From candidates applying nation-wide, the programme will select 45 trainees by August to take part in the year-long training from October.

The professional training will combine academic and on-the-job coaching programmes by the supermarket’s senior executives and experienced lecturers from leading management training centres.

Besides a full scholarship, trainees will also be provided a monthly allowance and subsidies for lunch and transport, accommodation for those hailing from outside the city, voluntary health and accident insurance, and others.

This is the fifth year of the programme.

According to Big C, the country’s retail industry has developed strongly in recent years, leading to high demand for human resources, especially in management positions, but there are no schools providing training in this field.

The index is trade-weighted and tracks international market prices for the cereals, vegetable oils, dairy, meat and sugar commodity groups.

For June, the index averaged 163.4 points, up 4 per cent or 6.7 points from the 156.7 points recorded in May.

The index was also now 1 per cent below the 164.9 points reached in June 2015.

Even then, the FAO said there were prospects for improved food production for the year ahead.

Earlier this week, the FAO and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said the world had likely seen the end to a period of high agricultural prices, but vigilance was needed as the probability of a major price swing remained high.

The OECD and the FAO said in their Agricultural Outlook 2016-2025 report that inflation-adjusted agricultural commodity prices were expected to remain “relatively flat overall” in the next 10 years.

“Although we are now witnessing a period of lower agricultural prices, we need to remain alert as changes in markets can take place rapidly,” OECD secretary general Angel Gurria said in a statement.

“The key priority for governments in the current context is to implement policies that will increase agricultural productivity in a coherent and sustainable way,” Gurria said. “Getting our agricultural policies right is critical to end hunger and undernourishment in the decades to come.”

The report shows that, globally, the increased demand for food and feed for a growing and more affluent population was projected to be mostly met through productivity gains.

Mitsubishi has a 93 per cent stake in MC Biotech. It said Tokyo-based seafood producer Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd has a seven per cent stake in MC Biotech and will be responsible for producing and exporting the dried biomass to Japan.

“Astaxanthin is an antioxidant used as a health food supplement and as a raw material for cosmetics and natural food coloring. Global demand for astaxanthin, which is highly regarded for its health benefits, has seen phenomenal growth in recent years, particularly in the US, Japanese, Southeast Asian, and Chinese markets,” Mitsubishi said.

Haematococcus algae is a fresh water weed which when exposed to ultraviolet rays turns from green to red due to the formation of astaxanthin which provides protection to the cell.

“Brunei, where the cultivation factory is located, has optimal conditions for cultivating the Haematococcus algae, including an adequate supply of sunlight and water,” Mitsubishi said.

After the astaxanthin is extracted from the dried biomass in Japan, Mitsubishi said another partner Biogenic Co, Ltd—health and beauty products manufacturer—will market the final products.

Mitsubishi said MC Biotech has been working, with Brunei government’s support, to implement a pioneering project in BIC, an industrial park set up to attract halal and bio-industry related investments to the sultanate.

“Through the stable operation of this new project, which seeks to make good use of rich microbial resources available in Brunei while maintaining utmost consideration for safety and the environment, MC Biotech aims to contribute to the diversification of industry, the creation of employment and the development of human resources in Brunei,” Mitsubishi said.

The company said it has a long presence in Brunei, noting that it has been buying LNG from the sultanate for over 40 years.

Mitsubishi said setting up MC Biotech in BIC will help strengthen the trade relations between Japan and Brunei.

Starting in September last year, the government has issued 12 economic policy packages to boost the business climate and attract investment, including by cutting red tape and providing incentives for certain sectors. These efforts are expected to stoke growth in the country’s economy, which slowed to a six-year low of 4.79 percent in 2015.

As of May this year, the government has completed 194 of the total 203 regulations required to support its packages, including both new and revised rules. “The regulations are needed as those policies need a legal basis,” Rosan said.

Meanwhile, Kadin recently submitted evaluation materials for all the packages to the government to ensure a clearer framework.

Rosan said that Kadin had in its evaluation particularly praised a policy to provide three-hour licensing services for new investors in special economic zones and the revision of the negative investment list (DNI) to allow for more foreign ownership in select sectors, which he said had had immediate and concrete benefits for businesspeople.

Home-grown firm Strontium Technology started out producing memory modules for PCs, before moving on to become a PC and flash memory manufacturer, but now its ambitions have a global reach.

The dream is to have its corporate logo – which was revamped in 2010 and is a stylised silhouette of an elephant – be instantly recognisable in 100 countries by 2020.

President and chief executive Vivian Singh set the goal last year, and wanted to start by entering five countries in Europe, but said it was not easy.

“The challenges for any new market are the same – finding the right customers, finding the right staff for business development, and allocating funds for business expansion,” he said.

It was a boon that IE Singapore was there to help.

The agency provided Strontium with a subsidy to participate in two trade shows, Distree APAC (Asia- Pacific) in 2013 and Distree EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) in 2014.

The firm has attended both events every year since, also with IE’s support.

Distree is a major infocomm and communications technology (ICT) and consumer electronics event that is held in several regions around the world annually.

