There were 22 Vietnamese enterprises in the Top 100 of 2015 while the number was 17 for 2014. Some of the most outstanding were Novaland, Hoa Binh Corp and Bao Viet Insurance.

Several Vietnamese firms took big leaps in ranking, including Masan from 31st to 13th, Vingroup from 79th to 41st, Viettel from 14th to 8th, and FPT from 28th to 21st. By industry, the Vietnam Best Places To Work 2015 honoured Prudential Vietnam for Insurance, Nike Vietnam for Apparel/Footwear, Abbott for Pharmaceutical/Biotech/Healthcare, Bosch Vietnam for Engineering/Mechanicals, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam for Automobiles/Components.

Meanwhile, Vietcombank topped employers in Banking/Financial Services, Microsoft in Software, Unilever in Fast-moving consumer goods, Samsung in Electronics/Electric Equipment.

The survey named the Most Attractive Employer Brands by key drivers such as Total Rewards, won by Vinamilk. Nestle had the best performance in Culture and Value.

Unilever won prizes in Leadership and Growth Opportunity; and Intel in Work, Life Quality and Company Reputation.The survey showed that good benefits were one of the most important factors which connect internal employees and attract external talents.

“That is why FMCG and Pharmaceutical/Biotech/Healthcare companies providing the most type of rewards and benefits gained the highest company numbers in Top 100 and had the strongest leaps,” said a press release from Anphabe.

Professional expectations

Expectations of Vietnamese professionals towards employers were spread through six groups – total rewards, leadership, company reputation, culture & value, work and life quality, and growth opportunity.

According to Thanh Nguyen, CEO of Anphabe, although Total Rewards remained the most important, it was becoming less and less demanding over the last three years.

“Good Benefits reached the top desired driver when choosing an employer, while Competitive Base Salary has fallen gradually, landing seventh on the list of this year,” she added.

The job-quitting rate this year is expected to be nine per cent. Males tend to have a higher job quitting rate than their female counterparts, while managers show a higher retention rate than non-management personnel.

Three industries that had the highest job quitting rate were Manufacturing/Chemicals, FMCG, Service/Consulting/Legal. The three areas of Purchasing/Planning, Production and Marketing also had a high job quitting rate.

The survey was jointly conducted online by Anphabe.com, a career network of management professionals in Vietnam, and the global market research firm Nielsen from September to December 2015.

This year the survey was successful by attracting huge participants of 22,688 experienced employees and hundreds of leading enterprises from 24 industries nationwide, Nguyen Thi Thùy Linh, head of Market research Department, Nielsen Vietnam, said.

“The reduction would also follow the reasonable protection level under international commitments when Vietnam joins the trade pacts,” Tuan said.

Previously, the Bình San Refining and Petrochemical Co (BSR), which operates and manages Dung Quat, was seeking approval to lower tax rates because of a lack of competitiveness against imported fuels as well as untie its difficulties.

The diesel and mazut import taxes from ASEAN countries were cut from 20 per cent to 10 per cent since the beginning of this year in accordance with the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA). However, products from Dung Quat are still subject to an import tax of 20 per cent, forcing a number of local businesses that bought petroleum from Dung Quat to choose other imported sources.

The deputy minister told the media last week that the consumption of the refinery has faced with difficulties due to the plunging price in the world oil market.

In addition, under the Free Trade Agreement (FTAs) with South Korea, which was signed in May 2015, Vietnam reduced the import tariff on gasoline from South Korea to 10 per cent, from 20 per cent, effective December 20, 2015.

He said that there was a big difference between the normal imported taxes and preferential taxes under FTAs.

The preferential policies for the Dung Quat Oil Refinery including corporate income tax and investment are under the government’s regulations.

This is the reason that there are no special favours for the refinery, but it is equal to other projects, he said.

The ministry would submit to the Government to review suitable financial mechanism in the market mechanism and ensuring equality between domestic and foreign businesses.

Specifically, the ministry would remove the cash subsidy mechanism for BSR if the imported tax is lower than 7 per cent.

Currently, under the finance ministry’s instructions, the calculation for import duty of petroleum products is under most-favoured nation (MFN) status.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade yesterday sent a press release saying that it has co-operated with the finance ministry to have financial solutions to resolve the imported tax reduction under FTA road map following international integration commitments to ensure benefits of the government, businesses, petroleum production and consumers.

However, the ministry has not provided a road map to narrow down the difference of imported taxes between FTAs and MFN in the calculation of the basic price of petroleum.

