has created new “waves” of positive change for the entire Vietnamese agricultural sector. Although there are still many difficulties and challenges ahead, with a willingness to overcome these obstacles, great expectations for the country’s agriculture originating from EVFTA can come true soon.

The scene will be great when the street is quiet and I can see what was left after the New Year’s Eve, French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery told VietnamNet.

French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery. Photo: Pham Hai

It seems that you have natural bonds with Vietnam when you served as the French Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City (2004-2007) and last September you were appointed as Ambassador to Vietnam?

Fifteen years ago, I had a term in Ho Chi Minh City that lasted more than three years. At that time my children were still in school, so my whole family lived in the city. Now, I am very pleased to return to Vietnam as an Ambassador. While working as the French Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, I had many occasions to go to Hanoi when there were high-level visits to Vietnam or meetings organized by the French Embassy.

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have different features. Ho Chi Minh City used to be a port city, a commercial center and now is the economic hub with very active activities. Historically, Hanoi is a political, cultural, and academic center, so it has a different pace.

Regardless of position, I have not only worked in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City but always taken advantage of opportunities to visit other localities in Vietnam. During this term, as the French Ambassador to Vietnam, I have returned to Da Nang, Hue, Da Lat, Dien Bien and I plan to visit Can Tho, Nha Trang, Hai Phong in the coming time because each Vietnamese cities and locality, whether big or small, has their own characteristics.

Vietnam in 2020 assumes dual responsibility: ASEAN Chairman and Non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. What is your assessment of Vietnam’s current position in the region and the world?

2020 was a very important year for Vietnam as it took on the roles of ASEAN Chairman and Non-permanent member of the UN Security Council at the same time. Vietnam has been very successful in assuming these two roles. Right from the beginning of the year when Vietnam became the Chairman of ASEAN, the Covid-19 pandemic occurred, and since March, all ASEAN activities were organized online. Despite these difficulties and challenges, Vietnam achieved the goals set out during its term.

Within the framework of the UN Security Council and the UN, Vietnam performed an outstanding role, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, in early January 2020, as Chairman of the UN Security Council of the month, Vietnam held a seminar related to the UN Charter and then during the year, in Hanoi, Vietnam successfully held a related event on women’s roles with peace and security.

At the end of 2020, did you experience the traditional New Year of Vietnam?

I’ve had Tet many times in Vietnam.

French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery. Photo: Pham Hai

Do you see any similarity between the Vietnamese traditional New Year and the holidays of the French people?

The year-end holidays in France and Tet in Vietnam have similarities, when it comes to family reunion. For France, we focus most on Christmas Eve and the next day when we meet relatives and family members.

In Vietnam, I see Tet as a reunion occasion, but this holiday is longer and has different rituals from other holidays. Not only New Year’s Eve, on the 1st day of New Year, the Vietnamese have the custom of visiting the parents… It is also an opportunity to tighten family and social relations.

During my term in Vietnam, I was once lucky to witness the reunion of a Vietnamese family. I saw a bond between the old, the young, all family members, creating a very similar atmosphere in France during Christmas.

More specifically, the first day of the Vietnamese New Year is very similar to the New Year’s Day in France, when there are almost no people on the street. Going out on the street that day will be a very special feeling.

Could you share with us your plan to experience your Vietnamese New Year this year?

This year I will have Tet in Hanoi. On the morning of the 1st day of the lunar New Year I will get up early to walk. The scene will be great when the street is quiet and I can see what was left after the New Year’s Eve.

I plan to go to Ngoc Son temple in Hoan Kiem lake. On the morning of the 1st day of New Year, many people come here to burn incense.

What is your expectation of the cooperation relationship between France and Vietnam in the new year?

2021 is a very special because after the National Party Congress, Vietnam will have new leaders. It may be the year to put an end to Covid-19 pandemic and the two countries will make more efforts to strengthen bilateral relations. We hope that 2021, after the pandemic is under control, the two sides will work together to promote stronger relations in all fields such as economy, culture, and health.

Healthcare is one of the key areas of cooperation between the two countries, with a long tradition of cooperation.

In the future, we will continue this partnership, also in response to Covid, vaccines and other issues.

During your term, what fields will you focus on with the efforts to strengthen relations between the two countries?

During my term, I hope to further promote the strategic partnership between Vietnam and France, tighten the political relationship between the two sides, and promote projects in economic, culture, higher education and projects related to climate change, environmental protection…

In general, France and Vietnam will promote bilateral relations, and exert joint efforts to promote multilateral relations.

I would like to add that there is a highly iconic project in Hanoi. The metro project No. 3 (Nhon – Hanoi urban railway line) is being implemented well. The first train has arrived in Vietnam. I hope the project will be completed soon to serve the people.

Thai An-Hien Anh

The Mekong Connect centre is now open in the Grand World Phú Quốc on Phu Quoc Island. Photo courtesy of nongnghiep.vn

HCM CITY — The Mekong Connect, a centre for food and tourism products from the Mekong Delta provinces, officially opened on Phú Quốc Island on Wednesday.

The centre is located at the gateway to the “sleepless city” Grand World Phú Quốc in Kiên Giang Province. Its opening event marks a new milestone for the One Product One Commune (OCOP) programme.

Certified products from the 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta under the programme now have a source of output, authorities said.

Phạm Minh Thiện, chairman of the Board of Directors of Cỏ May Company, which operates The Mekong Connect centre, said the centre was created with the cooperation of localities in the Mekong Delta.

The centre consists of five departments specialising in market research and product development, negotiation and signing of commercial contracts, centralised logistics, and business consulting, among other tasks.

Direct sales to visitors and indirect sales via travel agencies and food booths are The Mekong Connect’s sales strategies.

Vice chairman of Đồng Tháp Provincial People’s Committee Phạm Thiện Nghĩa said that agricultural restructuring of the province in recent years has achieved many results.

Đồng Tháp Province now has 161 certified products under the OCOP programme. Via previous OCOP fairs, the province has been able to connect with trade centres to sell its products.

In 2020, Đồng Tháp pioneered opening a centre to organise direct trade of OCOP products in Hà Nội. The centre’s success has encouraged the province to build more regional linkages to bring OCOP products from the 13 Mekong Delta provinces closer to potential markets.

The centre for food and tourism products of Đồng Tháp and other Mekong Delta provinces has its first official office at Grand World Phú Quốc.

The centre is an ideal destination for domestic and international tourists when coming to Phú Quốc, opening up opportunities for strong market development of special products in the Mekong Delta. — VNS