Singh noted how the IE team in Germany, for instance, followed up with potential customers it had met at the trade show, and even introduced new customers to Strontium in Germany, Poland and France. “The IE teams in Europe understood our products and then arranged meetings with potential customers in Distree EMEA.”

He said participating in the Distree events has allowed the firm to meet many existing and new customers.

“Meeting with existing customers helped to increase business with them, and we added at least 10 new customers in Europe who are buying regularly.”

The firm now sells its products in 45 countries, mostly in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, up from 30 last year.

Singh added: “A lot of the new countries we started selling to this year are in Africa, where we see increasing demand for our products.”

Strontium has also been participating in IE’s Global Company Partnership programme since March. The programme grooms globally competitive companies by helping them develop their manpower, access markets and providing access to financing.”(IE has) also introduced many customers, bankers, investors and government agencies in the last two to three years,” Singh added.

All this support has been crucial as Strontium has had to keep reinventing itself to keep up with a rapidly changing market.

“PC sales started to slow down in 2009, which is when we moved from dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products to flash products like microSD cards and USB drives.”

The firm also had to change the way it sold products.

“We were selling DRAM products to PC manufacturers, system integrators, and DIY channels to other businesses, but flash products needed a focus on retail and e-commerce, which is selling to consumers.”

In 2008, DRAM products contributed 5 per cent of Strontium’s revenue, while flash products contributed 95 per cent. Now the ratio has reversed.

Singh said that the firm is expecting a turnover of $375 million this year, about 20 per cent more than last year, and by 2020, the aim is to grow that to more than $500 million.

Strontium expects the market to change again, which is why it has a “road map” of products.

The firm is designing external solid-state drives (SSDs) – which are faster and more reliable than conventional hard drives as they do not have moving parts – and has already ventured into wearable technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT).

It will release smart jewellery, under a label named Ivy, in India at the end of this month or early August. The jewellery will be able to connect women to their friends and family via SOS messages, for instance, in emergencies.

IE also introduced Strontium to firms in other sectors that sell through similar distribution channels, to learn how to use its brand and channels to create new products.

“For IoT products, there was a lot of preparation. It took us nine months to understand the new technologies, hire staff with prerequisite skills, hire research and development and mobile app companies in India and Taiwan, find new suppliers and factories, and to make the first prototypes for testing.

“One of our senior executives moved out from Strontium to focus completely on IoT products.”

Singh added that he expects IoT products to contribute at least 10 per cent of total revenue in 2018, and maybe 95 per cent seven years from now.

The 2015 annual Vietnam Business Report shows foreign companies accounted for 71 per cent of the country’s exports, with local firms’ share shrinking, according to Doanh nhan Saigon (Saigon Entrepreneurs) newspaper.

In the first five months of this year, local businesses’ exports grew by only 3.9 per cent to US$19.44 billion, accounting for 28 per cent of exports. In comparison, FDI companies reported growth of 7.7 per cent while overall growth was 6.6 per cent.

The government in fact offers many incentives for exports, but domestic companies have been unable to cope with challenges facing the global business environment.

Around 97 per cent of local enterprises are small- or medium-sized and most of them are outside the global value chain. Their ability to take advantage of Vietnam’s international integration is very low and they are not ready to compete.

From next year Vietnamese companies cannot borrow in foreign currencies and dong loans carry much higher interest rates, and this will be another blow to the competitiveness of many companies.

The ban comes as part of the central bank’s efforts to stop dollarisation of the economy.

Bank lending rates in neighbouring countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and China are only 3 – 4.5 per cent.

The strong dong is another factor that affects companies’ competitiveness. In recent times, while other currencies have fallen sharply against the US dollar, the Vietnamese currency has been very steady.

It makes Vietnamese exports costlier.

Economists estimate the dong to be overvalued by around 20 per cent.

Low productivity is another weakness of Vietnamese companies, and in recent times natural disasters like severe drought and pollution have also hit exports.

Drought this year and the resultant seawater intrusion in the Mekong River Delta, and environmental pollution in the central region have sharply reduced seafood exports, one of Vietnam’s strong suits.

Furthermore, Vietnamese seafood products will also come under close scrutiny in export markets as a result.

European authorities have already notified all EU members that they should tighten checks of imports from Vietnam.

The 2015 Vietnam Businesses Report also said that the size of Vietnamese companies and their number of workers have shrunk.

With domestic firms frittering away the advantages offered by FTAs, their foreign rivals will only be happy to step into the breach.

It’s consumers who must bear the costs rising from the imposition of the safeguard tariffs, said Dam Quang Hung, deputy director of Son Ha International Corporation which produces stainless steel products.

Hung said that the imposition of safeguard tariffs would result in higher steel raw material prices and higher prices of products to end-users, and may even cause a monopoly in the domestic steel market.

He urged the management agency to closely watch steel prices by local producers to prevent a monopoly while balancing the benefits between local steel producers and firms that use steel as a raw material.

According to Pham Quoc Vu, deputy general director of stainless steel producer Dai Duong International Joint Stock Company, the current safeguard duties on imported steel products were high, which would seriously affect firms which use steel as a raw material.