The agency reported that the building, located in Norodom Boulevard, the main commercial street in Phnom Penh, will house the entire operations of Maybank (Cambodia) Plc as well as the main branch.

Chairman Tan Sri Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor was quoted as saying that the new corporate office was also part of Maybank’s strategy in expanding its regional footprint to become a leading banking group in Asia.

“We believe that our efforts in evolving the nation’s financial industry and economy are in line with theAsean Economic Community’s (AEC) initiative to promote competitiveness and economic development,” he said in a statement.

Maybank in Cambodia was established in December 1993 with the opening of its first branch in Phnom Penh.

It was locally incorporated in Cambodia in 2012 as part of its commitment to strengthen its presence in the country.

Mitsui & Co Ltd entered into an agreement with Behn Meyer to form a joint-venture company, BMM Venture, registered in Singapore. Mitsui will hold a 49-per-cent equity stake.

BMM Venture will then establish Agri First Co Ltd, in collaboration with MAPCO, to manufacture and distribute fertilisers in Myanmar. BMM Venture will hold 60 per cent in Agri First while MAPCO would hold the rest.

The factory’s annual capacity is 100,000 tonnes. It aims to commence production in May 2017. Myanmar’s fertiliser demand is just over one million tonnes a year.

Agri First hopes to combine Behn Meyer’s expertise and experience in fertiliser manufacturing, MAPCO’s distribution network and Mitsui’s financing, logistics, procurement and marketing capabilities.

Under a 20-year foreign-investment promotion plan, US$6 billion (Bt210 billion) is projected to enter Myanmar in the financial year that will end this month, according to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration.

Aung Naing Oo, secretary of the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC), said recently that more investment was expected to enter the country under the new National League for Democracy government.

He said the economy had excellent potential.

“The incoming government is politically strong as it is elected by the people in accordance with their desires. There is great potential for domestic and foreign businesses in the country,” he said.

In this fiscal year, most foreign investment went into the oil and natural-gas sector with 39 per cent, with telecommunications coming second with 30 per cent.

The industrial sector received 16 per cent of total foreign investment.

Throughout the period of the Thein Sein administration, the oil and gas sector received $5.8 billion and the industrial sector $4.7 billion, according to the MIC. The telecommunications sector received $3.7 billion.

“Everyone expects the incoming civilian government to be more transparent. And everyone welcomes this change. If there are excellent working conditions for companies, everyone will work harder,” said country manager Min Tala Nyan of Ball, a US company based in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone.

Sources told StarBiz that Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd, better known as Mobilink, has submitted a proposal to sell and lease back its signal towers to edotco Group Sdn Bhd, Axiata’s tower services arm.

An announcement on the deal that potentially could involve up to 9,000 towers is expected to be made later next month.

edotco operates 12,000 km of fibre optic network in Pakistan and analysts consider the company as one of two to be in the running for a signal-tower deal, the other being Towershare, a Dubai-based tower operator. According to reports, Mo billionink, which recently merged with Warid Telecom (Pte) Ltd, has a customer base of 45 millionlion.

The latest tower deal involved Warid, which sold 4,500 towers to Towershare last April. Analysts see more telecommunication infrastructure deals following the rollout of 3G and 4G broadband services in Pakistan from April 2014. According to reports, Pakistan has an estimated 28,000 signal towers.

Axiata, through edotco, would be looking to not only buy over Mo billionink’s signal towers but also build more than 1,000 towers in the northern and southern regions of Pakistan over the next three years with an investment of more than RM400 million.

A source said negotiations were ongoing, with edotco likely to invest an initial RM20 million in the venture. The company was awarded a tower licence last year.

The source said the plan would be to buy Mobilink’s signal towers and then have the company lease these towers from edotco for a period of 10 to 15 years. The source said edotco would benefit from this deal, with the return on investments to be within a six-year period.

When contacted, Axiata said the company has had operations in Pakistan since 2005, managing the fibre-optic network. The company said edotco “is in the process of establishing a subsidiary in Pakistan”.

“All relevant announcements on this matter are publicly available,” it said and that no further announcements would be made with regard to the matter.

RHB Research Institute analyst Jeffrey Tan views the potential deal positively as there would be stable income from the leaseback. “Having already invested in Pakistan, edotco would be more tolerable to local dynamics in terms of regulatory settings,” he said, adding that in the past, edotco had faced challenges in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

“The company would be more fa millioniar with the region now,” Tan pointed out.

