KTFA: Vietnam
Henig: Tourism is back, big time
06:00 | 30/01/2023
(VEN) – Although it failed to achieve the goal of welcoming five million foreign tourists in 2022, major tourism sector efforts have resulted in its strong recovery during the final months of the year, promising even more positive changes in 2023.
Rebound in foreign visitors
Vietnam fully reopened its borders to tourists on March 15, 2022. In late April 2022, it stopped requiring health declarations for arrivals and since May 15, all COVID-19 test requirements for visitors have been dropped.
In May 2022, the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam increased 70.6 percent compared with April and was 12.8 times higher compared with May 2021. This trend continued strongly for the rest of the year, with nearly 90 percent of tourism companies and accommodation facilities resuming operations.
Bui Thuc Anh, Director of the Esperantotur and Service Joint Stock Company, said the number of tourists grew strongly in the third quarter, with those from the Republic of Korea topping the list, followed by American visitors.
Apart from traditional markets, Vietnam has seen a rebound in visitors from new markets such as India, Middle Asia, South America, and Northern Europe.
Data from Google Destination Insights show that international web searches in October for tourist accommodations in Vietnam increased about 20 percent compared with September and eleven-fold compared with March, when Vietnam fully reopened to tourists.
Most impressively, Vietnam welcomed 596,900 foreign tourists in November 2022, up 23.2 percent compared with October and 39.7 times higher compared with November 2021. “We expect the number of foreign visitors will reach four million by year’s end. In fact, the number of tourists from some countries such as India has grown rapidly,” said Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
“Live fully in Vietnam”
In 2022, the tourism sector intensified advertising and promotional activities, both in Vietnam and abroad, to attract foreign visitors, expecting to see a busier international tourism market during the winter holidays at the end of the year.
At the World Travel Market (WTM) 2022 that took place in London in November, the Vietnamese delegation organized many meetings and activities to promote Vietnam’s tourism.
Nguyen Trung Khanh, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said representatives of 23 Vietnamese travel companies and famous Vietnamese tourist destinations met foreign media and partners at the tourism fair to introduce the Visit Vietnam 2023 campaigns, themed “Binh Thuan – Go Green Come Together” and “Live fully in Vietnam”.
The Vietnamese delegation assured international tourism operators that Vietnam had removed the need to present COVID-19 vaccine certificates as well as quarantine requirements for foreign arrivals, and restored visa waiver programs. Vietnam also introduced major tourism products at the travel fair, including marine, nature, cultural and urban tourism, and various support products.
Kenneth Atkinson, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board, Founder and Senior Board Advisor to Grant Thornton Vietnam, said Vietnam’s tourism has progressed over the past decade with many tourist sites achieving global recognition.
The Vietnamese tourism sector continues to intensify promotional activities to attract foreign visitors. India is considered a strong target market, being one of the top 10 countries in terms of web searches for information about Vietnam’s tourism.
International web searches for information about tourist destinations in Vietnam keep increasing, focusing on Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Phu Quoc, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Da Lat, Hue, Quang Ninh, and Ha Long. Data from Google Destination Insights show that most of the searches originate in the US, Australia, Singapore, India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the UK, Malaysia, Thailand, and Germany.
Thanh Tam LINK
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Henig: Headquarters of Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology inaugurated
09:23 | 30/01/2023
An inauguration ceremony of the headquarters of the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology (VKIST) was held at the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park in Ha Noi on January 17.
National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Kim Jin-pyo attended the event.
Addressing the ceremony, the top Vietnamese legislator said that the VKIST project is the fruit of the two countries’ cooperation in science, technology, and innovation, which is considered an inevitable trend of the times.
He expressed his hope that the success of the institute model would create a driving force to promote the transformation of the national innovation system.
For his part, Kim said that the VKIST project is of great significance in the two countries’ cooperation in science, technology, and innovation.
This is also the largest project financed by the RoK’s non-refundable aid in the world and it is also the project to support the establishment of the first public research unit of the RoK, he said.
The VKIST project is a development cooperation project between the Governments of Viet Nam and the RoK. It is co-managed by the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Source: baochinhphu.vn LINK
Henig: Intertwined opportunities, challenges for Vietnam’s economy in 2023
07:00 | 30/01/2023
With certain headwinds predicted for the global economy in 2023, Vietnam too, faces considerable challenges. But opportunities are also significant if concerted and appropriate solutions are taken, an expert has said.
With certain headwinds predicted for the global economy in 2023, Vietnam too, faces considerable challenges. But opportunities are also significant if concerted and appropriate solutions are taken, an expert has said.
Vietnam has to deal with one major external challenge and two internal ones, Dr Pham Sy Thanh, Director of the Chinese Economic Studies Programme under the Vietnam Institute for Economics and Policy Research, told the Vietnam News Agency.
The external challenge is a strong decline in demand for Vietnamese exports. Many export sectors with revenue of over 1 billion USD like wood and apparel recorded their earnings in October and November 2022 falling 30 – 40% year on year and month on month. This indicates that foreign markets are no longer open or attractive enough for exports in 2023.
Export contraction will have a huge impact on many social issues, especially lay-offs, job shortages, and unemployment in industrial parks, he pointed out.
Among internal challenges, the first is that the handling of wrongdoings in the bond market and the banking system has caused serious disruptions and congestion of the capital flow. Meanwhile, the cost of capital is one of tough barriers to production and business activities, but it is nothing in comparison with the lack of capital or the inaccessibility to capital.
Thanh considered these as immediate difficulties that require strong solutions from the Government so that businesses can gain the fastest access to capital sources with reasonable interest rates.
However, he noted, Vietnamese exporters also have big opportunities to win contracts from partners who used to place orders in China. The shift of supply chains out of the world’s second biggest economy to Vietnam is also accelerating as seen in recent moves by Foxconn, Apple, Adidas, and Samsung.
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is emerging as one of the go-to places where big enterprises choose to build research and development centres.
To capitalise on those advantages, Vietnam should make concerted efforts, the expert recommended, elaborating that it should have better industrial and office infrastructure. It should also further develop the nation’s transport system accordingly to minimise traffic congestion.
In addition, to have better industrial, office, and transport infrastructure, the policies for handling economic wrongdoings should also open “green lanes” for businesses and localities to make new investment decisions.
Another important measure is dealing with problems of the bond market and the banking system to smoothly carry out monetary and fiscal policies. Particularly, authorities should further prioritise fiscal policy instead of focusing only on the monetary. This will open up more economic development opportunities and optimise advantages when other economies have yet to return to their “orbits”, according to Thanh.
VNA LINK
