This was followed in late 2014 with the opening of City of Dreams Manila. Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada is expected to open his Manila Bay Resorts in Entertainment City by the end of 2016 while Resorts World Bayshore is scheduled to open in 2018.

“It’s too many, too fast,” Razon, chair of Solaire operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp., told reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of the annual meeting of International Container Terminal Services Inc., which he also owns.

“The market is not growing as fast as the industry wants it to,” Razon said. “Supply is growing faster than the market.”

While the Philippines is facing oversupply, regional gaming hubs, meanwhile, are facing harder times. Casinos in Macau, the world’s biggest gambling market, are struggling with slowing earnings growth following an anti-graft campaign launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Amid new supply putting a strain on gaming prospects, Razon said the company was expecting to reverse its 3.37-billion pesos (US$72.4 million) loss in 2015. The firm erased the 4.07 billion pesos profit it posted the previous year.

He said Bloomberry remained keen on expanding its presence overseas. Bloomberry already owns the Jeju Sun Hotel and Casino in South Korea.

Razon said the company was also short-listed to bid for a casino in Cyprus this July and it earlier proposed to build an integrated casino in Argentina.

“The outlook is far better this year,” he said. “We have much lower costs. No more bad accounts, bad debt.”

He also cited growing revenues, after Bloomberry said total revenues in 2015 grew 7 per cent to 34.36 billion pesos. He added VIP volume “has [also] been growing.”

(US$1 = 46.58 pesos)

At the airport, Jokowi was welcomed by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli, State Secretary Pratikno, Presidential chief of staff Teten Masduki, Indonesian Military chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti and Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Purnama Tjahaja.

During a press conference, Jokowi cited two things gained from the working visit. First, he mentioned strengthening economic ties with the countries he visited.

“The total business-to-business deals I signed were worth US$20.5 billion,” Jokowi said in a statement on Saturday night.

He also highlighted commitments to focus on a particular sector in each country he visited. In Germany, he signed a commitment to training and vocational education to enhance Indonesian workers’ skills in a competitive market. To follow up on the commitment, a German delegation will visit Indonesia in May.

In the UK, cooperation will focus on the creative economy and creative industries, which will be followed up by the Creative Economy Agency ( Bekraf ).

While in Belgium, Indonesia, and the EU held a discussion on scoping papers for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement ( CEPA ), which had been halted for years. The scoping papers will form the basis of negotiations on the CEPA.

“We very much appreciate the acceleration of the scoping paper discussion and hope to continue the negotiations immediately,” he added.

In the Netherlands, cooperation will focus on enhancing maritime cooperation and water management. Jokowi said the Dutch prime minister would visit Indonesia in November with a business delegation.

Further, he said, the four countries appreciated Indonesia’s role in promoting peace through a moderate interpretation of Islam, democracy, and tolerance.

“Today, the Indonesian Islamic values of peace, democracy, moderation and tolerance are in the eyes of the world,” Jokowi said.

$606m deals with the Netherlands alone

Indonesia and the Netherlands signed business agreements worth US$606 million during his visit to the country.

The business agreements cover the construction of a solar panel plant in Surabaya, East Java; potato industry development, the Pancasila Palmerah Bridge and turbine power development in East Nusa Tenggara; and human resources capacity building in the maritime sector.

Speaking at a business forum in The Hague on Friday, Jokowi assured businesspeople that Indonesia’s economy had shown resilience and even surprising growth, reaching 5.04 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 despite global economic challenges.

Indonesia’s economic stability was being driven by widespread infrastructure development and investment as its two engines of economic growth, the President said.

As China’s economy experiences a period of transition, he continued, many companies would look to relocate their factories from China to Southeast Asia. “And of course Indonesia will also see advantages, especially as Indonesia is the largest economy in Southeast Asia,” he added.

The President invited Dutch businesspeople to invest in Indonesia, adding that his government was continuously implementing deregulations to shorten licensing and to ease doing business in the country.

“I don’t really know how often customers come, whether they come during the weekend or weekdays, or how much they spend,” Koh said. “Sometimes the ladies carry too many bags and they don’t know where their coffee cards are. Sometimes the paper cards go bad because of the rain.”

Inspired partially by the Starbucks Loyalty Programme, which enables Starbucks’ customers to scan their smartphones at the store to gain reward points, Koh and his 10-member team are looking at launching Peko Peko, a mobile platform that allows users to accumulate reward points at coffee shops. It would also allow coffee merchants to track such users and monitor the loyalty programmes the merchants run.

Koh believes Vietnam is among the most attractive emerging markets for start-ups in Southeast Asia because of the young population and the many still untapped needs in the market.

