It said a Vietnamese on average picks up and looks at their mobile phone 150 times a day, or more than 10 times an hour.

Furthermore, more people under 35 now use smartphones than computers.

This has a tremendous impact on m-commerce since users are seeking specific information and content, the company said.

On the sidelines of a conference on m-commerce held in HCM City on Wednesday, Nitin Gajria, Vietnam country manager for Google, told Vietnam News that he is really optimistic about m-commerce in the country.

“What I am really encouraged by is that the infrastructure is already in place so that it can grow very quickly. Third-generation (3G) coverage is nationwide and phones are getting cheaper.

“Data is already relatively cheap compared to the rest of the markets in the region. So all of these are great conditions for internet penetration to grow quite dramatically very quickly. And that gives me great encouragement for everything that has to do with the internet, including m-commerce.”

According to MasterCard’s latest mobile shopping survey, more than 51 per cent of Vietnamese participating in the survey made purchases using their smartphones last year, up from 45.2 per cent in 2014.

The survey is based on interviews that took place between October and December last year with 8,500 participants aged 18-64 across 14 markets in Asia Pacific, including 500 respondents from Vietnam.

The markets include Thailand, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, India and the Philippines.

Clothes and fashion accessories, gifts and toys and mobile apps are the most mobile shopping purchases in the country.

The survey also revealed that India topped the region in growth rates, with the number of people shopping on smartphones rising by 29.3 per cent from two years ago, followed by Singapore (17.1 per cent) and Vietnam (16.8 per cent).

Le Xuan Long, marketing director of online marketplace Lazada Vietnam, said, “Every day more and more customers use the internet through mobile phones.”

Technologies are developing and so websites browsed on mobile phones will match mobile applications, he added.

“For Lazada, 60 per cent of trading value is through mobile phones. The figure is set to increase to 80 per cent by 2020.”

Are you ready?

For many companies, m-commerce is a new concept though Vietnamese consumers have indulged in it for long, using their phones every day to access shopping sites, watching advertising videos on YouTube and Facebook and buying products and services.

Demand has shot up but companies do not seem ready with many remaining focused on the desktop.

Only a few companies are developing mobile applications.

Lazada said it has developed an App 2.0 version to meet the increasing demand through mobile devices.

Long said the money required to develop the application was not small and thought that was the reason why many companies are reluctant to invest in m-commerce.

But he was optimistic that with pioneers like Lazada coming to the market, others would follow suit and the market would boom.

Gajria told Vietnamese companies: “Keep an eye out for what their users want. I think, one, is obviously to look out around the world for best practices, look to reapply best practices from around the world. But don’t just blindly reapply best practices; customise it for your users in Vietnam.

“Just picking up what western markets are doing may not work in our markets, in developing markets.

“So it is important to understand what your users want. And deliver a great, fantastic experience.”

From the date, employers will be obliged to offer re-employment to eligible workers up to the age of 67. This is two years older than what is legally required today.

And those who want to be re-employed can also work with a different company if they agree to it.

Separately, a legal provision allowing companies to cut the wage of employees who turn 60 will be removed.

Minister of State for Manpower Sam Tan announced these changes yesterday during the debate on the Manpower Ministry’s budget.

He said that until the law is changed, the Government will continue to support companies which voluntarily re-employ workers older than 65. These companies get a subsidy equivalent to 3 per cent of the employee’s wages.

Since 2012, employers have been required to offer re-employment to eligible workers when they retire at 62, or give them one-off payments if they cannot be re-hired.

Tan said that in future, older workers can be re-employed by a different company, provided the worker agrees to the transfer and the new employer fully embraces the re-employment obligations.

“We have received feedback that, sometimes, employers are unable to find suitable jobs in their own companies, but can help the worker secure re-employment in a related or subsidiary company,” he added.

On the removal of the legal provision to cut employees’ wages by up to 10 per cent when they turn 60, Tan said it was “no longer relevant” as more than 98 per cent of companies here do not make such cuts.

The provision was needed in the early days when wages were more closely tied to seniority, to make older workers more attractive to companies, he added.

In recent years, more than 98 per cent of local employees who wanted to keep working beyond the age of 62 got their wish.

Said Tan: “Going forward, pay should be reflective of workers’ job scope and value, regardless of age.”

During the debate, Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC) noting how “MOM is committed to letting workers work longer and as long as they can and they’re willing to”, suggested raising or removing the retirement age.

But Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say said that doing so could result in less protection for workers as companies are then free to terminate their employment even earlier.

Labour MP Heng Chee How (Jalan Besar GRC) pointed out that some companies, such as ComfortDelGro, have set retirement ages that are higher than what is legally required.

Heng, who is also Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, asked if MOM could work with the labour movement to encourage more firms to follow suit.

Lim praised the “progressive” behaviour of such companies and suggested that the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (Tafep) should spearhead these efforts.

