Thu Thiem New Urban Area opens more roads

Along with four main boulevards being constructed, two main roads will be opened in Thu Thiem New Urban Area to attract more investors. The authorities of HCMC proposed the Central Government for investment project of constructing new routes.

Thu Thiem New Urban Area is a highlight in the new appearance of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It belongs to wards of Anh Khanh, Thu Thiem, An Loi Dong, and parts of Binh An, Binh Khanh wards and is divided into eight functional areas. Each region has its own characteristics of mixed use, density private building, public spaces and landmark buildings.
According to the proposal of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, there are two new projects of roads conducted in the northern residential area (the functional areas no.3 and no. 4). They are projects on construction of North-South transport hub from Thu Thiem Bridge 1 to Mai Chi Tho Road, and a bridge connecting the North-South axis to functional area no.6. Simultaneously, the committee hoped to specify investors implementing these projects itself.

Thu Thiem New Urban Area in construction - Source: Image from Panoramio

The local authority assessed that the investment in construction and infrastructure development, especially in infrastructure of northern residential area, is an essential requirement for attracting investors, contributing to the development and formation the Thu Thiem New Urban Area in accordance with the approved plans. In the early year, four main boulevards of Thu Thiem New Urban Area (Arc Avenue, Lakeside Avenue, Riverside Avenue, and a subway connecting eight functional areas in Thu Thiem), the four main transport hubs of the urban area, started being constructed with a total capital of VND12,000 billion. The project of these four roads is expected to complete by 2017.
Relating to the construction of infrastructure in District 2, one of the most important Ho Chi Minh districts, the People's Committee of this city has approved the project of upgrading and expanding Tran Nao Street. The street will have the width of 30 meters. At the same time, the whole technique and infrastructure system will be constructed under the ground. For sidewalks of over 5 meters, the construction of public works such as trees and bus shelters will be taken into consideration.

Whole view Thu Thiem Bridge - Source: Image from Flickr

Besides, this city also asked the Department of Transportation to upgrade Luong Dinh Cua Street in this August, and to finish projects of Tran Nao and Luong Dinh Cua streets in 2015. Luong Dinh Cua is an important route in District 2. This street links east-west road to Thu Thiem Bridge to enter the city center. At the same time, the department was required to break ground to construct a route connecting Nguyen Van Huong Street to Hanoi Highway in this April. This project is predicted to finish in 2015. Apart from constructing new routes in Thu Thiem New Urban Area, many projects are being implemented in Thu Thiem such as projects of residential area, 6200 resettlement apartments, multi-functional tower, and international convention center. These projects are seen as highlight points to stimulate real estate market to recover, and change the appearance of the city toward civilization and modernism.
The system of roads and infrastructure in Thu Thiem New Urban Area is planned according to an open orientation with four main boulevards. These four main boulevards construction with a total investment of over VND10, 000 billion in the form of build – transfer (BT), expected to be completed in 2016, is considered a prerequisite for construction and development of Thu Thiem Peninsula.

Vietnam Airlines orders Airbus latest aircrafts

According to the report of Airbus on April 23rd, Vietnam Airlines has become the first airline in Asia to use the latest advanced type of aircraft of this company named A350 XWB. The first A350 XWB will land at Vietnam airport in mid 2015.

Mr. Alan Pardoe, Chief Marketing Officer of Airbus has said that there are 3 versions of A350 XWB: A350-800 with carriage of 270 passengers in there-classes design, A350-900 with carriage of 314 passengers and A350-1000 with carriage of 350 ones. Thanks to the application of advanced technologies, the new plane type of Airbus reduces operating cost up to 20% per passenger seat, uses fuel more efficiently than same planes types on the market, especially Boeing 777-200 ER. In addition, A350 has outstanding advantages of wide seat, noise reduction, and air filter application on planes. As planned, Vietnam Airlines will have fourteen A350-900 aircrafts, of which ten units are directly ordered from Airbus and the rest 4 units are hired. This is really good news of Vietnam Airlines. With this project, Vietnam Airlines fleet expects to improve its services and reduce its cost of fuel with the aim of lowering price for passengers.

