Weekly News Bulletin - No. 02, November 2022

Vietnam ranks 76 over 193 countries in terms of the online services index in the United Nations’ assessment, up five places compared to 2020.

The latest statistics of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) revealed that all ministries and branches have issued resolutions, programmes, plans or action plans on digital transformation. Statistics recorded from the automatic monitoring and measurement system of the Ministry of Information and Communications show that the three ministries of Industry and Trade, Education and Training, and Information and Communications lead in the percentage of online public services, with 100 per cent, 100 per cent and 97.67 per cent, respectively, from the beginning of this year to the end of August.

Danish toy manufacturer LEGO Group kicked off the construction of a new factory worth US$1 billion in Vietnam’s southern Binh Duong Province at a ground-breaking ceremony held on Thursday morning. The event was attended by Vietnam’s Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh and Danish Crown Prince Frederik, who started his four-day official visit to Vietnam on Monday, among other participants. The new plant is the largest ever investment by the Danish group in Vietnam, and is part of its strategy to expand its supply chain network. Located on a 44-hectare site, the size of 62 football fields, the new facility is expected to be put into operation in 2024 and generate around 4,000 jobs in the next 15 years.

Last week highlight

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) would have many positive effects on the regional economy and increase the whole region's income by about 0.6 per cent by 2030, said Lương Văn Khôi, Vice President, National Centre for Socio-economic Information and Forecast (NCIF), Ministry of Planning and Investment. The World Bank's research (2022) forecast that Vietnam's GDP would increase by about 4.9 per cent and exports would increase by 11.4 per cent by 2030.

The trend of shifting supply chains into Viet Nam that has taken place before, thanks to bilateral FTAs or within the framework of "ASEAN +6", will be further promoted thanks to the enforcement of RCEP. The FDI inflows into Vietnam are also expected to increase since major regional investors tend to specialise more strongly in developing supply chains. RCEP, which was signed in 2020 between ASEAN and five partner countries, including Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan and South Korea, is the world's largest free trade agreement (FTA), covering 30 per cent of global GDP.

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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