The Lao Statistics Bureau released the report yesterday, titled: Where Are the Poor? Its findings make up the National 2015 Census-Based Poverty Map: Province and District Level Results.

An expert from the bureau, Vilaysouk Sisoulath, introduced the report at a seminar taking place in Vientiane from June 27-29 to mark National Statistics Day on June 30.

“Poverty is widespread in mountainous areas along the border that the country shares with Vietnam, while Savannakhet and Saravan provinces have more poor districts than other provinces,” he said.

Huaphan and Borikhamxay provinces also have many poor districts, but not as many as Savannakhet and Saravan, he added.

The report documents the construction of and presents the main results from a poverty map of Laos based on the 2012/13 Lao Expenditure and Consumption Survey (LECS-5) and the 2015 Population and Housing Census.

Vilaysouk noted the difference between the latest report and the LECS-5, saying the LECS analyses and indicates poverty at the provincial level, while the newly created report provides more detailed information.

He said the new survey focused on two main indicators: people’s expenditure on food (converting the calories they receive daily to money), and non-food expenditure, on which the poverty line was based.

According to the report, some of the 25 poorest districts in the country are found in Savannakhet and Saravan provinces. Saravan province’s Toumlan district is the poorest district in the country with 73 percent of its residents below the poverty line, and some people even living in extreme poverty.

Vientiane’s Chanthabouly district has the smallest number of poor people, who represent 5 percent of its residents. Xaysettha district in Attapeu province has the lowest rate of poverty among the southern provinces, with 12.9 percent of its population classified as poor.

Borikhamxay province’s Pakxan district has 8 percent of its population living below the poverty line, while the poverty rate in the province’s Xaychamphone district is 64 percent.

“There are deep differences within the country, and between provinces,” Vilaysouk said.

The map shows that Vientiane and the provinces of Savannakhet, Saravan and Champassak have the highest concentrations of poor families.

More than 300,000 of the 943,000 people in Savannakhet province and 188,000 people in Saravan provinces are poor. The poverty rate in Saravan province is higher than the national rate.

“There are more poor people in provinces that are more densely populated, and poverty is found even in urban areas,” Vilaysouk said.

But they are also the second least likely to leave their company even though they are unhappy.

This finding came from a new IDC study commissioned by US-based human resource software firm Workday.

According to Chano Fernandez, Workday’s president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific and Japan, the finding highlights the need for employers to know what makes their staff tick.

It is also where technology can play a big part, to help companies suss out the tendencies and motivations of their employees that may not be apparent, he said.

“If companies don’t understand their employees, they can’t take action to engage them,” said Fernandez, who was speaking to The Straits Times during the Workday Elevate conference at the Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel two weeks ago.

The conference, which focused on tech innovations in finance and human resources, attracted about 200 attendees.

“But if I understand how well my employees’ goals and objectives are aligned to the company strategy, and how well they are performing towards those, it gives me a competitive advantage,” he added.

Headquartered in the United States, Workday provides cloud- based finance and human-resource software, which stores employee information such as salary and career progression in one platform.

Fernandez pointed to deep- analysis software as a recent development in the human resource software realm that can help employers gain better insight into their staff.

His company came up with such a tool last April, which can predict when an employee is at risk of quitting even before he does so.

This predictive analysis feature is also quickly becoming part and parcel of most human resource management software, with firms that develop such tools, such as Infor and Cornerstone OnDemand, adding it to their software.

Workday’s software taps past data to spot trends that have caused other employees to leave, and brings it to the manager’s attention. The software looks for a range of factors, such as how long an employee has worked in the company or when his last promotion was.

By comparing the data with other employees in similar shoes based on historical data, the software can predict if this puts the employee at risk of quitting.

It can also trawl through job listings around the employee’s area to see if there are potential job openings that fall into his scope which may be more attractive to him.

When the system notices something like this, Fernandez explained, it will flag it to the manager and suggest ways to retain the employee, such as an internal transfer or a new job scope.

About 325 companies in Singapore use Workday. They range from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with hundreds of employees to multinational companies with staff sizes in the thousands.

Netflix, Groupon and TripAdvisor are also among those which use Workday’s software. Singapore- based taxi-booking app company Grab is in the process of implementing Workday in their operations.

Ong Chin Yin, who overseas human resources at Grab, said the company currently uses the data to track the transfers and compensations of its employees, and will make use of Workday’s predictive analysis feature in the future.

She added: “Eventually, we want to make sure that we find a way to make use of predictive analytics. We want to know what the trends are and the reasons people may have for leaving. And we want to be able to help managers anticipate and take the right actions to be able to keep people and drive up the morale using predictive analytics.”

