Weekly News Bulletin - No. 03, July 2023

Vietnam’s export turnover is estimated to reach USD 29.3 billion in June, a month-on-month rise of 4.5%, which shows that the market is gradually recovering thanks to trade promotion activities, according to the General Statistics Office.

Attention will be paid to soon completing procedures towards the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) with Israel, and speeding up negotiations on other deals with potential markets such as the United Arab Emirates and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Vietnam collected VND 3.94 trillion (USD 166.5 million) in taxes from 57 foreign online platforms including Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, and TikTok in the first half of this year. Of the sum, VND 3.4 trillion was paid directly via the portal of the General Department of Taxation (GDT), which was established last March to make it easier for cross-border giants to pay their taxes in Vietnam. The remaining sum was paid by their representatives in Vietnam. The GDT also said that tax revenue from e-commerce platforms in the first five months of this year reached VND 246 billion, equal to 34% of 2022’s revenue.

Last week highlight

The United States sees Vietnam as a key partner in expanding green energy sources and building more resilient supply chains, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech on 21 July in Hanoi. She emphasized Vietnam’s important role in the United States’ friendshoring drive to diversify supply chains to back the global economic recovery.

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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