A350-800 of Vietnam Airlines in future - Source: Image from Wikimedia Commons

Also at the press conference in Hanoi, it was stated that Airbus, the leading aircraft manufacturer in the world had chose Nikkiso Vietnam Company to produce composite vertical bars of wings and Sharklet’s armor plates for 320s under sub-contract with main supplier Sharklet – the Korean Air Aerospace Division (KAL-ASD). Sharklet is a wing tip device which has been introduced in 2009 by Airbus. It is designed to enhance the payload-range performance of the A320 Family. Sharklets, a retrofit option, are expected to reduce fuel burn of up to 4% over longer sectors, which may correspond to annual CO2 reduction of around 700 tones per aircraft. With 4,280 aircrafts of A320 type which will be delivered to customers all over the world, this contract is expected to ensure a long-term work for Nikkiso Vietnam.
Mr. Jean Francois Laval, Executive Vice President of Airbus in Asia said that the company chose Vietnam to produce aircraft’s components because the aviation market of Vietnam was growing fast, the cost of production was low and Airbus received favorable supports from Vietnamese Government. The company is also researching to expand the scale of production and increase the number of factories in Vietnam in the future.

A350-800 on its flight - Source: Image from Wikimedia Commons

Earlier this year, another airline in Vietnam named Vietjet Air currently operates ten A320 Airbus aircrafts and has ordered over 100 A320 aircrafts including firm orders for 63 A320s, plus 30 purchase rights and more 7 lease aircrafts. Jetstar Pacific Airlines, with two main shareholders: Vietnam Airlines and Qantas Group, is being operated totally by Airbus aircrafts, with 6 A320s which are serving for domestic routes at present. 

Phu Quoc calls on investment from Singapore

At a meeting forum held in Singapore on April 28, the Minister of Planning and Investment, Bui Quang Vinh called on Singapore’s investment in Vietnam to construct Phu Quoc into a high-end tourist center in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

The Minister of Planning and Investment, Bui Quang Vinh announced that Vietnamese Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of Singapore have agreed to cooperate and create the most favorable conditions of environment, policies and destinations of investment to encourage Singapore companies to invest in Phu Quoc Island in the near future.
The Minister of Planning and Investment expressed his wish that Singapore with experience in planning and developing tourist destinations, will assist in planning Phu Quoc Island. Singapore, also, has a right to propose incentives that Vietnam needs to develop as well as the limitations and difficulties that need solving in order to build Phu Quoc into a tourist and resort center in the region in years to come. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nghi, Deputy Secretary of Party Committee as well as Vice Chairman of People's Committee of Kien Giang Province, on behalf of the delegation of Kien Giang had a talk with Singapore’s businesses in the Forum on investment in Vietnam promotion. He said that Vietnam’s government is building the project on “Development of Phu Quoc Island Model Economic Zone” with the highest level of incentives to invest, which is firstly applied. In addition, improvements of transport infrastructure system, modern synchronous energy combined with the inherent potential of geography are implemented. According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nghi, Singaporean businesses’ investment in Phu Quoc can focus on eco-tourism zones, scientist urban areas, and high-tech industrial zones of about 4,000 hectares in Phu Quoc Island.

A new project in Phu Quoc - Source: Image from evnspc.vn

In the meeting dated April 28 with a number of Singaporean businesses like Sunray Woodcraft Construction Pte Ltd and Centurion Properties Pte Ltd, the delegation of Kien Giang province said that when investing in Phu Quoc, businesses could enjoy investment incentives at the highest level for the first time of application. For example, there will be incentives of land policies and preferential policies for corporate income tax, income tax for high-income earners and tax import. After working with leaders of Kien Giang province, said Jason Lien, the Project Director Centurion Properties Pte Ltd, told that Phu Quoc had great potentials of nature to develop tourism and economy. Recently, Vietnamese government expanded and upgraded airports with international and regional standards to shorten flight time to other countries in the region like Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. “Phu Quoc is a wonderful place for relaxation with beautiful places, beaches, and it is an ideal destination to invest in resorts and hotels”, Mr. Jason said.
According to Mr. Chia Keng Tech, the representative of Arcanum Associates, LLT, a Singapore’s company specializing in providing consulting services of business and investment, that a large area of land in Phu Quoc will be spent to develop is a good news for foreign investors. He said, “I think that Phu Quoc is an island possessing many great opportunities” and “I would recommend businesses in Singapore to invest in Phu Quoc quickly”. Along with the view of Mr. Chia Keng Tech, Mr. Tan Soon Kim, the assistant of Chief Executive Operator of IE Singapore (International Enterprise Singapore), confirmed that IE Singapore will encourage Singapore companies to invest in Kien Giang province.

