According to the construction ministry’s department of housing and real estate market management, the domestic property market might see a shortage of mid-tier housing supply, and abundant supply in the high-end segment in late 2016.

Although the market is on a stable recovery path, this is a matter of concern as a majority of the local citizens want affordable small or medium-sized apartments.

In addition, the recent rise in the number of secondary investors, who purchase houses for rent, for example, might trigger a wave of speculation, threatening the recovery of the realty market.

The Vietnam Real Estate Association said the property market did not see many new housing projects during the first half of this year, while the supply mainly came from sale openings of exiting projects, resulting in a rise in housing prices.

Apartment prices of a number of completed or soon-to-be-operational projects in downtown Hanoi rose by 3 to 5 per cent against the previous year. Statistics of the municipal department of construction revealed that prices of high-end apartments in downtown districts increased by 1 to 2 per cent.

In HCM City, the prices of the affordable segment in the suburbs remained stable, while those of the high-end segment rose by up to 15 per cent compared with the same period in 2014, according to HCM City Real Estate Association.

However, transactions remained flat recently in the two major cities that had the largest housing supplies.

Reductions in property inventories also slowed down in the first half of this year as a number of stockpiles were in areas far from downtown areas, along with infrastructure shortage. The ministry’s statistics showed that the value of the property stockpile dropped 13.4 trillion dong (US$599 million) during the past six months, bringing the value of the inventories to touch 37.5 trillion dong as of the end of June, which was 1.93 trillion dong lower than the same period last year.

Against this backdrop, the construction ministry recently asked the two cities to reassess housing demand before approving housing development projects to ensure a balance in supply and demand and to stabilise the market.

In another effort to ensure the supply-demand balance, the construction ministry asked localities to promptly draw up housing development plans in line with the Housing Law, which would serve as a basis for licensing housing projects.

Tran Du Lich, deputy head of HCM City’s National Assembly Deputy Delegation, said the government should take land prices into consideration. Land prices were too high, which discouraged developers to invest in social housing projects. In addition, housing development must be in line with infrastructure development, Lich said.

Although a number of experts have in recent months decried the possibility of a “property bubble’ in the making, attention must be given to potential imbalanced development.

The property market is still haunted by the property bubble that burst and pushed the market into a stagnant period that lasted nearly a decade. The market did not start to see recovery till late 2014.

Where is the money?

To support home buyers when the property stimulus package, worth 30 trillion dong in preferential loans, neared its end, the prime minister signed a decision allowing low-income earners who want to buy houses this year to take loans from the Vietnam Bank for Social Polices at an annual interest rate of just 4.8 per cent, lower than the rate offered in the 30-trillion dong package.

Under the Government’s Decree 100/2015/ND-CP on social housing development and management, the state budget would supply 50 per cent of the funding, while the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies would be in charge of the remainder. However, there was a major question mark on how the funding for the preferential loans would be arranged.

Nguyen The Diep, vice chairman of the Ha Noi Real Estate Club, said detailed instructions were needed. “Good policy but no funding for implementation will undermine market confidence,” he said.

(US$1 = 22,550 dong as of 6/27/2016 via oanda.com)

It was part of a heavy sell-off across the board, with investors off- loading riskier assets and rushing to safe-haven assets such as gold, the Japanese yen and US dollar.

Transport giant ComfortDelGro lost seven cents to close 2.56 per cent lower at US$1.97.

City Developments (CDL) shed 4.37 per cent to US$6.12, while another property player, Ho Bee Land, lost 3.98 per cent to US$1.60 and Ascott Residence Trust fell 2.67 per cent to US$0.80. Sembcorp Industries closed 3.5 per cent lower at US$2.03.

And there is lingering fear that the sell-off will continue until there is greater clarity on how the British government intends to negotiate a formal exit from the European Union, say analysts.

“These stocks were sold amid an uncertain outlook for Britain, on how Brexit will pan out,” said IG market strategist Bernard Aw.

“Naturally, there are concerns about whether Britain will be able to sustain its economic growth and negotiate trade and investment deals… Investors will offload their risky assets until more clarity emerges from policymakers.”

Such a “risk-off” mindset should persist for some time, analysts noted. Along with the added uncertainty from British Prime Minister David Cameron’s resignation, the Brexit contagion could spread to European Union (EU) nations such as France and Spain, both with strong nationalistic movements, said KGI Fraser Securities trading strategist Nicholas Teo.

“The fact that markets have moved so much (on Friday) highlights that nobody expected this.”

For Singapore companies in Britain, the most telling impact so far has been seen in the free-falling pound, which sank to its lowest level in over 30 years on Friday.

A weaker pound translates into lower revenue and earnings in Singapore dollar terms.

Britain and Ireland account for 25 per cent of ComfortDelGro’s revenue and 20 per cent of its profits, Maybank Kim Eng analyst Derrick Heng noted. CDL has 11 per cent of its assets in Britain and derives 12 per cent of revenue from there. A spokesman for CDL said it manages its foreign exchange exposure by a policy of matching receipts and payments, and asset purchases and borrowings in each country, which creates a natural hedge.

