SCG (Thailand) Pours Capital into Vietnam Petrochemical Sector

  With the acquisition of 25% shares from Qatar Petroleum at Long Son Petrochemical Refinery Complex project, SCG Group (Thailand) continues to strengthen its position as a major investor in Viet Nam petrochemical sector.

Previously, Vina SCG Chemicals (VSCG), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SCG in Vietnam, has signed contract to acquire shares of QPI Vietnam Limited (QPIV), a subsidiary of Qatar Petroleum to receive all 25% shares in Long Son Petrochemical Co., Ltd - the investor of Long Son petrochemical complex, according to a press release posted on SCG's website.

This 36.1 million USD deal (approximately 1.100 million Thai bath), which raised SCG's direct and indirect shares in Long Son Petrochemical Co., Ltd from 46% to 71%. Meanwhile, the remaining 29% of the joint venture to develop this project is held by PetroVietnam (PVN).

This project is a major oil and gas project, the first petrochemical complex in Vietnam with production capacity of up to 1.6 million tons of olefins per year, total investment estimated at 5.4 billion USD, applying modern and advanced technologies and techniques, operating safely and meeting the requirements of environmental protection, ensuring high quality petrochemical products such as PP, PE...

The project will create about 15,000 - 20,000 jobs during construction and more than 1,000 jobs when go into commercial operations.

Moreover, the project is estimated to contribute to Ba Ria - Vung Tau and the national budget 115 million USD per year (about 2.5 trillion VND per year) during 30 years since its inception.

The successful negotiation and signing of documents and transfer of funds among partners are important milestone in the project implementation, ensuring that the project is put into operation by 2021.

The Siam Cement Group (SCG) is a leading corporation in the ASEAN region with many efforts to establish competitiveness in the global market. SCG has entered the Vietnam market since 1992.

SCG has also invested heavily in Vietnam in such core business lines as: construction materials, petrochemicals and packaging. In addition to direct capital inflows, in recent years, SCG has also expanded its investment in Vietnam through mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

SCG's companies in Vietnam are mainly operating in the fields of cement - construction materials, chemicals and packaging. By the end of 2016, total assets of SCG in Vietnam are about 943 million USD.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of setting up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam... to help you shorten the implementation time.

Read More

Quang Nam Province Welcomes Foreign Investors

  In 2017, Quang Nam province is expected to continue to become the bright spot of the central region on investment attraction, welcoming foreign enterprises to come and invest in Vietnam.

In fact, Quang Nam province is an ideal destination for investors at home and abroad. There were presence and long-term commitment of the major investors such as Truong Hai Auto, Suntory - Pepsico, Vietnam Brewery VBL, Inax sanitary equipment, Groz-Beckert textile equipment and famous travel brands such as The Nam Hai, Montgomerie Links golf course, Victoria, GoldenSand, Palm Garden...

Compared to many localities, Quang Nam has great advantages in attracting investment. Firstly, the province has strategic geographical location with an area of 10,438 km2, located in the middle of Vietnam, belongs to the key economic zone in central Vietnam. The north bordering on Da Nang – the commercial, services and training centers of Central region; the south bordering on Quang Ngai province; the west bordering on Laos; located on the East – West Economic Corridor, convenient for road transportation to Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and sea transportation to other countries of the ASEAN region.

The strategic location, plus complete transportation infrastructure with many kinds of road, railway, airline, sea belong to the national and international traffic routes, creating favorable conditions for Quang Nam province to attract major investors in the world.

As reported by the People's Committee of Quang Nam province, the province currently has 8 industrial zones and 50 industrial clusters. The industrial parks and industrial clusters are located on the main traffic routes, with large area. The infrastructure and telecommunications utility are fully meet the needs of investment projects. As for waste water treatment system, most industrial zones in the province of Quang Nam have wastewater treatment systems; solid waste treatment collection systems as prescribed.

In addition, the social infrastructure and other utility services such as schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, amusement parks in the province of Quang Nam are basically meet the needs of investors and citizens. As reported by the Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism of Quang Nam province, there are more than 5,436 hotel rooms that satisfy international standard, including many major brands (concentrated in coastal areas), contributing to bring Quang Nam to become an attractive tourism destination of the central region.

So far, Quang Nam has attracted 126 FDI projects with total registered capital of 5.5 billion USD from investors from around the world such as Korea, Japan, Singapore, US, China, France, Germany, Italy...

In the long term, Quang Nam focus on attracting investment projects in economic sectors that the province has many advantages such as supporting industries (mechanical manufacturing, automobile, electronics...); processing industry of consumer goods, household goods, agriculture, forestry and fisheries products, construction materials; the agricultural sector (high-tech agriculture, cultivation and processing of agricultural products ...); the field of tourism, services, urban (ecology urban areas, coastal and riverside luxury resorts, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets...), training of human resources; the investment, construction and trading of infrastructure of industrial parks, industrial clusters.