Under the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Decision No 862/QD-BTC which came into effect on March 22, temporary safeguard duties of 23.3 per cent is applied on steel billet and 14.2 per cent on long steel products. The safeguard duties will be applied for a maximum of 200 days, or to October 10.

Vu said that the ministry should apply more appropriate tariffs for imported steel products, or else, producers that use steel as a raw material would encounter difficulties even in the local market.

In the local market, prices of several products made from steel can rise by around 10 per cent compared to March due to the imposition of the temporary safeguard tariff, according Tran Anh Tu, a salesman in a building material store in Hanoi.

Nguyen Tuan Vinh, who planned to build a house in Hanoi at the end of this year, is worried that if steel prices went higher, it would considerably push up the construction costs.

Ho Nghia Dung, chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association, said that the imposition of safeguard tariffs on imported steel products was aimed to protect local steel production.

In trade defence, if benefits of a certain group of firms are protected, others might be affected, Dung said, adding that firms should join with each other to develop a supply chain to deliver mutual benefits.

The ministry’s decision was issued after the investigation found that significant increases in imports of steel billet and long steel products caused serious damage to local production during the 2012-15 period.

Businesses were still importing steel billets and finished steel products, despite the imposition of the temporary safeguard duties, according to the association.

The association’s deputy chairman Nguyen Van Sua said that cheap steel imported from China might continue to flow into Vietnam in the second half of this year as China’s steel industry was faced with a massive overcapacity.

With limited local steel demand, the use of safeguard instruments was essential to protect local producers.

More importantly, local producers must enhance competitiveness in product quality and prices, he said.

The association’s statistics showed that up to 60 per cent of imported steel was from China.

Since the beginning of 2016, Vietnam has imported over 9.6 million tonnes of steel of all kinds, worth around US$3.42 billion, showing a year-on-year rise of 48 per cent in quantity and 1 per cent in value.

This, based on data from Visa Inc., was driving the growth of electronic payments in the country.

In a briefing Thursday, top Visa officials said card usage in the country, an indicator of “electronification” of payments, added P4.6 billion and 3,460 jobs to the domestic economy from 2011 to 2015.

Last year, payment volume of all Visa cards in the Philippine grew by 8.6 per cent. The payment volume of domestic premium Visa cards expanded at a faster pace of 33 per cent while the ratio likewise increased over the years. Although accounting for only 22 per cent all active cards in the domestic market, premium Visa cards accounted for 46 per cent or almost half of total payment in 2015.

“Over the years, Visa has introduced a series of cards to help Filipino consumers enjoy the convenience of electronic payments,” said Stuart Tomlinson, noting that his company teamed up with Citibank in 2001 to launch the first premium Visa card in the Philippines.

“The card created a new segment at that time,” he said, noting that today, there were now nine partner banks issuing premium cards “to cater to the growing affluent community.”

Premium cards give holders higher credit limits, more attractive lifestyle privileges from golf to dining to shopping and a higher level of rewards program and priority customer service compared to regular cards.

The “affluent” consumer market is defined as the segment that’s one tier below the high-networth individuals. They are typically defined as individuals who earn more than P1 million yearly, although some banks bring the threshold down to P500,000, depending on strategy.

Affluent customers tend to travel a lot and have greater spending power. Based on data from Visa, affluent Filipinos outspend the average cardholders by 169 per cent. The largest portion of affluent spending goes to retail (18.7 per cent), travel (18.66 per cent), supermarkets (13.8 per cent), restaurants (6.8 per cent) and fuel (4.68 per cent).

“The growing affluent are also avid travelers,” Tomlinson said. “Visa is confident that our growing premium platform will enable our cardholders to make the most of their travel, providing discerning Filipinos with bespoke benefits they are not aware are out there.”

Based on Filipinos’ card spending, the top 10 outbound destination and the respective growth rates of travellers in 2015 were: USA (39 per cent), Singapore (39 per cent), United Kingdom (41 per cent), Hong Kong (24 per cent); Japan (97 per cent); France (22 per cent); Australia (30 per cent); Thailand (52 per cent); UAE (57 per cent) and Italy (42 per cent).

Citing a study on the affluent market, one out of five opts for personal guided tours and customised itineraries. Over the past two years, the number of those who travel alone has more than doubled, and most of them select spontaneous and passion activities such as sports. Shopping in large malls accounts for the second most popular travel activity.

Most affluent travellers choose to stay in five- or four-star hotels and typically value complimentary stays, early check in and late check-out as important benefits.

Recognizing the needs of the affluent market, Visa also offers up to 8 per cent cashback for featured e-commerce platforms. About 16 per cent of spending by premium cardholders is done online, helping drive the 10 per cent growth in e-commerce volume last year.

Also, Philippine premium cardholders spend more than their counterparts in neighboring countries like Indonesia and Vietnam.

While the country remains primarily a cash-based economy, card payments—whether credit (buy now, pay later), debit (buy now, pay now) or prepaid (pay now, buy later)—have risen over the years. These accounted for 11.4 per cent of personal consumption expenditure in 2015 compared to only 9.2 per cent in 2010.