The largest increase in the ranking goes to Cambodia, which grew by 30.4 per cent, although it has only one lender – Acleda Bank – recognised on the list. Cambodia also accounts for only 0.1 per cent of the total assets in the ranking, down from 0.19 per cent the year before.

Vietnamese banks – 19 of which made the ranking – grew their assets by the second-highest amount, 15.66 per cent, and although they still contribute a relatively small share of the total assets in the ranking, 7.46 per cent, they are up from 6.21 per cent in the previous year.

The ranking remains dominated by Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, which jointly hold nearly three-quarters of the total assets.

However, growth does not necessarily translate into profitability, the report said.

With an aggregate return on assets (ROA) of 0.8 per cent and return on capital (ROC) of 12.19 per cent, Vietnam is placed at the tail-end of the Asean ranking for returns.

Instead, as has often been the case in the past, the champion in that category is Indonesia, which boasts an ROA of 2.7 per cent and ROC of 25.31 per cent.

Vietnam’s banks stood out in terms of asset growth, with Vietnam Prosperity Bank coming out on top with a 35.02 per cent increase, followed by local competitors Sai Gon Commercial Bank and Shinhan Bank Vietnam, which expanded by 34.22 per cent and 33.32 per cent, respectively.

The country’s banks look to be poised to continue this rise. In addition to robust growth and stability, banking penetration remains among the lowest in the region. Only 30.86 per cent of the population aged 15 or over had a bank account in 2014 in a country of 91 million people.

However, as Vietnamese banks expanded their operations, they did not raise capital at a corresponding pace. Vietnamese banks registered a meagre 4.54 per cent uptick in Tier 1 capital, the lowest ranking among the countries measured.

Although the local banks are among the least profitable in the ranking, the situation is improving, with Vietnam showing a six per cent increase in pre-tax profits, a larger hike than for any other country except Singapore, where profits increased by 10.91 per cent.

Another notable growth story comes from the Philippines, which showed the largest asset growth in last year’s ranking. Local balance sheets grew by an impressive 13.59 per cent, the highest after Vietnam and Cambodia, but more slowly than the year before when the country’s banks recorded a 21.26 per cent expansion.

East West Banking Corp and Land Bank Philippines contributed the best performances, with their assets growing by 31.7 per cent and 23.21 per cent, respectively. However, as in the case of Việt Nam, asset growth did not mean a major increase in the capital base, as the aggregate Tier 1 capital growth by Filipino banks amounted to 6.53 per cent.

Indonesia’s institutions dominate the returns tables, with Bank Rakyat Indonesia boasting the highest ROA and ROC in the ranking, at 3.85 per cent and 37.58 per cent, respectively. Bank of Central Asia followed on its heels, coming second for both ROA and ROC, with 3.75 per cent and 32.22 per cent, respectively.

Overall, six of the top 10 banks for the highest ROA and five of the top 10 banks for the highest ROC are Indonesian.

Indonesian lenders managed these high profits while simultaneously posting the highest Tier 1 capital increase in the ranking. For all Indonesian banks in the ranking, Tier 1 capital grew by 11.93 per cent, more than in any other country bar Cambodia, where the single lender, Acleda Bank, increased its capital base by 22.29 per cent.

Still, “Vietnam is on its way to becoming a heavyweight presence in Southeast Asia, with the top ranking for asset growth,” The Banker’s data editor Matthew Karwacki wrote in the report.

Singapore’s two-point lead, is fairly insignificant, according to the report. It came in fourth in the previous survey in September last year, behind Hong Kong.

The semi annual survey is based on the responses of 2,520 financial-services professionals.

It noted also that a number of respondents commented that the uncertainty surrounding the possible exit of Britain from the European Union, dubbed Brexit, is having a negative impact on London’s competitiveness at present.

The ranking reflects performance in key areas including business environment, financial sector development and infrastructure of the 86 financial centres around the world covered by the survey. Evidence of a centre’s performance in these spheres is drawn from a range of measures like external indexes.

The historical dominance of the leading centres in Western Europe and North America has eroded over time, Z/Yen Group said. The mean rating of the top five centres in these regions is now lower than the mean of the top five centres in the Asia Pacific region, it noted.

Said Mark Yeandle, associate director at Z/Yen Group: “While London and New York still lead the field, the next three centres are all Asian”.

The latest survey also noted that Western European centres remain “mired in uncertainty”. Of the 29 centres in this region, 12 centres rose in the ratings and 17 centres fell.

In the North American region, fortunes were mixed. Financial centres in the United States like New York and Washington DC rose in the ratings, but the three leading Canadian centres fell in the ratings.

In the Asia Pacific area, seven of the top 10 centres saw a fall in their ratings, though the ratings of Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing rose slightly. Of the top ten centres in this region, Seoul and Sydney showed the largest falls.