Another highlight of the investment attraction policies of the province is that the investors have the full right to choose and decide to implement the project in the appropriate investment model. Moreover, investors are given the investment incentives stipulated by the Government, including the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone and 15/18 districts in the list of investment incentives stipulated by the Government on the premises, corporate income tax and import tax...

According to the Public Administration and Investment Promotion Center of Quang Nam Province, the newly established enterprises from investment projects in difficult economic condition areas in Chu Lai Open Economic Zone; investment projects in the fields of high-tech agriculture, scientific research, technological development, education and training, vocational training, environment... will be applied the corporate income tax rate of 10% for 15 years since the taxable income arises; ; are exempt from corporate income tax for 4 years and reduce 50% of the tax payable in the next 9 years.

Enterprises investing in the industrial zones in such districts as Duy Xuyen, Dai Loc, Que Son and Phu Ninh are applied the corporate income tax rate of 17% for 10 years, are exempt from corporate income tax and reduction of 50% tax payable in the next 4 years.

Also, Quang Nam also apply competitive prices and depending on land investment sectors, projects may be exempted from land rent during 11 years, 15 years or during the term of the project. In addition to the general provisions, the large-scale projects with important implications and will be coordinated with your PPC investment research applied to the Government for specific policies.

Also, Quang Nam province also apply competitive land prices and depending on investment sectors, projects may be exempted from land rent for 11 years, 15 years or during the implementation of the project. In addition to the general provisions, for the large-scale projects with important implications, the Provincial People's Committees will coordinate with investors to study and submit to the Government for specific policies.

According to the Quang Nam People's Committee Chairman, in the trend of deeper integration, Quang Nam is constantly developing, changing appearance, became the land of potential and investment opportunities. Many synchronous solutions are being implemented to improve the investment environment, which focused on administrative reform. In particular, the introduction of the Public Administration and Investment Promotion Center of Quang Nam Province, with flexible and quick mechanisms, have demonstrated the determination to build friendly image of Quang Nam province, becoming the reliable destination for investors.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of setting up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam... to help you shorten the implementation time.

Read More

Education Startup Will Flourish in Vietnam

  Education startup will become great opportunity for foreign investors to invest in Vietnam as well as the Vietnam startup community.

GotIt!, a Startup, a Mobile App which is built on the question – answer foundation for a long time has been presented in the top 10 educational apps on App Store in the US. GotIt! has received 9 million USD from Capricorn Investment Group. Investors of GotIt! are also the people who invest in companies creating products that have changed the world such as Tesla Motor, SpaceX, and PlanetLabs. They believe that GotIt! will become "the next big thing" when GotIt! provides services in the areas beyond education.

One other education startup which is ELSA - teaching English pronunciation, has just passed 1,200 competitors to win first prize at SXSWedu - a competition in education technology startup, organized in the United States. This application uses artificial intelligence technology to help users improve their English pronunciation.

And yet, a different startup which is Monkey Junior, specializing in foreign language teaching has won the competition “GIST Tech-I 2016” held in the US after passing more than 1,000 competitors from 104 countries in the world. This is the startup contest initiated by the US government and received the backing of Mark Zuckerberg – CEO of Facebook - as well as many powerful individuals in Silicon Valley.

Belongs to the EdTech field, which is attracting the attention of Vietnamese startup community, Monkey Junior application is available on App Store, Google Play and Amazon with a large number of users from the US (accounted for 43%), Vietnam ( 10-20%), Canada, France... Although this app aims to teach foreign languages, the point to make up the difference for Monkey Junior is that the teaching contents are directed at children, especially children under 6 years old.

We have to mention one other EdTech which is Code4Startup. Code4Startup is the online training website. Although training on programming is not new, the basic difference of Code4Startup is that it is not theoretical teaching, Code4Startup goes straight into practice by guiding learners to build real applications. Hence, Code4Startup has successfully calling for capital on KickStarter.

The common point of this 4 startups is that the project have high applicability, developing towards EdTech (educational technology) and "father" of them are all Vietnamese: GotIt! Of Dr Tran Viet Hung; Elsa was founded by Van Dinh Hong Vu Ngo Thuy Ngoc Tu; Monkey Junior of Dao Xuan Hoang and Code4Startup of Leo Trieu (Trieu Quang Anh).

Movement for startup towards EdTech (educational technology) are blooming and the fund as well as foreign investors are increasingly appreciating Edtech in Vietnam.

