Weekly News Bulletin - No. 02, December 2022

Vietnam is seeking the support of Luxembourg in its effort to establish an international financial center in HCMC and it has invited businesses from the country to invest in various sectors.

During the talks with with Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel on Friday, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called on Luxembourg businesses to increase their investment in areas such as strategic infrastructure, digital transformation, renewable energy and pharmaceutical technology. Chinh wants Luxembourg to provide financial and technological support for Vietnam to develop its renewable energy industry and to implement climate change adaptation projects, especially in the Mekong Delta.

Chinh asked Luxembourg to push other EU countries to quickly ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement. The two sides agreed to expand cooperation in the fields of national defense, combating transnational crimes, cyber security, digital transformation, culture, tourism, education and training and transportation.

Soaring e-commerce demands call for the implementation of greener, more optimized logistics activities in urban areas. According to a November 2020 World Economic Forum report, without intervention, the number of delivery vehicles in the top 100 global cities will increase by 36% through 2030 to meet growing online shopping demands. This has environmental consequences, as emissions from these vehicles are estimated to add 6 million tons of CO2 by 2050.

Learning from successful applications of electric vehicle in logistics sector around the world will create the foundation and motivation for logistics enterprises in Vietnam in the near future. In that respect, electric vehicles and hybrid engines are increasingly prevalent in Vietnam, although the overloaded infrastructure system and public charging system remain a critical challenge.

Last week highlight

The free trade agreement index (FTA Index) was expected to create an impetus for localities to create a favourable environment for enterprises and enable them to take advantage of free trade deals. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Government approved the ministry’s proposal of developing the FTA Index, which was scheduled to be launched at the beginning of 2023.

According to the Deputy director of the ministry’s Multilateral Trade Policy Department, localities were paying increasing attention to the implementation of new-generation FTAs, adding that it took eight months for localities to complete the action plans to implement the CPTPP while it took only four months for the EVFTA and two months for the UKVFTA. However, to date, only 38 out of 63 provinces and cities had import and export activities with member countries of CPTPP, indicating that there was huge untapped potential to promote exports.

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Let’s look at some other key financial and business headlines during the past week

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Key words: Vietnam, business, finance, economy