Phu Quoc Beach - Source: Image from Flickr

The Chairman of People's Committee of Kien Giang province, Mr. Le Van Thi, said Vietnam and Singapore has built a strategic partnership partly based on similarities to natural and geographical conditions of Phu Quoc and Singapore. By virtue of this, Singapore enterprises who invest in Phu Quoc will have more advantages than other investors will. According to the Chairman of Kien Giang province, at the 10th Ministerial Conference on Vietnam - Singapore economic connections held at Singapore on April 29, the delegation of Kien Giang will have a speech to introduce potentials, advantageous position of Phu Quoc to investors as well as the management agencies of Singapore. In the near future, investment in Phu Quoc in particular and investment in Vietnam in general will be boosted significantly by Singaporean investors.

Vietnam market is the hottest market of Apple

According to a recent report of Apple, Vietnam has become the hottest market of this company. The revenue of Vietnam Apple market has tripled in the first half of 2014, especially the sales of iPhone has doubled.

Previously, Vietnam market hardly appeared in the annual report of Apple. In the quarterly meeting on April 23rd, Apple Board of Directors mentioned about the auspicious market in Vietnam, however. The revenue of Apple in Vietnam market has tripled in the first half of 2014, especially the sales of iPhone has doubled. The rate is expected to increase because the majority of Vietnamese consumers are generally young and interested in high technology, the number of people using Internet and mobile phone is rising, the middle class is forecasted to double by 2020.
Vietnam technology companies have been growing dramatically. A typical example is Flappy Bird, a game app which has become popular as a mobile game listed in the world’s top downloads. The Vietnamese purchase iPhones in Apple store which cost half the per capita income according to the figure of 2012. Nonetheless, they believed that it was deserved. Mrs. Pham My Linh, a 23-year-old office worker, said that an iPhone had the price equal to her 2-month salary. But she still bought it because it made her more confident when going out.

A Crowded Apple Store in Vietnam - Source: Photo from baomoi.com

This demand is absolutely contrast to the current gloominess of Vietnam economy. Vietnam GDP has risen only 5.4 percent last year. According to economists, this figure is not corresponding to the rate of population growth and the potentiality of production in the country. Market researchers of smartphone businesses in Vietnam have stated that the demand of enhancing social status is the main reason for the increase of Apple sales. Simultaneously, programs of discounts, promotion, and payment assistance help consumers to afford luxury equipments which cost more than their average monthly income. The decrease in the consumption of public phones proved that Vietnamese people desire to move into smartphone market. Such things benefit not only Apple but also almost all tablet and smartphone manufacturers like Samsung or HTC.

An iPhone 5S of Apple - Source: Photo from techz.vn

According the figure released in January by the research firm GFK, smartphone accounted for 77 percent of phone sales in Vietnam last year. The number of sales increased by nearly 135% compared to that of the same period the last year. Meanwhile, the tablet sale tripled thanks to its 27 percent reduction in price.
Many large companies in the high-tech field are paying attention to Vietnam because the potential market here has not been fully exploited. The Vietnamese population is 90 millions, of which 15 millions has lived in 2 largest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, only 30 millions have access to the Internet, and two thirds is under 30 years old. If Vietnam market is effectively exploited in the right way, the profit brought to companies will be a huge number.

Hue becomes ASEAN City of Culture

On April 19, in Hue City, the sixth Ministerial Conference in charge of ASEAN’s Culture and Art took place, representatives of Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and China discussed relevant issues, and awarded the title “ASEAN City of Culture” to Hue.