The report titled “Connecting to Compete 2016: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy” showed the Philippines’ ranking decline from 57th in 2014.

The Philippines’ Logistics Performance Index (LPI) score also dropped to 2.86 this year from a score of 3 two years ago.

According to the World Bank, the LPI was a “comprehensive measure of the efficiency of international supply chains” being published biennially since 2007.

Among the 160 countries covered by this year’s report, Germany had the highest LPI score of 4.23, while the lowest score of 1.6 was posted by Syria.

Compared with other lower middle-income countries, the Philippines’ rank was below those of India, Kenya, Egypt, Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan. In 2014, the Philippines had a better LPI score than Egypt, Kenya and Pakistan.

The LPI analyses countries using six “core pillars” of logistics performance, namely: the efficiency of customs and border management clearance; the quality of trade and transport infrastructure; the ease of arranging competitively priced shipments; the competence and quality of logistics services; the ability to track and trace consignments, and the frequency with which shipments reach consignees within scheduled or expected delivery times.

Across these six components, the Philippines ranked the lowest in infrastructure, at 82nd place, with a score of 2.55.

In customs, the Philippines was at 78th spot, with a score of 2.61; in logistics quality and competence, 77th with a score of 2.7; tracking and tracing, 73rd with a score of 2.86; timeliness, 70th with a score of 3.35, and international shipments, 60th with a score of 3.01.

Sought to comment about the report, NCC private sector co-chair Guillermo M. Luz attributed the decline in ranking to the congestion at the country’s ports which was experienced in 2014 due to the truck ban implemented in the city of Manila, home to the country’s major sea ports.

“In the past two years, what really hurt was when there was the truck ban that triggered off all the Manila port congestion. It took so long to fix the backlog, only by the decision of one local government unit, and that hurt. So in a way, we shouldn’t be surprised,” Luz told reporters.

The retail industry has had impressive growth, contributing jobs and revenue, and acting as a bridge between production and consumption, according to Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, director of the WTO and Integration Centre of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Trang spoke at a workshop on identifying risks of the retail industry held in HCM City yesterday.

Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, tariffs and non-tariff barriers to goods will be removed, creating even more competition for local retailers as large foreign retailers continue to expand in the domestic market.

Vietnamese retailers’ weak points, including management ability, process control technology, and professional skills, have been exposed in recent years.

A significant number of local retailers have left the market, and many producers have had problems selling products to foreign supermarkets.

Dr. Dinh Thi My Loan, chairwoman of the Association of Vietnam Retailers, said that Vietnamese retailers must develop specific plans to improve competitiveness.

She called on the government to help local retailers access premises in good locations and provide updated information about sites include in zoning plans.

Under a new government decree, businesses investing in markets in rural areas, building supermarkets or trading centres, and offering logistics services, would enjoy incentives.

“The important thing is we want these incentives to quickly come into force,” she said.

Loan said the government had launched support packages for the real estate sector and programmes for industrial and agricultural extension, but there was no support package for the retail sector.

“We want the government to consider providing the retail sector with capital support,” she said, adding that assistance in improving the quality of their human resources would also be beneficial.

Huynh Van Minh, chairman of the HCM City Union of Business Associations, said the government should not only adjust policies to help local retailers and manufacturers but also restructure the country’s retail system.

Local retailers were also urged to work together to better compete with foreign counterparts.

Great potential

Vietnam is home to nearly 9,000 traditional markets, 830 supermarkets and 150 shopping centres, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

While modern trade channels account for just 25-30 per cent of retail business, they are on the rise.

“The retail industry still has great potential for both local and foreign retailers,” Loan said.

Pham Trung Kien, deputy director of Saigon Co.op, said the retail industry in the next three years would see high levels of investment.

By the end of last year, foreign retailers controlled 58 per cent of the local retail market, she said.

That is expected to increase to 63 per cent by 2020, he said.

Foreign retailers in Vietnam first have to meet an economic needs test before they are allowed to open a new store larger than 500 square metres.

But in most places, authorities have not implemented it well, according to Kien and other delegates at the workshop.

They urged the government to better enforce this regulation to protect the legal rights of local retailers.

However, Trang said that Vietnam had committed to remove the economic needs test five years after the TPP takes effect.

She said that her centre, in collaboration with the Association of Vietnam Retailers, had conducted research on the risks of the retail industry after the TPP and the EU-Vietnam FTA come into force.

The aim of the research was to identify obstructions to the retail industry and to propose specific policies to help the industry develop in a sustainable manner, contribute to the development of other manufacturing industries, and increase consumer benefits.