Other companies were also sanguine about the situation, with British membership in the EU expected to take two years to unravel.

A Sembcorp spokesman said it does not expect any significant impact on its British income, as its business there is mainly providing essential utilities on an industrial site. Property firms Rowsley and Heeton Holdings said their businesses would be largely unaffected.

“Britain still has its place in the world,” said Heeton Holdings chief executive Eric Teng.

Ronald Tay, chief executive of Ascott Residence Trust’s manager, noted that while corporate travel could be affected, there could be an increase in leisure travellers if the pound remains affordable.

In the statement released yesterday, the embassy said that while the process to depart the EU would be carried out by the new government, the UK’s place in the world remains the same: the UK would continue to be a member of the G20, a G7 nation, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a member of NATO. The UK would continue to be a top 10 world economy, outward-orientated, innovative and committed to a rules-based international system, it said.

“Most importantly, we will continue to be a close friend to Burma as it strengthens democracy, civilian government and an open economy. We are one of its greatest development partners, and our businesses and institutions are building significant ties. Burma continues to hold a special place in the hearts of British people.”

Affinion Group, a global loyalty and consumer solutions provider, said its domestic contact center and shared services hub, which had about 200 workers, had started operations in April.

“Our global management team has worked for different business process outsourcing companies with operations in the Philippines and they love the experience,” Nono Felipe, Affinion’s country manager, said in a statement.

“They like the specific skill set of Filipinos in relation to the contact center and shared services industry. It’s also because of lower operating cost,” he added.

Affinion Group’s services include loyalty programmes that help reward, motivate and retain consumers. It also has engagement programmes to help consumers save money, bundle valuable discounts, protection and other benefits. Likewise, it has insurance programmes to protect against accident, injury, illness and death.

Affinion has about 3,700 workers globally across 20 countries. Its customer base exceeds more than 250 million people.

In a statement posted on its website, the company said it would focus on building new partnerships and expanding its core business in 2016.

Sophallet said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Laos PDR counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith made the agreement on Monday morning during talks held at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh. This is the Lao PM’s first visit Cambodia after being elected premier.

The discussion, however, did not specify the location of the border gate. On the other hand, they are also set to open consulate offices in their respective countries soon.

Sophallet said both leaders expressed optimism that the new border gate and the consulate offices will boost trade ties.

Laos is expected to open its consulate in Stung Treng in northeast Cambodia on June 30, while Cambodia will launch its consulate in Champasak province, southwestern Laos, on July 1.

At present, there are nine Cambodian firms that invested about US$80 million in Laos.

Last year, bilateral trade between the two countries reached $20 million, while Cambodia attracted an estimated 460,000 visitors from Laos.

“Based on patterns we’ve seen in other countries, there is a good amount of room for growth,” said PwC senior executive director Scott Constance.

Online shopping in Malaysia is poised for significant growth, given its rising popularity and relatively new adoption rate among local customers.

According to PwC’s “Total Retail Survey 2016” report, higher proportions of Thai and Singaporean consumers are new to online buying than the global average.

“More than 80 per cent of China respondents have been buying online for more than three years,” it said.

The report, which surveyed 500 consumers per country, revealed that about half of Malaysian respondents buy online at least monthly and only 7 per cent have never shopped online.

Southeast Asian shoppers lead the world in mobile and social adoption.

Nearly three-quarters of Malaysian respondents use social media to access promotional offerings while shopping.

Consumers in Southeast Asia demonstrate a strong desire to use social media in forming associations with their preferred brands.

Although a sizeable percentage of consumers in Southeast Asia report buying on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, it was still smaller than the global figure.

About 60 per cent of global consumers reported buying online monthly or more frequently.

Singapore matches this proportion, followed closely by Thailand at 58 per cent and Malaysia at 48 per cent.

Southeast Asian consumers are among the world’s fastest and strongest adopters of mobile and social media usage in support of their online and in-store purchasing activities.

“Whatever the mobile or social media purchase usage, whether it is using a mobile phone to check product reviews or prices, or accessing coupons, or making purchases outright, it’s likely that consumers in Southeast Asia are doing it more frequently than just about anyone else in the world.

Two-thirds of consumers surveyed in Malaysia and Singapore, and nearly three-quarters in Thailand, report using their phones directly to make purchases.

Rates of mobile phone purchasing usage in all three Southeast Asian countries surveyed exceed the global average of 54 per cent.

“The Duterte administration will definitely pursue joining the AIIB, as at the forefront of the incoming administration’s socioeconomic agenda is to increase infrastructure spending in the country to 5 per cent of gross domestic product,” Dominguez, through incoming Department of Finance (DOF) spokesperson Paola Alvarez, said.

“With [heavy vehicular] traffic and the lack of basic infrastructure projects being hindrances to Philippine economic prosperity, the membership of the Philippines to the AIIB, an infrastructure-lending bank, is surely something that the people will benefit from,” Dominguez said.

“Together with India, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma [Myanmar], Mongolia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Korea, Cambodia as well as Brazil, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany and Spain already being founding members of the AIIB, the Duterte administration sees no reason why Congress would not ratify the Philippines’ membership to the AIIB,” he said. On December 31 last year – only a day before the deadline – the Philippines announced that it will become a founding member of the AIIB, which aims to finance developing countries’ infrastructure needs.