Hue is the third city, after Cebu (The Philippines) and Singapore, becoming ASEAN City of Culture. This is the land of history, poetic and beautiful nature, also a place of reserving the value of tangible and intangible cultural heritages, including relics of Hue Citadel and Nha Nhac (Hue Royal Court Music) once recognized by UNESCO as world cultural heritages. In recent years, many cultural events are held in Hue. For example, Hue Festival, an international event, is held every two years. The purposes of these events are to promote Hue tourism, the image of Vietnam, Vietnamese people and culture; to expand exchanges and cooperation to promote economic development; to contribute to affirming the rich cultural identity of Hue, the city of heritage and tourism of Vietnam.

Hue awarded title ASEAN City of Culture - Source: Image from baothuathienhue.vn

After receiving the title of “ASEAN City of Culture”, the Chairman of Hue People’s Committee, Mr. Nguyen Van Cao pledged to have a detailed plan and program on introducing Vietnamese in general and Hue people in particular the image of ASEAN community, at the same time promulgating Hue culture to the region and the world. The targets of Hue after receiving this tittle are to bring achievements into play, and to promulgate the image of peaceful, civilized ASEAN community with happy and comprehensively developed people. In the process of introducing, promoting the image of ASEAN community, many activities of cultural heritage value of preservation and promotion will take place in Hue, the ancient capital, in the integration and development phase. At the same time, exchanges, cooperation and community stability of ASEAN and the region will be focused through regional tourism cooperation, conferences, workshops, and cultural activities like cultural festivals, exhibits, and trade shows.

Mr. Nguyen Van Cao also thanked the Government, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other ASEAN countries and international friends for supporting Hue during that time. He also expressed his wish of continuing to receive the attention and support in promoting the image of the country, people and culture from ASEAN community. By virtue of this, culture will be truly a cultural bridge between nations and peoples with the aims of building a world of peace, stability and prosperity, making Hue really a place of cultural exchange. Thereby, promoting the conservation and promulgation of cultural heritages, development of economy will be strengthened to be worthy of the title "ASEAN City of Culture". In two-year term, Hue will play its part in enhancing exchanges, cooperation with other cultures and civilizations in ASEAN.

Leaders meet and have conversation - Source: Image from baothuathienhue.vn

With this great tittle, Hue also has to establish the cultural identity of ASEAN. With the topic “raising the cultural role in the stable development of ASEAN”, the ministerial conference focuses on discussing and concretizing pledges given, strengthening ASEAN community, and promoting partnership with other countries to share experiences on developing art and culture. In terms of the role of culture for sustainable development of ASEAN community, utilization of knowledge, science, technology and art forms to improve the quality of material and spiritual life in ASEAN, a wealthy and prosperous community will be established in the near future.

Quang Ninh Tourism Week 2014 attracts thousands of visitors

Taking place from April 7 to May 15, Quang Ninh Tourism Week 2014 includes a chain of various, exciting and promising activities which will bring unforgettable impressions on positive changes of this land to tourists.

In every April and May, tourists coming to Halong have chances to participate in many exciting festive activities with various and striking features which bring memorable experiences on exploring Halong and local people to visitors. Quang Ninh Tourism Week 2014 is organized by the provincial People's Committee. The tourism week consists of featured cultural events, sports and tourism activities. It gradually becomes one of the cultural characteristics of Quang Ninh tourism. The program is widely deployed across the province with a series of special and attractive events. The most important point in occasion is Halong Carnival 2014. Halong Carnival will be officially held on April 30 at Hoang Quoc Viet Square in Hung Thang Ward, Halong City. This is the first time that Halong City is hosting many attractive, unique, and promising performances which appeals local people and visitors to join.

Colors in Halong Carnival 2013

With a theme “Quang Ninh- Convergence and Pervasion”, Halong Carnival 2104 will be featured with a series of interesting activities such as street parade and art performances. The street parade in Halong Carnival 2014 includes 28 groups with nearly 4000 professional and semi-professional actors from local organizations, enterprises; local people; and artistic delegations from China, Thailand and Laos, etc. Coming to Halong Carnival 2014, visitors will be immersed not only in colorful cultural space of 22 ethnic groups in Quang Ninh province, but also enjoy the exciting modern cultures of art groups from many countries in the region. Immersing in a vibrant and charismatic art space, visitors have more understanding about cultures of Vietnam and other neighboring countries. In Halong Carnival 2014, you will also join with artists in street performances like catwalk shows, “Phoenix” dancing, and rituals for best harvests of local people, especially, exciting Caribbean and Latin dancing shows.

