This is despite a year-on-year decline of 17 per cent in government debt recorded in 2015, the agency said, citing Ministry of Finance data.

Vietnam defines government debt as debts domestically and internationally incurred by the government and the finance ministry.

According to the ministry, government debt accounted for 50.3 per cent of national gross domestic product (GDP) as of Dec 31, 2015.

The ratio exceeded a cap of 50 per cent that the National Assembly (NA) adopted for government debt over the last five years.

In an online report dated June 30, the ministry said government debt reached more than 1.8 quadrillion dong in 2014. Of the amount, domestic debts were more than 1 quadrillion dong and foreign debts were some 800 trillion dong.

This is contrary to the situation seen in 2010, when foreign debts were greater than domestic debts. Foreign debts hit 530 trillion dong and domestic debts were 359 trillion dong, in a total government debt of 889 trillion dong recorded at that time.

The ratio of government debt to national budget revenues increased from roughly 158 per cent in 2010 to nearly 212 per cent in 2014, although the amount of debts settled by the government rose from 87 trillion dong to 260 trillion dong over the period.

In Vietnam, government debt is legally known as part of public debt, which is also inclusive of debts underwritten by the government, and debts incurred by provincial and municipal authorities.

The Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) said in a Q1 economic report that Vietnam’s public debt to GDP ratio increased from 50.1 per cent to 62.2 per cent in five years to 2015. Last year’s level was close to the red line of 65 per cent set by the NA.

CIEM director Nguyen Dinh Cung said citing International Monetary Fund data that this ratio of Vietnam was often 1.5 times higher than that of Thailand, and doubled that of many other Aseannations.

While public debt is used to compensate for state budget deficit, the General Statistics Office reported late last week that the deficit was still on the rise after hitting 82.9 trillion dong in the first half of this year.

The Finance Ministry forecast the deficit would reach 4.95 per cent of the GDP this year, while HSBC expected a rate of 6.6 per cent for 2016.

Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung said in a recent interview with the Vietnam News Agency that the finance sector will intensify national finance supervision to assure public debt security in the coming years.

He said that, while the sector is to support the country’s goals in improving business environment, controlling inflation and stabilise the economy, uncertainty remains in global economic rallies over the next five years.

Rapid changes in trade and investment flows, and complex developments in global goods prices will affect Vietnam’s economic growth, exposing potential risks of national budget imbalance, he said.

“Close watch of economic developments and crude oil prices will be among prerequisite tasks,” Dung said, adding that oil-related revenues account for around 10 per cent of the country’s total budget revenues.

Vietnam will strive to increase budget revenues from domestic sources and export activities, while oil price declines and the country entering a variety of free trade agreements – a move that requires tariff cuts – are trimming its budget revenues.

Finance authorities will actively boost transparency in implementing fiscal policies, and accelerate the opening of the financial market in line with international integration commitments and national requirements for economic restructuring.

“Besides guaranteeing state budget revenues, facilitating business growth is what I am most concerned about and want to foster,” Dung said.

He said the progress of state-owned enterprises equitisation – a factor impacting on the distribution of the country’s financial resources – remains slow.

“We understand that the finance sector cannot deal with budget-related problems by itself. It needs systematic consensus and actions, particularly support of the business community and people,” he said.

(US$1 = 22,629 dong as of 7/5/2016 via oanda.com)

Myint Thaung put debilitating power cuts at the top of a list of three major challenges facing Myanmar’s commercial hub, with increasingly gridlocked traffic and squatting being the second and third priorities.

“Power demand exceeds supply in Yangon”, he said. “The sector should be able to satisfy demand as hydropower plants can produce more power in the rainy season. We need to repair and replace old cable lines. And sub-power stations are outdated.”

Solving worsening traffic jams was the government’s second priority, Myint Thaung said. “The first thing we have to do is draft a master plan. Then the Yangon Transportation Plan will be put under the master plan,” he added, referring to a multi-billion dollar scheme to overhaul the region’s long-neglected transport infrastructure.

The Yangon regional government is going to discuss with a transport authority to deal with the matters relating to traffic jam, passenger buses, circular trains and marine transport. The Yangon City Development Committee has said work on elevated roads and ring roads is set to start before 2018.

Myint Thaung also vowed to confront what he referred to as “the squatter problem.” He said: “We need to collect lists of squatters and find out the reasons for and patterns of squatting.”

He claimed that “some people are squatting for commercial reasons” but said “we find it difficult to identify whether people are real squatters or not.”