HANOI – The city of Hanoi will give priority to improving its business climate and competitive capacity, aiming to be among the top 10 localities nationwide in the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) by 2020.

The conference turned the spotlight on the socio-economic development plan for the period 2016-20, targeting Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) growth of 8.5-9 per cent and per income capita at VND140-145 million (US$6,268-6,492). Social investment mobilisation is expected to be VND2.5-2.6 quadrillion in the next four years. In the economic structure, the service and construction industry account for 67-67.5 per cent and 30-30.5 percent, respectively, while agriculture makes up 2.5-3 per cent.

Regarding urban infrastructure development, the capital city is striving to become a green and modern urban area. Its target is to increase the rate of public transportation to 20-25 per cent, zone off 10-13 per cent of urban land for transportation and make the city greener by planting one million trees.

The secretary of the municipal Party Committee, Hoang Trung Hai, highlighted the city’s economic growth in the first half of this year, noting that concerted efforts needed to be made to realise an economic growth rate of 10-11 per cent in the remaining six months of the year.

Priority should be given to investment attraction, simplifying administration procedures and developing a transparent administration system, Hai added.

Concerning the city’s socio-economic development plan, he stressed that attention should be paid to the balance of resources to effectively implement the strategic tasks set out.

The budget cut was discussed during a meeting with the trade minister, the industry minister and the head of the Business Competition Supervisory Commission at the House complex on Monday.

House budget committee member Eka Sastra said the reduction was less than the planned 483 million rupiah mentioned in a presidential instruction this year.

“The lower budget cut is aimed at enabling the Trade Ministry to allocate funds for the improvement of the trade system and consumer protection,” he said.

Trade Minister Thomas Lembong said the 200 billion rupiah remaining after the cut would be spent on restructuring the supply chain of staple food, bolstering goods supervision and improving the commodities futures market and the online trading system.

On the other hand, he said, funding earmarked for non-productive programmes had been cut.

“We cut the budget to make spending more efficient, while maintaining the achievement of the programmes’ target,” Thomas said.

His remarks in his half-year briefing addressed the perception that SGX is stagnant and losing its shine as a first-rate capital market platform in Asia.

“The market is ultimately driven by events and activities, macro or company-specific,” he said.

However, Singapore continues to do well and to reward investors, he said.

About US$7.3 billion (Bt258 billion) of dividends will have been paid out by Singapore stocks in the first half of this year.

The Strait Times Index (STI) has sported a dividend yield rate of 4 per cent – above the Nikkei’s 2 per cent and 2.1 per cent in Shanghai and on a par with the Hang Seng’s 4.1 per cent.

In terms of total returns – price gain plus dividend – the STI was down 1.7 per cent in the first half, but the fall was far less than the Nikkei’s 5.7 per cent, Hang Seng’s 8.3 per cent and Shanghai Composite’s 23.2 per cent.

The Singapore market has also been less volatile. The STI volatility – fluctuation in returns – has been 16 per cent in this half. It was 30 per cent for the Shanghai Composite, 28 per cent for the Nikkei and 21 per cent for the Hang Seng.

“We saw how this played out last Friday, when Singapore was down roughly 2 per cent and Nikkei was down 8.5 per cent,” Chew said, referring to the limited impact on the STI from British citizens’ vote to exit the European Union.

And while Brexit has plunged the financial world into further uncertainty, the fundamentals of Asia’s growing middle class and the need for services and infrastructure remain in the SGX’s favour, partly because of its reputation as a hub for listings of real estate investment trusts (REITs) and business trusts.

“There’s demand for capital, and we have the platforms for both wholesale and retail opportunities. “

Nguyen Bich Lam, GSO general director, said the expansion of GDP growth in Q1 and Q2 was restrained, reaching only 0.07 per cent, compared with the rate of 0.2-0.3 per cent in previous years. After rising 5.48 per cent in the first quarter, GDP in the second quarter expanded to only 5.55 per cent.

According to the GSO, the service industry was the only bright spot in the first half of the year, hitting a three-year record high of 6.35 per cent. Some services saw high growth in the period, including wholesale and retail (up 8 per cent); finance, banking and social insurance (6 per cent); and real estate (3.77 per cent).

Industry-construction in H1 also reported a rise in growth of 7.12 per cent; however, it was much lower than the growth rate of 9.66 per cent in H1 2015.