“Everyone knows Singapore is a place to start, but it’s not really a place to make money because the market is very small. The population size of Hanoi is like Singapore, and then you still have HCM City and Da Nang,” he said.

Koh was among hundreds of start-up founders attending the two-day Tech in Asia 2016 in Singapore last week, pitching their start-up ideas to potential investors who have the same vision to tap into Southeast Asia’s emerging markets.

On Tuesday, the news also broke about Alibaba’s expansion into Southeast Asia with the US$1 billion deal to acquire Lazada, which sells products in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. This further validates Southeast Asia’s attractiveness for start-ups and investors alike, with a 600-million mobile-driven consumer market.

Speaking at the conference, Facebook co-founder and Founding Partner of B Capital Group, Eduardo Saverin, noted Southeast Asia’s lack of infrastructure in many markets in the region as an opportunity to force entrepreneurs to innovate and think outside-the-box.

Besides, the region is a truly mobile-first environment where cheap mobile devices are making it much easier for people to access services and products, according to Saverin.

“Soon a young girl in rural Indonesia will have more information at her fingertips than I had when I started at Harvard,” Saverin said.

A report released last year by Ericsson suggested that almost two-thirds of mobile phone subscriptions in Southeast Asia and Oceania would be smartphones by 2020, reaching a staggering number of about 800 million people.

In Vietnam, the number of smartphone users is around 22 million, according to some reports, and predicted to reach 26 million in 2016.

The greater availability and affordability of smartphones has paved the way for strong download growth of mobile applications in the region, said Danielle Levitas, senior vice president for research and marcom at App Annie, a California-based business intelligence company and analyst firm.

App Annie considers Vietnam among the frontier markets for mobile application growth, with download growth of mobile applications having risen nearly 60 percent year-on-year in Vietnam (2014-15). Notably, mobile games are undoubtedly a big part of Vietnam’s culture, accounting for nearly half of downloads on both Google Play and iOS in 2015.

The mobile-first environment and densely populated cities in Southeast Asia also make services such as ridesharing or other services in the so-called “sharing economy” continue to thrive, Levitas emphasised.

For Facebook co-founder Saverin, who has continued stepping up his investments in Southeast Asian start-ups, Southeast Asia is also a less crowded market for investors, and governments across the region are rolling out initiatives to support entrepreneurship.

The Vietnamese government has also stepped up efforts to support start-ups and cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship in the country.

A new set of rules are being drafted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, aimed towards easing up procedures for local and foreign venture capital funds to operate in Vietnam.

The government is ambitious about turning the country into a start-up nation with 5,000 tech firms by 2020. Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam called for a renewal in thinking in terms of supporting start-up initiatives to catch up with the rest of the world.

Topica Founder Institute, which offers training courses for start-up founders in Vietnam, estimated that at least 67 tech start-ups in Vietnam received funding last year, with 48 percent of angle/seed deals coming from overseas investors.

Many start-ups in Singapore are also looking at Vietnam for users.

Rinita Vanjre, co-founder and CEO of BonAppetour, is among those. The Singapore-based start-up is about food sharing, connecting home cooks with travellers and foodies, for a unique local dining experience. A local host can post his or her offering on the site, prepare the meal, and then travellers can come to the host’s place to dine.

The concept of dining with strangers, Vanjre admitted, might be harder to take off in Vietnam due to language barriers and the fact that street foods are technically available for most of the day.

However, “there are already people who have expressed an interest in becoming a host on the site,” she said. “So we are very excited about that.”

SMEs are the backbone and driving force of the economy, however, they have faced tremendous challenges such as an opaque business environment, a shortage of high-quality labourers and a lack of capital for start-ups and business expansion, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong said at the ceremony.

Hoang Thi Hong, director of the fund, said that the fund would support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are in need of capital to implement their projects and production and business plans.

The purpose of the fund is to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises through supporting them in developing competitive and eco-friendly products; investing in technical equipment and advanced technology; developing a support industry and improving corporate governance.

SMEs, which are established and operating in line with the country’s regulations nationwide, are eligible to receive support from the fund. The fund gives commercial banks a mandate to loan to SMEs at a preferential interest rate of five per cent for short-term borrowing and seven per cent for medium and long-term credit.

At the ceremony, the fund also inked a co-operation agreement with mandated commercial banks in 2016.

Last year, there were only 36 per cent of Vietnamese enterprises participating in the production chain toward exports, he added.

“The rate is too low in comparison to the rate of around 60 per cent in Malaysia and Thailand,” Khuong said.

He said most of the local firms do not have adequate knowledge of the challenges they could encounter when meeting international organisations or as part of teams involved in free trade agreements with regions and big economies. Domestic businesses are not well prepared to compete with competitors in the region, especially in the labour market.

