The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange plummeted 3.2 per cent to end at 82.60 points, losing all gains of the previous three trading weeks.

Investor confidence turned low as latest voting results showed that Britain could leave the EU. Results coming from all 382 voting areas revealed that 51.9 per cent of voters had decided Britain should not remain an EU member.

The British sterling fell some 9 per cent against the US dollar, hitting its lowest since 1985.

At the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), the British sterling is currently trading at 30,648 dong per sterling, an eight-per-cent drop from Thursday’s value.

All sectors on the national stock market declined, led by insurance companies, banks, energy firms and brokerage corporations.

Among the listed companies, insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) declined by 6.6 per cent, Vietcombank (VCB) lost 4.2 per cent and Vietinbank (CTG) dipped 3.5 per cent.

Lower investor confidence |resulted in higher market liquidity. |Both local markets saw more than 196 million shares being traded worth 3.25 trillion dong ($144.4 million).

Bounsom Thatsavong, deputy director of the province’s Department of Planning and Investment, said tourism was the main income generator for Luang Prabang so his agency was paying greater attention to the development of this sector.

“We want more investment for the development of the tourism industry including hotels, restaurants and tourism-related activities and services to entice more visitors to Laos,” Bounsom told Vientiane Times.

For instance, the City of Luang Prabang would provide a corporate tax waiver for the first two years of operations, whereas seven less developed districts would grant exemptions for four years and the four most remote districts would grant six years.

However, businesses related to food, hotels and tourism services were still limited in the remote areas, according to The Nation’s report.

Speaking at a seminar on business opportunities in Luang Prabang last Saturday, Siriphone said the province was working to improve rules and regulations for investment promotion to create favourable conditions for people to do businesses in the province.

Bounsom said between 20 and 30 investment projects related to tourism-related facilities were being carried out by foreigners, amounting to more than US$50 million (Bt1.76 billion).

In addition, local entrepreneurs operated businesses in the service sector, particularly guest houses, restaurants, transport services, travel agencies and retail.

“We also encourage local people, including businesspeople, to invest in the agriculture sector in order to supply the tourism industry,” he said.

Luang Prabang is a mountainous province in Laos that mainly relies on tourism for its socio-economic development.

The town has become increasingly popular since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation inscribed it on the list of World Heritage Sites in 1995. The number of tourist arrivals in the province reached 500,000 people in 2015 and it is expected that figure will increase to about 600,000 this year.

Another significant feature to note is that more direct flights are now operating between Luang Prabang and other cities in the region.

Thai AirAsia launched flights to Luang Prabang from Bangkok in March, the first low-cost airline to break a virtual ban on budget carriers flying to the town.

Singapore’s SilkAir will launch three weekly flights to Vientiane and Luang Prabang from October 31.

“Medium term, we will look at developments, particularly how the rest of the EU will react to Brexit,” Tetangco added.

According to Tetangco, the BSP “is ready to provide liquidity to our market as needed.”

Still, monetary authorities “don’t see any need to change stance of monetary policy at the moment,” Tetangco said.

On Thursday, the Monetary Board kept key interest rates steady as the inflation environment “continues to be manageable,” although it brought down its inflation forecast for 2016 to 2 per cent from 2.1 per cent previously on a slower wage hike implemented in midyear.

Middle of the pack

With regard the peso, Tetangco noted that “while regional currencies are down, the peso remained in the middle of the pack.”

At the Philippine Dealing System, the peso hit an intraday high of 46.94:$1 or near the weaker 47:1:$1 level during the morning trade.

“As expected, the US dollar and Japanese yen benefited as safe haven currencies,” Tetangco said.

After operational, scheduled for late 2016, the network is expected to significantly enable the group to establish sound international connection infrastructure, meet domestic increasing demands for broadband internet and connect the African nations where Viettel has invested in, like Tanzania and Burundi, with Europe.

The system plays an important role in ensuring the safety of the group’s international connection as well as national information security, and maintaining undisrupted connection between Vietnam and the world.

Sometimes foreign investors would raise doubts about the viability of the Philippines as a market and an investment destination.

