Business News

[13-01-2015] International cruise passengers will pay a US$5 visa fee each, instead of a staggering US$45, when they go ashore for a local tour, according to new measures approved last week by the Prime Minister. The new measures come after the fresh immigration regulations, effective from January 1, provide complicated, time-consuming and costly immigration requirements for international tourists traveling to Vietnam by cruise ship who want to join overland tours when their ships call at a local port.

[12-01-2915] Experts at foreign property consulting firms expect the property market in Ha Noi to rebound strongly this year, owing to robust sales of apartments during the last quarter of 2014. The Savills Viet Nam Ltd Company pointed out that six new housing projects, with approximately 2,900 units, have been launched recently. This reflects the highest number since the second quarter of 2013.

[09-01-2015] HCM City's Department of Planning and Investment is expected to implement the use of an electronic ISO system for processing investment certificates before January 15. On January 7, People's Committee Vice Chairman Le Manh Ha asked the municipal department of information and communications, in co-operation with the department of planning and investment, to complete the general design of the foreign investment management system, and implement the electronic ISO application.

[09-01-2015] The housing market in this southern city performed strongly during the fourth quarter of last year, according to a Savills Viet Nam report released on January 8. The total villa/townhouse transactions during the fourth quarter surged sharply by 56 per cent quarter-on-quarter, and the absorption rate for this segment was 37 per cent, up 3 percentage points from the previous quarter.

[08-01-2015] Policies on increasing minimum wage, health insurance payment, personnel cuts, and plant quarantine have come into effect since January 2015. Regional minimum wage increases. The new Decree on monthly minimum wage for employees working for companies, enterprises, cooperatives, cooperative groups, farms, households, individuals and agencies, organizations employing laborers has been applied since January 1, 2015.

[08-01-2015] After a long time looking into those practical issues that the Vietnam banking system has been facing, on 20 November 2014, the State Bank of Vietnam (“the SBV”) issued Circular 36/2014/TT-NHNN (“Circular 36”) regulating prudential ratios for the operations of credit institutions (“CIs”) and foreign bank branches.

[04-01-2015] A string of fresh policies on foreign-related elements were introduced in 2014 including foreign strategic investors, sub-lease of job, preferential corporate tax, international goods trading activities with foreigners, temporary import for re-export, and indirect investment capital account.

[05-01-2015] The year 2014, which witnessed the recovery of foreign capital inflow to the real estate sector, also saw money for registered investment projects disbursed. Analysts feared that the Vietnamese real estate market would no longer be attractive to foreign investors, particularly after flows dropped substantially in the last few years, after reaching a peak of $23.6 billion in 2008.