Another analyst said the company’s familiarity with Pakistan and its regulations would ensure that its interests would be protected, in a region that has known political insta billionity in recent years.

Malaysian High Commissioner to Pakistan Datuk Dr Hasrul Sani Mujatabar said in an interview that the potential deal reflected renewed confidence of Malaysian investors in the country, which had been racked by a series of terrorist attacks in the past.

“Things have changed for the better today and Malaysian companies should seize every opportunity to invest here again,” he said.

Axiata bought a 75 per cent stake in Digicel Myanmar Tower Co Ltd for US$221 million last October from Digicel Group Ltd as part of the strategy to become a major telecommunications infrastructure operator in South and South-East Asia. The company also recently drew down from its US$1.5 billion multicurrency sukuk, intending to use the proceeds for merger and acquisition activities and general corporate purposes.

Besides Axiata, other notable Malaysian companies that have invested in Pakistan include Tenaga Nasional Bhd for power plants and Bandar Raya Developments Bhd in property development.

In February, Axiata, which posted its highest ever revenue of nearly RM20 billion in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2015 secured its shareholders’ approval to acquire an 80 per cent stake in Nepal’s number one mo billione operator, Ncell Pte Ltd, for US$1.365 billion (RM5.67 billion).

Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) chairman Franky Sibarani said the Lille-based company, the name of which was not disclosed, had conveyed its interest through BKPM’s representative in London.

Franky added the French company would cooperate with local companies to build a sports research and development center, an integrated department store as well as an import-export system in Indonesia.

“Not only will the company market its products domestically, it will also export to other department stores overseas,” Franky said in an official statement on Friday.

France is seen by BKPM as one of the top prospects from where to source more investment. The latest plan would see a huge increase from that country, which last year contributed only Rp 123 billion to foreign investment.

Other EU countries — which are particularly interested in investing in minerals, infrastructure and manufacturing – also displayed growing interest this past year. According to BKPM data, investment commitments from Europe totaled Rp 37.3 trillion in 2015, up 16 percent from 2014’s Rp 32.2 trillion. The biggest commitment was from the UK with Rp 9.19 trillion — up 338 percent from 2014.

Based on this trend, Franky expressed hope for solid growth. “We will gradually increase investment from Europe in five years.”

He said his office would maintain communication with the investors to ensure the proposed projects would be realized.

“Our representative in London and marketing officers all over Europe will directly communicate all the facilities [the investors] would get when investing in Indonesia,” Franky said.

Meanwhile, BKPM’s investment promotion representative in London, Nurul Ichwan, said the French investor was a big name in sports, with 1,030 department stores worldwide. “It expects to operate its first department stores in Malaysia and Indonesia this year,” he said.

In October 2015, the BKPM launched a three-hour licensing service for certain investors planning to open businesses in a bid to attract large-scale investment. The service, which is part of the government’s second economic policy package, will allow prospective investors with a minimum investment of Rp 100 billion (US$7.33 million) and/or a plan to employ more than 1,000 workers to have their preliminary permits processed at the BKPM’s one-stop integrated service (PTSP) within three hours.

Recently, the BKPM has set itself a target to attract more investors from Europe, primarily from major countries like the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain and Switzerland.

Ayala group head of strategy and development Paolo Borromeo said it was possible that Ayala could finally establish a footprint in Indonesia this year.

“There’s a lot of relationships historically that we’ve had there, so we’ll look at it for water, power (and) for real estate where we believe we can add value,” Borromeo said, adding that the group had an existing business development team in Indonesia and also in Myanmar.

Elsewhere in the region, the group has existing offshore investments in Vietnam (water) and Malaysia (real estate).

In 2013, Ayala-led Manila Water Co. (MWC) planned to buy out the 51-percent stake held by French-controlled Suez Environment in PAM Lyonnase Jaya (Palyja), one of the two water utility operators in Jakarta, but the plan was foiled as the local government decided not to cede its stake to a foreign investor.

In Vietnam, MWC was contracted in the mid-2000s to plug pipeline leakages and has since found opportunity to invest in a couple of water treatment plants and water distribution. MWC has now invested $100 million in Vietnam, making it the biggest foreign direct investor in that country’s water space.

MWC likewise has a joint project with Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan and the Yangon City Development Council on a nonrevenue reduction program in Myanmar.

Property arm Ayala Land Inc., on the other hand, entered into a partnership with Myanmar’s City Mart Holdings, the leading local retailer there, to gain access to this new frontier market.

“Right now, it’s on hold because government approvals are hard to get,” Borromeo said, also pointing out to political changes in Myanmar.