The Philippines’ membership, however, remained pending as it was impossible to secure Senate ratification in the remaining days of the 16th Congress ahead of the elections last May.

The country still has until yearend to secure Senate approval in order to become a founding member.

“Rest assured, the DOF will do its part to work closely with the bicameral committees involved in studying the benefits the Philippines will acquire by signing as a member to the AIIB,” according to Dominguez.

Over the weekend, the AIIB convened in Beijing the annual meeting of its board of directors, which last week approved their first four loans amounting to US$509 million (Bt18 billion) to finance projects in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

National Treasurer Roberto Tan was scheduled to attend the meeting, but only as an observer pending the Philippines’ membership. To become a AIIB member, the Philippines must shell out $196 million, payable in five years or $39 million per year, as indicative paid-in capital.

Members must pay the initial tranche of their contributions before this year ends.

There is only one international hospital operating in the Komodo National Park area – Siloam Hospital run by Indonesia’s Lippo Group.

Construction on the hospital began last December.

More world-class hospitals are needed, especially to provide healthcare services for foreign tourists.

“There are two main potential dangers [that could require hospital treatment].

“First, DCS [decompression sickness] that commonly occurs in diving and, second, injuries from potential Komodo dragon attacks,” Coordinating Maritime Ministry expert staff member Bambang Susanto said in Jakarta on Thursday.

DCS must be treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a decompression chamber, also known as a diving chamber.

The ministry has asked Lippo Group to install a chamber at Siloam Hospital, Bambang said.

“As for anticipating Komodo dragon attacks, the hospital needs to ensure the availability of the vaccine. Currently, it is only available in Denpasar, Bali,” he said.

The government was speeding up the establishment of a special authority to handle the SEZ, aiming to see it running by the end of the year, he added.

But the government has announced that stronger enforcement of the Prime Ministerial Order No 15 must be carried out without compromise to further clamp down on illegal logging in Laos.

They also agreed to put in place stronger measures to ensure the revenue-collection target for the rest of this year is met while giving priority to paying officials’ salaries.

These were among the outcomes of a two-day meeting held between the Cabinet, Vientiane’s mayor and provincial governors which wrapped up in Vientiane on Friday.

The Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office and government spokesman, Dr Chaleun Yiapaoher, highlighted the outcomes of the Cabinet-provincial governors meeting which outlined targets to be accomplished for the rest of this year. He said the meeting agreed that all types of unfinished or unprocessed timbers were banned from export, no matter where the logs originated from and regardless if they were from tree plantations.

He said the government was aware the PM’s order was directly impacting on the business sector particularly those timber exporting companies.

However, the government called for all entrepreneurs to put the national interest above their own.

“Hopefully the business sector will show their patriotism and love for their nation by conserving the country’s forests which serve as a fundamental factor for economic development and livelihood improvement of local people,” Chaleun said.

The government spokesman said those violating the PM’s Order or Forestry Law including government officials would be penalised.

The government also called on local villagers to report any cases of illegal logging so authorities could address the issues promptly.

Ride-hailing app Grab said last week that Chinese visitors can pay for taxi and private-hire car rides booked via Grab using Alipay accounts, under a partnership with the Chinese online payment provider.

At Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), Alipay payment terminals are available at more than 110 locations. More services will become progressively Alipay-enabled across the resort’s hotel, dining, retail and entertainment arms, RWS said.

It added: “With large numbers of tourists from China visiting RWS every year, it is important… to reinvent visitor experiences.”

While mobile payment has yet to catch on in Singapore, it has grown dramatically in China, where consumers use their phones to pay for anything from restaurant meals and cinema tickets to taxi fares.

Mobile payment penetration in China went from zero in 2011 to 25 per cent of the population last year, according to consultancy McKinsey & Co. An estimated US$1 trillion worth of mobile transactions were done in China last year, dominated by Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent.

Firms here are hoping to ride on the China mobile payment boom.

Four-month-old local firm SwiftPay and its parent company E-Richpay Technology International invested US$1.8 million in a payment terminal that accepts four types of platforms – WeChat Pay, Alipay and Baidu, and UnionPay cards.

SwiftPay has rented out the terminals to 22 businesses here, including tour agencies, restaurants and hotels. It charges merchants a fee of 1.88 per cent per transaction. There are no rental or set-up fees.

During payment, the terminal generates a receipt bearing a QR code. To pay via WeChat Pay, Alipay or Baidu, customers open the relevant phone app, scan the code and key in the passcode to their account – a process that takes roughly 30 seconds.

“The government has been talking about the country being an IT hub and moving into future technologies. So e-payment is something we thought we should bring into Singapore,” said SwiftPay director Ian Teo, 32, who founded the firm with his friend Edison Huang, also 32.

Jinshan Hotel in Chinatown, where 10 to 15 per cent of guests are from China, started renting the terminal a month ago. Said hotel manager Amelia Wahjoto, 32: “It’s better to offer more payment options.”