Pham Dinh Thuy, from GSO’s Industrial Statistics Department, said the slowdown was due to a 2.2 per cent reduction in the mining industry, adding that it was a pessimistic sign for the economy as the nation’s natural resources were being depleted. The falling trend of the industry, therefore, is expected to continue in the coming years.

Furthermore, a sharp reduction in the global crude oil price also contributed to the mining industry’s slowdown.

In H1, agriculture-forestry-fisheries saw a decline of 0.18 per cent for the first time in many years. The decline was reflected in the reduction of 0.03 percentage points in the country’s GDP growth.

Lam attributed the agriculture-forestry-fisheries’ reduction to adverse weather, including very low temperatures in the northern provinces, a drought in the Central Highlands coffee belt and saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta food basket.

GSO experts said it would be hard for the country to meet its GDP growth target of 6.7 per cent this year as the GDP would have to expand to 7.6 per cent in the second half of the year, despite increasing volatility in the global economy.

To meet the annual GDP target, besides strictly implementing solutions and policies that support vulnerable areas, as approved by the Government, the GSO also recommends that the Government and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development adopt more effective measures in a timely manner to help the agriculture, forestry and fishery industries overcome their difficulties and achieve higher growth in the second half of the year.

The relevant ministries should also consider taking steps to boost the manufacturing and processing industry, besides continually strengthening high-added-value industries such as tourism, telecommunications, technology and information, as well as banking and finance.

It is also necessary to accelerate the disbursement of investment capital sources in accordance with the Government’s plans to boost economic growth, the GSO said, adding that steps to attract further resources for development and investment should also be taken.

The legal, business and investment environment must be continually streamlined to create the most favourable conditions for firms and investors, with the aim of providing the momentum needed to boost economic growth, the GSO said.

VN enjoys $1.5b trade surplus in H1

Vietnam gained a trade surplus of US$1.5 billion in the first half of this year due to reductions in import value, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

During the period, domestic firms showed a trade deficit of $9.7 billion, while the foreign-invested firms had a trade surplus of $11.2 billion.

The nation achieved year-on-year growth of 5.9 per cent in total export value, earning $82.2 billion for the first half of this year, the GSO said. However, the growth rate was lower than the state’s annual economic development target rate of 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, the value of national imports in the first six months fell by 0.5 per cent to $80.7 billion against the same period last year.

The office said the low growth rate was due to the reduction in goods prices by 3.85 per cent on the world market, driving down the export value of some of Vietnam’s key products.

The export value dropped by 46.6 per cent for crude oil to $1.1 billion; 2.7 per cent for rice to $1.3 billion; 12.3 per cent for rubber to $530 million; and 29.7 per cent for cassava to $562 million. It also fell 8.4 per cent for porcelain to $217 million and 5.2 per cent for steel to $832 million.

However, some other key export products reflected a growth in export value in the first half of this year. They included seafood, up by 4.4 per cent to $3.8 billion; vegetables and fruit, up by 41.4 per cent to $1.2 billion; cashew, up by 11.6 per cent to $1.2 billion; coffee, up by 17.9 per cent to $1.7 billion; and telephones, up by 17.9 per cent to $17 billion.

The GSO also reported that many imported products had seen a reduction in value over the past six months. The import value dropped by 5.9 per cent for machines and equipment to $13 billion; 17.5 per cent for petrol and oil to $2.4 billion; 7 per cent for telephones to $4.9 billion; and 19.4 per cent for wood and wooden products to $878 million, as well as dropping 20.5 per cent for fertiliser to $532 million and 1.8 per cent for automotives to $2.8 billion.

Hong Kong Disneyland came in second and Ocean Park, also in Hong Kong, is third.

Tokyo’s DisneySea was fourth on the list, followed by Universal Studios Japan.

Singapore’s Universal Studios, located on Sentosa island, was ranked 17th worldwide.

The ranking of the world’s top amusement parks was dominated by attractions in Orlando in Florida, with Universal’s Islands of Adventure topping the list.

Two other Singapore tourist spots that made it to this year’s Traveller’s Choice Awards were Adventure Cove Waterpark and the Marina Bay Sands Skypark.

Adventure Cove Waterpark is the sixth best water park in Asia, said Tripadvisor. Ranked ahead were Waterbom Bali, Black Mountain Water Park in Hua Hin, Carribean Bay in South Korea’s Yongin, Water Kingdom in Mumbai and Sunway Lagoon in Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur.

The Marina Bay Sands Skypark was 16th among the top 25 landmarks in Asia. The top three landmarks are Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, India’sTaj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.

The awards and rankings are determined by millions of reviews by travellers on Tripadvisor over a 12-month period.

Award winners were determined using an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of reviews.