During last year’s parliamentary elections, democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi‘s party won by a landslide in Myanmar, a country transitioning from over 50 years of military rule. But as the parliament now begins it presidential selection, Suu Kyi has been constitutionally barred from the presidency because she married a British citizen and her sons are British.

The search for investments in Indonesia is opportunistic, Borromeo said. “We want to diversify our portfolio,” he pointed out, adding that the group would enter this new market with a local partner.

Restrictions in finance and governance force domestic banks to look for support from foreign partners to help them grow rapidly in the context of rising competition from the country’s integration into the world market.

The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), for example, early last year planned to find foreign strategic partners, selling a 15 per cent stake to a foreign strategic partner and 10 per cent to a foreign financial investor. However, it failed in its search.

Another example is Military Bank. After failing to find suitable foreign strategic partners for a long time, the bank recently had to change its plans, and decided to increase stakes for foreign investors from 10 per cent to 20 per cent through an additional share issue.

The same trend was seen with VP Bank after its strategic partner – the Singapore-based Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC) – withdrew its capital from late 2013. Finding no foreign strategic partners, VP Bank had to ask its shareholders in October 2015 to approve a plan to issue a number of shares, equal to 20 per cent of the bank’s capital, to overseas investors in order to raise capital to serve the bank’s core businesses.

Under the current regulations, cap on foreign holdings in a Vietnamese bank is set at 30 per cent. According to experts, the rule makes investment into domestic banks less attractive as foreign investors with low stakes have no say in the decision making process in such banks.

Besides, experts said, foreign investors are also mulling other options such as setting up independent operations rather than teaming up with local institutions such as in the case of ANZ. After divesting from Sacombank, ANZ scaled up its presence as a wholly foreign-owned bank in Viet Nam.

However, to attract foreign strategic partners, experts also recommended to domestic banks that they improve their transparency.

Deputy Director of the Central Institution for Economic Management Võ Trí Thành said that the transparency was a key factor in attracting foreign partners. Transparency must exist at all levels and banks must commit to it, both, in their reporting and operations, he said.

Wedding planners catering to Malay marriages told The Sunday Times that about 30 per cent of their clients are now having their weddings at community clubs, country clubs or function halls.

It was less than 10 per cent five years ago.

Amani Weddings, which has been in business since 2004, said it handles about 15 Malay weddings a month. Of these 15, four are now held at private venues, instead of just one in 2011. Wedding & Romance, founded in 2005, said almost half of their Malay clients are hosting their wedding receptions at community clubs now.

The cost of renting a hall at a community club or country club is about S$3,000 (US$2,185), compared to S$100 for a Housing Board void deck, wedding planners estimated.

Farhana Mohd Yunos, 32, and Raizan Rosli, 33, held their wedding reception at Ulu Pandan Community Club on Jan 17. The couple said they were willing to spend more for an air-conditioned venue.

“We wanted somewhere that is comfortable for our guests as well,” said Farhana, who is a teacher.

Raizan, a golf operations manager, said: “We live in Clementi and the void deck at our area isn’t the most ideal. The space is limited, and there are obstructions like fixed tables and chairs.”

The couple, who had planned their wedding for more than a year, said many Malay couples now want more options for their wedding, including the choice of venue.

They said that from about three years ago, they started receiving invitations to wedding celebrations at venues such as HortPark or Changi Yacht Club.

The advantage of having weddings at void decks is that these can accommodate about 1,000 people.

But Nur’Adila, sales manager at Amani Weddings, said couples increasingly prefer private venues, and keep guests to close relatives and friends. “In the past, the idea was to invite as many as you can – even friends that you see only once or twice. But now, indoor venues are getting popular as they offer something private and exclusive.”

Wedding planners also pointed to rising affluence. Roslina Juri, 44, a wedding planner at Wedding & Romance, said: “We’ve noticed Malay couples delaying their marriage because of education and work. In the past, some of our clients were in their 20s. Now, it’s rare to find a groom who is 25 or younger.”

The figure will be larger than its total investment of $400 million in the country over the past 20 years.

The CJ Group will increase investment in agriculture through mergers and acquisitions and basic investment in the value chain this year.

Chang Bok Sang, the group’s chairman and general director, said on Thursday that the firm had bought four per cent of VISSAN’s shares.

Agriculture has been the group’s strength, with about half of its investment in Vietnam being in the sector. The CJ Group aims to invest heavily in Vietnam by 2020, its second largest investment after China.