Every year, Vietnamese spent 3-4 billion USD to send their children to study abroad and the market for online education is very potential on a large scale. Vietnam is a country of more than 22 million pupils and students, is the large customer market that many education companies want to explore. On the other hand, the introduction of this community-based projects to apply in reality is very consistent with preference and development trend of modern education, easy to be welcomed by parents and students in Vietnam.

In addition to the potential of the market, international investors believe that the Vietnam startups in general and EdTech startups in particular have been contributed actively to the social advancement, improve community knowledge and update the world’s new trends in Vietnam; while also contributing to the economic development of the country. Similarly, in the world, such EdTech startups as the Knewton, Coursera, Udemy, Duolingo... are the clear proof of this.

The million dollars online training market has been receiving special attention of foreign investors. By the end of 2016, Vietnam had 309 investment projects in the fields of education and training with total registered capital of over 767 million USD.

Apax English is an example. Recently, ChungDahm Learning Education Corporation (Korea) and Egroup Education JSC have signed a memorandum of cooperation for an additional investment of of 10 million USD for English training in Vietnam. Earlier, ChungDahm Learning and Egroup have brought the Asian’s leading children English program to Vietnam with the brand “Apax”.

From the success of Apax English, many cooperation and investment projects in education are increasingly powerful. Next, there will be the project of SK Telecom (under the SK Group, one of the 3 largest Korean group), bringing the school of programming using intelligent robot to Vietnam. It will become the first cooperation in the education sector with Egroup.

With the above positive signals, hopefully that in the coming time, Vietnam education market will continue to receive "new wind" from the funds and foreign investors.

We, ANT Consulting company, support you with the service of setting up a company in Vietnam, Risk management in Vietnam, Employee background check in Vietnam... to help you shorten the implementation time.

Read More

Due Diligence in Choosing Business Partner

  Joint ventures and association in business will bring many opportunities for the development and success, especially expanding and making entry into new Vietnam as new market through cross border transaction, setting up company, acquiring shares in new company.

However, it is not easy to choose partners to help maximize the value for business, especially in this difficult time. That is the reason why we should conduct the due diligence research in Vietnam before making any decision.

According to experts, there are enterprises that growing very fast because they choose the right partners involving in the value chain, but also there are well-known enterprises in the market that have to face with a lot of difficulties due to choosing wrong partners. Therefore, how to choose the right business partners, financial partners and strategic shareholders to help enterprises overcome difficulties, develop faster and more sustainable are always issues that concerned by many business leaders.

In challenging conditions as at present, the economic situation in Vietnam and the world places great influence on the partner selection of companies. Currently, the debt crisis in some European countries caused the demand for import from these countries dropped sharply. Therefore, Vietnam enterprises must seek new markets. In this situation, companies should restructure their operations, choosing to produce products that are suitable with the new markets.

There are two key partners that companies need to keep in mind, they are financial partner and business partner. Depending on the objectives of the companies that they will choose the right partner. Normally, with the stable economic condition, companies often choose strategic partner.

However, in difficult situation such as the present, the choice of partners is made for short term so that the company could be able to change and adapt according to the general environmental condition. Many experts believe that, in difficult times, good cooperation will help enterprises to stand firm and "over storm" successfully.

Hence, conducting the due diligence research helps us to have a clearer vision of partners before deciding to cooperate with them in business, especially partners in foreign countries where you still feel strange. Whether choosing business partner or financial partner, companies should be cautious. They should learn from the Japanese companies. Before deciding to cooperate with a partner, Japanese companies often study the partners very thoroughly. Therefore, the cooperation project of Japanese companies often succeeds up to 85%.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Read More

Surpassing Korea, China’s Capital Flowing Strongly into Vietnam

  Only in the first two months of 2017, China investment capital is pouring strongly into Vietnam market through indirect investment for acquiring shares or direct investment for set up business in Vietnam.

The Foreign Investment Department (Ministry of Planning and Investment) has announced the situation of attracting foreign investment.

Accordingly, in the first 2 months of 2017, there were 313 new projects were granted investment certificates with a total registered capital of 2,028 billion USD, increased by 6.5% over the same period; 137 projects register to increase capital with 759 million USD, decreased by 15.5% over the same period.

In addition, foreign investors have spent 619 million USD to buy share or contribute capital to Vietnam enterprises, 4 times higher than the same period in 2016. Generally, in the first 2 months of 2017, the total newly, additional capital and contribute to purchase share reach 3.4 billion USD, increase by 21.5% over the same period in 2016.

In particular, foreign investors have invested in 18 sectors, in which the processing industry and manufacturing are attracting the attention of foreign investors with total capital of 2.5 billion USD, accounting for 73.4% of total registered investment capital in two months.

The real estate business sector ranked second with a total investment of 345.5 million USD, accounting for 10.1% of total investment capital.

Standing at the third position are the wholesale and retail sectors with total registered investment capital of 222.6 million USD, accounting for 6.5% of total registered capital.