But the economic and governance reforms implemented by the outgoing administration changed the perception of the global investing community about the Philippines, which has now become one of the most viable, attractive destinations in the Asean region.

Former trade secretary Gregory Domingo said earlier that good governance placed the Philippines on the economic map.

Over the last five years, strides made in good governance increased the country’s investment grade level by two notches, as reported by credit rating agencies Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s.

This put the Philippines in a sweet spot that increased investments and boosted the country’s economic performance to record levels – growth investors are hoping to be sustained over the long term.

These days, foreign investors are approaching trade officials, seeking to be part of the country’s economic success story – instead of the other way around back in 2010.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was believed to have played a key role in enabling the country to achieve its stellar status today.

Ease of doing business

The trade department eased and speeded up processing and cut the costs of doing business in the Philippines through various projects, such as the Electronic Business Name Registration System launched in October 2010.

Others were the Philippine Business Registry, electronic payment scheme for business registration and collaborations and partnerships between the DTI and other government agencies to streamline processes, curb red tape and eliminate redundant filings.

“Streamlining the processes has always been a top priority of the government.

“We have been making significant progress in our commitment to reduce the process – from 16 steps and 29 days in 2015 to six steps and eight days early in 2016, and further to three steps and three days,” incumbent Trade Secretary Adrian Cristobal Jr said last month.

“We are committed to support the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to make them globally competitive.

“An important first step is to make it easy for them to set up and comply with government requirements,” he also said.

These developments were reflected in the country’s rise in rankings in various global competitiveness indices, as monitored by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC).

The Philippines has jumped 45 notches in the International Finance Corp’s Doing Business Report and The Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index since 2011; 39 places up in the Corruption Perception Index; and 38 places in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report.

Among the key areas where the country has seen “upgrades” involved resolving insurgency (up 100 notches), dealing with construction permits (up 57), getting electricity (up 35) and getting credit (up 19).

Also some initiatives of DTI and the NCC were to repeal, delist, consolidate or amend department issuances and regulations considered outdated, redundant or contradictory to help eliminate red tape and curb corruption.

Called Project Repeal, the initiative is eventually expected to reduce the cost of compliance for both businesses and consumers, generate significant savings for the economy and further boost the competitiveness of local industries.

The NCC has already identified 17,300 department issuances by eight government agencies.

George Barcelon, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said earlier they hope the next president would address the issues the group identified and which it dubbed as Giant Steps – an acronym for good governance, infrastructure, agriculture, new era of manufacturing, tourism – Giant – and science, technology, education and people skills – Steps.

While the group eyes to open eight more located in Jakarta, Tangerang, Surabaya and Bali within two years, Hilton’s vice president for Southeast Asia and India, William Costley, said on Wednesday.

The steady growth of Southeast Asia’s largest economy and the Asean open skies policy would boost business travel and the whole hospitality industry in many other cities across the vast archipelago.

Hilton Worldwide, which manages 4,600 properties in 103 countries, has a portfolio of 13 world-class brands, including Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, Hilton, Double Tree by Hilton and Hotel Garden Inn, which are promoted as landmark properties in Indonesia.

Waldorf Astoria, Hilton’s top luxury brand, which will be housed in a 74-storey mixed-use building, is under construction on Jalan MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta.

Scheduled to be completed in 2018, the hotel offers 181 exquisite rooms to provide the highest level of luxury hospitality in the capital.

Two other properties under construction in Ubud and Seminyak, Bali, will operate under the Waldorf Astoria brand, while Hilton Bali (formerly Grand Nikko) will operate later this year with 408 rooms, he added.

The other four hotels in the Hilton management portfolio slated to open within two years are Double Tree by Hilton in Surabaya and Karawaci, Tangerang and Hilton Garden Inn in Kemang, South Jakarta, and Karawaci.

The Hilton group is strongly committed to strengthening and expanding its growing portfolio of landmark properties in such key destinations as Indonesia.

“Our Hilton Honours loyalty programme has 55 million members around the world, and this huge databank is surely an effective means of promoting Indonesia globally,” he added.