Through its wholly owned subsidiary San Miguel Holdings Corp., SMC signed a deal to buy the additional 49 per cent in Universal LRT Corp BVI Ltd, the conglomerate disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

As part of the deal, SMC also bought 100 per cent interest in ULCOM Co Inc, the designated facility operator of the MRT7 project.

The $100 million consideration for the deal consisted of payment for the shares as well as the outstanding shareholder advances amounting to $3.8 million.

Universal LRT holds the exclusive right, obligation and privilege to finance, design, construct, supply, complete and commission the MRT7 project, a planned 22-kilometre-long elevated railway starting from San Jose del Monte in Bulacan and ending in North Avenue in Quezon City.

Jong-Won Lee, manager of Kotra, which was established in Laos in 2011 to assist trade and investment with South Korea, says there are more than 10 distributors importing Korean products to Laos.

That figure is expected to increase through continuing promotional events.

This year alone, Kotra has arranged its third promotional event, which was led by more than 30 companies including those representing construction equipment, medical equipment, cosmetics and other consumer goods.

Promotional events are aimed at introducing Korean products to Lao businesses that want to be distributors supplying the demands of both local and Korean customers in Laos as well as trying to expand these markets.

The promotion efforts by the agency are starting to show, as more Korean consumer goods are now available and Laos has seen an increase in buyers as more people become interested in obtaining a variety of goods.

According to the Korean Economic Statistics System, imports to Laos rose 9.2 per cent to $170 million last year, including passenger vehicles, freight vehicles, motors, automobile parts and construction equipment.

Growth is also being seen in exports. Last year, Lao exports to South Korea surged 52.5 per cent to $22.9 million.

The decision, Decree 56/NQ-CP, was issued on June 30.

The visa exemption will be applied regardless of passport type or immigration purpose, so long as the travellers meet the requirements of relevant Vietnamese laws and stay in Vietnam no more than 15 days.

The government has applied the waiver for visitors from these five countries for a one-year period, starting from July 1 last year.

The decision aims to lure more foreign visitors to Vietnam and to boost domestic tourism.

The visa exemption for the five Western European countries has contributed greatly to Vietnamese tourism development over the past year.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, from July last year to May this year, eleven months since the visa-free policy was enforced, the total number of tourists from these five countries increased by more than 15 per cent compared to the previous period.

In the first half of this year, Vietnam welcomed 4.7 million foreign tourists, a 21 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

The number of tourists from Hong Kong, China, Thailand and South Korea, as well as the United Kingdom and Spain, has increased significantly.

This is in line with its efforts to take advantage of growth opportunities in Singapore and the wider Asia-Pacific region, said chairman and chief executive officer Todd Dollinger at a briefing on Monday.

It was part of the firm’s roadshow showcasing seven of the medical technology companies in its portfolio – the first time it has held such an event here.

The firms include Escala Medical, which has developed a non-surgical, incision-free approach to treat pelvic organ prolapse, and Elasti Med, which has made an easy-to-wear compression stocking using smart materials.

The roadshow aims to give investors a “touch and feel” of Trendlines’ portfolio, said Steve Rhodes, also a chairman and CEO of the group.

“Our main asset is the value of our portfolio companies,” he said.

“The value that we give each of these companies in our books is lower than the actual value of these companies,” he said.

“The methodology used for valuing the companies on our books is very conservative. It’s typically based on the last money invested in the company.

“We think that when people understand the potential in these companies, they’ll understand the hidden value within (our) portfolio.”

Trendlines Group was founded in 2007 by Rhodes and Dollinger, and was listed on the Singapore bourse last November.

It makes early-stage investments in the medical and agritech fields, and now manages a portfolio of almost 50 companies.

The company is looking to partner with both industry and government agencies here to support the activities of its new incubator, called Trendlines Medical Singapore.

The incubator will focus on “specific areas of interest for the partners we’re working with” as well as “producing and inventing products that have a special interest for Asia-Pacific”, Dollinger said.

Eric Loh, formerly senior vice president at Singapore-listed stent maker Biosensors, has been appointed CEO of Trendlines Medical Singapore.

Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) is expected to call for tenders for these packages by the third quarter of this year.

“We are in the process of preparing the tenders for the remaining six of the 10 viaduct guideway packages for the SSP line,” said Maslan Othman, the deputy project director of the MMC Corp Bhd and Gamuda Bhd joint venture (MMC-Gamuda).

“And by the third quarter of this year, all these packages will be tendered out and awarded by the first quarter of next year,” he said at a briefing on the progress of the SSP line here yesterday.

Maslan said he was unable to state the value of the six packages.

The 52.2-km SSP alignment, which is also called MRT2, is estimated to cost more than RM28bil. It is the second MRT line to be developed under the Klang Valley MRT Project.

To date, four viaduct packages and an underground job, worth a combined RM20.24bil, have been awarded to local construction groups.

The first two packages, called V201 and V202, were awarded to Sunway Construction Sdn Bhd and Ahmad Zaki Sdn Bhd, respectively, in March this year, while the other two packages V203 and V210 were awarded to IJM Construction Sdn Bhd and Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd, with the underground package going to MMC-Gamuda.

“The first phase of the SSP line (from Kwasa Damansara and Kampung Batu) is expected to be completed by July 2021, and the second phase of the project (with the line extending to Putrajaya Sentral) is scheduled for completion a year later, in July 2022,” MRT Corp strategic communication and stakeholder relations director Datuk Najmuddin Abdullah said.

According to Najmuddin, the ground-breaking ceremony for Phase 1 of the SSP Line will be held at end-August this year.

He noted that for the Serdang and Seri Kembangan area, in particular, there would be two packages – V205 and V206 – for which the tender would be called in the third quarter of this year.

“We will award both the packages in the first quarter of next year, and construction of the alignment is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2017,” Najmuddin said.

Ths SSP line will offer 72 work packages in total.

Besides the one underground and 10 viaduct projects, the work packages for the MRT2 project will also include two depots, 15 multi-storey park and ride projects and 11 interchange stations.

Meanwhile, MRT Corp yesterday awarded three work package contracts, worth a total of RM1.38bil, for the construction of the SSP Line. These jobs, which included two system work packages and one advance work package, were awarded to Colas Rail Consortium, Sapura-EVD Consortium and SN Akmida Holdings Sdn Bhd, respectively.

The system work package SY205 that was awarded to Colas Rail Consortium was worth RM693.03 million, for the engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of the power supply and distribution system for the SSP Line.

The second system work package SY206, worth RM632 million, that was awarded to Sapura-EVD Consortium was for the engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of communications, Government integrated radio network, commercial telecom (infra) and information technology system for the SSP Line.

The advance work package, worth RM59.5 million, was awarded to SN Akmida for the construction and completion of the Sungai Besi Police Quarters and other associated works for the project.

Of the 52.2-km SSP alignment, 13.5km will be built underground, with 11 underground stations out of a total of 26 stations.

The stations will offer 9,200 parking bays under its Park & Ride facilities.

Najmuddin said a complete journey from Kwasa Damansara to Putrajaya Sentral, the other end of the SSP Line, would take about 85 minutes.

It is expected to reduce traffic congestion by removing 176,000 cars from the road daily.

“During construction alone, starting this year and until completion, the project could involve directly and indirectly 130,000 workers and professionals, so there will be a huge (positive) impact (on the country’s economy),” Najmuddin said.

The report noted that the combined retail sales in retail powerhouses Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are expected to grow from US$650 billion last year to $1 trillion in 2018, at a rate of 15.5 per cent annually.

The four countries together made up 76 per cent of the $2.45 trillion (Bt86 trillion) Asean economy last year.

The study, compiled for the Singapore Exchange (SGX) by research firm Frost and Sullivan, noted that much of the growth in the sector is driven by the Asean market’s strong fundamentals – a young, fast-growing population, emerging middle-class consumers and robust gross domestic product growth.

Indonesia and Malaysia show the biggest potential among the major Asean economies in leading the retail boom, said the report.

The retail sector in Indonesia is forecast to rise 19.3 per cent annually to reach $639 billion in 2018, while Malaysia is poised to grow 12.1 per cent each year to $151 billion.

Thailand is projected to increase 8.9 per cent annually to $155 billion over the same period, while Singapore, a mature retail market with a high number of global retailers, is expected to expand 6.4 per cent a year to $56 billion in 2018.

The report noted that slowing demand from population ageing, rising business costs, the possibility of a dip in tourist arrivals and falling consumer confidence remain crucial challenges for the sector in Singapore.

But it added that the country continues to enjoy a high GDP per capita, which is likely to further increase and provide a strong base for the retail market, helped by low unemployment and a fully urbanised population.

Online retail is another key growth area, although this will expand at a pace that is slowest in the region.