In the first 2 months of 2017, there are 61 countries and territories having investment projects in Vietnam.

Singapore ranked first with total investment of 881.6 million USD, China ranked second with total investment of 721.7 million USD, Korea ranked third with total registered investment capital of 637.1 million USD.

If as every year, Korea ranked first in terms of investment capital into Vietnam, this year the ranking has changed as China took place.

The ranking of top 5 largest investors into Vietnam hardly have the participation of China investors. But this year, this country has increased investment into Vietnam through two forms that are pouring fund to implement the project or purchase share of Vietnam enterprises. China investors usually focus on textile and plastic projects...

In 2 months, China investors have registered to implement 123 projects in Vietnam and 174 turns of purchasing share, accounting for 21.1% of total investment in Vietnam

Some major projects of China investors are Billion Vietnam polyester factory project, with total investment of 220 million USD in Tay Ninh. Besides there are Lan Son industrial zone infrastructure investment project and Khai Hong Viet plastics factory, with total investment capital 150 million USD, invested by Wenzhou Hendy Mechanism and Plastics Co., Ltd in Bac Giang.

In the first two months of 2017, foreign investors have invested in 47 provinces, in which Binh Duong attracted the most FDI with total registered capital of 791 million USD. Hanoi ranks 2nd with total registered capital of 519 million USD. Ho Chi Minh City ranks 3rd with total registered capital of 464.2 million USD accounted for 13.6% of total investment capital.

Also according to the Foreign Investment Department, as of February 20^th 2017, there were 22,904 projects that are still valid with total registered capital of 297 billion USD.

The accumulated capital of foreign investment projects is estimated to reach 156.35 billion USD, with total valid registered capital of 52.6%.

Read More

Cargill (USA) Will Build Factory in Bac Ninh

  Cargill Company (USA) is planning to build a factory specializing in producing livestock feed in Bac Ninh. It shows the attraction of Vietnam market, which makes foreign enterprises to come and invest in Vietnam.

On January 6^th 2017, Chairman of Bac Ninh province had a meeting with Mr. Jorge – CEO of Cargill Vietnam came to survey and explore Bac Ninh province. Cargill is the US leading company in the fields of agriculture, food, industrial products and financial services. With more than 150,000 employees working in over 100 countries in the world, the revenues of the Company reached 150 billion USD a year.

In Vietnam, Cargill has 11 factories manufacturing and processing livestock feed in many localities across the country, such as Dong Nai, Hung Yen, Long An, Can Tho, Binh Dinh, Dong Thap and Nghe An..., creating jobs for thousands of workers.

Through surveys, Mr. Jorge impressed with the favorable investment environment, infrastructure, drastic and flexible management system of Bac Ninh province. Hence, the Company intends to build a factory manufacturing livestock feed in Que Vo 3 Industrial Zone in the first quarter of 2017.

It is expected that the Cargill factory has a total investment of 60 million USD, with the area of land to be used is 11 - 13 ha, capacity of 70,000 tons/month. This will be the largest factory of the Company in Vietnam, applying modern technology and equipment with a closed and environmental friendly deodorizing process.

The Chairman of Bac Ninh province welcomes Cargill Company has trusted and choose Bac Ninh as investment destination to invest in stable and long-term production. He also assigned the Management Board of Industrial Zones in coordination with the VID Group – the infrastructure investor of Que Vo 3 Industrial Park and other offices complete the legal procedures and creating all necessary conditions for the project of Cargill Company.

Bac Ninh is one of the leading provinces in attracting FDI, with nearly 1,000 projects with total registered capital of over 12.26 billion USD. In which there are many projects of large companies such as Microsoft, Samsung, Pepsico and Canon...

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Read More

New Solar Power Plant Project in Binh Dinh

  Solar energy is encouraged to invest by Vietnam Government. Therefore, there were many foreign business delegations come to Vietnam to find out opportunities in this area.

On January 11^th 2017, Chairman of Binh Dinh Province has met and worked with the President of Truong Thanh Investment and Development Co., Ltd (Vietnam) and Truong Thanh's partners from Japan and Spain to find out opportunities to invest in solar energy plant project in Binh Dinh, Vietnam.

According to representatives of Truong Thanh, in recent time, the Company has made the solar power plant investment project proposal in Cat Hiep commune, Phu Cat district, Binh Dinh province. The project capacity is 95mW, using land area of about 150 hectares.

The expected investment capital for plant construction is 4,000 billion VND. Tuong Thanh Company wants to be supported by leaders in Binh Dinh Province and relevant local Government agencies with the investment procedures.

According to Chairman of Binh Dinh Province, they are always welcome and encourage enterprises to invest in power plant using renewable energy, which is very environmentally friendly.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

Read More