Performance in Halong Carnival 2012

Besides, the street parade of Halong Carnival 2014 consists of seven floats of flowers, dozens of models, and moveable catwalk decorated strikingly with themes such as “Halong City – aspiration of flying Dragon”, “Land of natural masterpieces convergence”, “Land of colorful cultures convergence”, and “Land of pervasions and interests”. The beauty of Halong City will be reflected via different spaces and moments, from brilliant dawn to dusk and magical night. As planned, the organizer will arrange over 1000 seats to ensure and create favorable conditions for visitors to observe shows in one of the most important festivals in Halong.

Coming to Quang Ninh Tourism Week 2014, apart from joining Halong Carnival, visitors can participate in a series of cultural events, sports and tourism activities. These events take place continuously for over one month with many striking and attractive programs. They are Halong Cherry Blossom Festival, “I love Halong” show, and exhibitions of art - photography, light, and spiritual life of fishing communities in Halong Bay. In addition, many folk games and beauty contests, and Halong Travel Trade Fair, promotions on regional specialty brands, and other sport activities took place during this time.

Performance in Halong Carnival 2013

Through a series of vibrant activities and events, visitors will have the best overview of local life and featured tradition in Halong. In addition, these activities contribute to promulgating Halong tourism to other provinces and to the world. Overall, the series of special events in Quang Ninh Tourism Week 2014 will create an atmosphere of great festivals, opening up a blooming season of Quang Ninh tourism.

Phu Quoc tourism offers big discounts for tourists

Thanks to the policy of electricity cost reduction, Phu Quoc has recently implemented tourism stimulus package for tourism companies to discount prices for tourists from 10 to 15 percent.

According the statement of Mr. Nguyen Van Linh, Head of tourism management under the Kien Giang provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, thanks to the national grid project which was implemented in earlier this year, Phu Quoc Island has officially charges electricity prices equal to that of the mainland since early March 2014. Thus, the current price of electricity in Phu Quoc is only one third compared to the previous one. It is an ideal opportunity for authorities and tourism companies in the province to implement the stimulus package for travel.

Phu Quoc Beach

The tourism stimulus program of this year will be carried out extensively with many new points such as improving service quality to attract domestic and international tourists, discounting service prices in low season, and strengthening promotion of Phu Quoc tourism. The province will perform this stimulus package through allowing tourism companies to delay paying taxes in the low season.

Mr. Huynh Quang Hung, Vice Chairman of Phu Quoc People’s Committee stated that provincial authorities have encouraged companies and enterprises which do businesses of accommodation, resorts, restaurants, catering, and transportation to lower prices. To be supported by this stimulus package, companies are required to apply discount program from 10 to 15 percent for each business form but still ensure service quality.

Phu Quoc beach view from La Veranda Resort

The tourism stimulus project of Phu Quoc Island also focuses on ensuring the security of tourists by requiring businesses proving services of accommodations, hotels, resorts near beaches to associate to found rescue teams. In addition, local officials will strengthen law inspection on transportation and tourism. It is banned to bring tourists to visit the sea in case of bad weather, particularly in storm seasons. After the conference of tourism promotion, Phu Quoc will establish teams to inspect on prices of services provided by businesses entitled to the stimulus package. All companies and businesses participating in this project will be publicly listed.      

Relax in Phu Quoc Beach

To promote tourism, besides discounting service prices for tourists, Phu Quoc also implements some other policies such as launching more straight air routes from Phu Quoc to large cities like Hanoi, Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City and vice versa, constructing new roads linking coastal attractions to towns, and especially the policy of free 30-day visa for tourists since March 10th 2014. With such improvement, Phu Quoc is expected to become a fascinating destination of both domestic and international tourists.