The results were unexpected to say the least, said Randstad Malaysia director Ryan Carroll.

Malaysian millenials are apparently more likely to choose an unflexible, desk-bound job compared with millenials in Singapore and Hong Kong.

“The emergence of work-life balance as a top priority for millennials around the world is well known. Despite this, millennials in Malaysia have voiced out that this is not as important to them.

“The preference for a more traditional workplace could stem from the weak Malaysian economic outlook that has millennials more concerned about securing and retaining a job rather than worrying about benefits such as flexible work schedules,” said Caroll.

The research from the Randstad Award report surveyed over 200,000 respondents of different age groups and education levels worldwide.

The report found that 45 per cent of Malaysian millenials preferred to stick to standard work hours.

This was even higher than employees in the 25-44 and 45-65 age groups, of which 40 per cent and 39 per cent stated a preference for standard work hours respectively.

Telecommuting was not a top priority for Malaysian millennials either. Nearly a third of all employees in this age group said they would prefer to work in the office every workday in lieu of telecommuting occasionally.

This was similar to employees aged 25 to 44, of which 28 per cent stated a preference for working in the office, as did 30 per cent of employees aged 45 to 65.

Only 29 per cent of Singaporean millenials and 28 per cent of Hong Kong millenials said they would prefer to be desk-bound.

The Pew Research Centre defines millenials as people born after 1980. They are considered the first generation to reach adulthood in the new millennium.

“We have forecast for 2020 the number of tourists reaching 7 million, generating revenue of about US$5 billion (Bt176 billion), with one-million jobs created,” he said.

Last year, Cambodia attracted 4.8 million foreign visitors and generated some $3 billion with 620,000 jobs estimated to have been created.

Heng Koon How, Asia-Pacific senior foreign exchange investment strategist at Credit Suisse Asia Pacific, said: “This move by the MAS to include yuan assets as part of Singapore’s financial reserves is widely expected. From Singapore’s point of view, including yuan assets is a prudent diversification of reserves.

“After all, this reflects the significance of China as Singapore’s largest trade partner. In addition, this is also indicative of the growing significance in terms of financial ties, given that Singapore is now a large offshore yuan clearing and settlement centre.”

This comes after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced in November last year that the yuan met the criterion of a freely usable currency, and would be included in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket from October 1. This means the yuan joins the US dollar, the British pound, the euro and the Japanese yen in an elite club.

The SDR’s influence in global finance is far-reaching, and helps governments in protecting their financial reserves against global currency fluctuations.

Tan said: “Since the IMF has already said the yuan will be included in the SDR, it’s great we are recognising the fact that China is the up-and-coming nation, and us being one of the official yuan centres among many is also sending a signal that we want to improve the relationship with China.”

Heng said it is likely that, at the onset, the MAS will allocate more to the Chinese onshore fixed-income market, particularly the sovereign benchmarks.

“In recent months, the Chinese authorities have indeed simplified the investment process for foreign central banks and financial institutions to invest in the onshore mainland fixed-income market.”

MAS deputy managing director Jacqueline Loh said China’s calibrated financial liberalisation in the past year has encouraged growing international acceptance of the yuan. “An example is the set of initiatives between China and Singapore announced in November last year to further expand channels for cross-border yuan flows and support the greater use of the yuan outside China. The inclusion of yuan assets in MAS’ official foreign reserves is timely,” she noted.

HSBC Singapore’s chief executive officer Guy Harvey-Samuel said: “The move is also in line with the trend of commercial cooperation between China and Singapore. We can expect the improved yuan liquidity and stability to benefit Singapore businesses in the long term and boost Singapore’s standing as a renminbi centre in the region.”

He added that the bank’s research has shown that 32 central banks now invest in the yuan, compared to three in 2012.

The regional research head, Asean, at Standard Chartered Bank, Edward Lee, said that “as China continues on its measured capital account liberalisation, usage of yuan will only increase… We forecast that by 2020, China will be settling about 50 per cent of its trade in yuan.”