“In the international integration process, Vietnam should pay attention to three issues. These are clarifying on manufacturing and industrial sectors which have competitive advantages, clarifying on products and supply chains, and improving competitiveness of manufacturing and industry,” he added.

Sharing ideas, Tran Dinh Thien, director of Vietnam Institute of Economics said that after 30 years of Doi moi (Renewal), the proportion of industry and construction in the GDP rose 16 per cent.

However, Thien said that the processing and manufacturing sector, which has been the core of the industry and construction, increased by only 1.6 per cent.

“In the hi-tech era, the increase of processing and manufacturing in GDP was much lower than the world’s average level,” he added.

The director also said that State-owned groups and corporations have not targeted the use of technologies, but it was hard to compete with private firms in exploiting natural resources and minerals, if the environment was not conducive.

He said Vietnam should review its real advantages as natural resources and cheap labour cost could be no longer competitive tools. The advantages should be left on private firms to develop in association with foreign companies.

“We should associate with foreign firms and choose the right supply chain,” he said.

This comes four months after SEC’s former head Jose Raymond joined APP as its vice-president of corporate affairs in Singapore.

SEC declined to comment on the moves, and observers are adopting a wait-and-see attitude to see if environmental change can truly be effected from within.

While under Kavickumar, SEC’s eco-certifications unit suspended the use of its Green Label on APP products. This spurred supermarket chains to pull APP products, such as toilet rolls and facial tissue, from the shelves.

Brushing off criticism that he was a turncoat, Kavickumar said: “I am guided by my moral compass. I see the appointment as a new challenge and being one step closer to the problem to address the root cause of the haze.”

He also said: “Eventually, I want APP to be recognised by local and international green certification bodies for its efforts in combating haze.”

Professor Ang Peng Hwa, who leads volunteer group Haze Elimination Action Team, said that the two new hires could be a double-edged sword. “These are high-reward-high-risk hires for APP. Should either disagree and resign, it will be another reputational dent for the firm.”

Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan said that hiring Kavickumar, who used to be head of eco-certifications at SEC, could help APP regain the Green Label for their products as part of the urgent rebuilding of trust with consumers.

“But the chain of events will also raise concerns over the rigour and transparency of the SEC’s Singapore Green Label scheme and whether hiring former SEC staff is more a strategic than substantive move.”

According to the Government Office, the conference, themed “Vietnamese enterprises – the country’s economic development force”, aims to realise the Prime Minister’s message that the Government will create favourable conditions for start-up businesses and boost the development of enterprises in terms of both quantity and quality.

In the meeting, the Prime Minister will hear recommendations from businesses as well as discuss solutions to facilitate business operations and tackle difficulties and obstacles that enterprises face.

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) was assigned to prepare a report on the operation of enterprises and to co-operate with Hanoi and HCM City’s people’s committees to draft a commitment to create the most favourable, healthy and fair business environment for local enterprises.

The agreement between the VCCI and the two committees are required to be signed with the Prime Minister as witness in the meeting.

Chairing the first Government cabinet meeting as Prime Minister, Phuc highlighted the importance of tackling institutional obstacles that are holding back business development. He requested Government members to have action plans to solve problems, focusing on building and completing legal frameworks so as not to let the community weaken.

Im Changho, mayor of Hamyang, said through the meeting on April 20 that his county sought to promote its quality agricultural products and wild ginseng.

Hoang Van Anh of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry said trade with Korea has grown rapidly and it is now one of Vietnam’s largest trade partners.

Korea is also among the largest foreign investors in the country, having more than 4,000 companies that employ more than 700,000 people, he said.

The Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement that took effect last December is expected to open up businesses opportunities in the two countries, he said.

In addition to business co-operation, Korean firms with their technological prowess could help Vietnamese firms develop agricultural products and export markets, he said.

Hamyang and CEOLink Corporation, a pioneer in Vietnam in offering online and offline B2B business models, signed an agreement to promote the county’s products in Vietnam.

Exports to Vietnam

South Korea exported more to Vietnam in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year, while its exports to other nations, particularly China, dropped significantly, reported the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

In the first three months, the RoK sold commodities worth US$7 billion to Vietnam – its third biggest importer – representing a 7.6 per cent annual increase. By contrast, revenue of the country’s shipments to its number one importer China fell by 15.7 per cent annually to $28.5 billion, the biggest drop in the past seven years.

Regarding the types of products imported to China, the number of conductors, flat screens, petrochemical products, auto spare parts and synthetic materials plunged during the given period. Park Jin-woo, head of KITA’s market research office, said China had invested heavily in expanding local conductor manufacturing to reduce imports.

He advised Korean firms to exploit the potential of the household-article market.

Also in the first quater, the RoK’s export value to the US and Japan decreased by 3.3 and 13.1 per cent to $16.8 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively.