Pham Chau Giang, deputy director of the department, said steel is subjected to the highest number of trade defence investigations in the world because it is produced by many countries and is considered a product related to national security.

“After the US, other countries such as Canada, Turkey and EU have also launched investigations to apply safeguard measures to the entire steel industry. That is not to mention the fact that other countries have increased the number of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations of specific steel items and specific countries,” Giang said.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD), the global oversupply of steel was nearly 900 million tonnes in 2017, most of which came from China.

 Giang said the oversupply was caused by the slowdown of the world economy, which resulted in losses for many steel enterprises, and by the return of trade protectionism.

“Although Vietnam’s steel products are being heavily investigated by many countries, Vietnamese steel enterprises still have high growth rates in production and exports in the region,” Giang said. “Not every investigation has caused Vietnam’s steel products to be subjected to tax and damages.”

For example, Giang said Indonesia had recently decided to terminate the application of safeguard measures on Vietnamese cold steel sheets after Vietnam sued the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for those measures, which Vietnam said violated WTO regulations.

In addition, the ministry has also co-operated with the Vietnam Steel Association and export enterprises to prove that Vietnamese exporters do not dump and do not receive subsidies from the Government. “Many investigation cases have been conducted, but not all are subject to taxes, so they still could export,” he said.

“This result does not only benefit businesses who are facing investigations, but also creates a positive precedent for fighting against similar cases in the future, especially in the context of protectionism, which has increased in the world,” Giang added.

In the domestic market, Vietnam has taken action to protect its domestic market, which is facing pressure from China’s low-quality steel products, which are prevented from export by some countries but can spill over into Vietnam.

Giang said the Trade Defence Department was in the process of finalising the “white book” on trade barriers for steel products, which is expected to be announced at the end of the second quarter this year.

The ministry recently unveiled a master programme on trade defence solutions for 2018-20 to protect domestic industries.

It focuses on strengthening policies and institutions and improving enforcement of legal provisions on trade defence to support them.

According to the ministry, anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard measures are permitted by the World Trade Organisation and free trade agreements, and countries are allowed to establish an equal competitive environment by supporting domestic industries.

In the context of Vietnam’s deep integration into the regional and global economies, trade defence measures have become an important policy tool contributing to enhancing the efficiency of the economic integration process, it said.

It said it would focus on building government management agencies’ trade defence capacity and strengthening protection of industries.

The tasks would be concretised into specific programmes and activities to achieve the main objectives of supporting development and improving the productivity and competitiveness of domestic industry and making use of favourable conditions in free trade agreements, it added.

The ministry’s Department of Trade Defence will be entrusted with co-ordinating with relevant agencies to carry out the master programme.

The corresponding period in 2018 had seen a record level of residential collective sales, Colliers noted.

In the residential sector, the July 2018 cooling measures continued to depress sales. Sales plunged by 82 per cent from a year ago to S$1.7 billion amid declines in all sub-segments, including collective sales and Good Class Bungalows. This sector accounted for 32 per cent of the total investment sales in the quarter.

On the other hand, public land sales saw a bumper quarter, recording 32 per cent year on year to S$2.1 billion. They accounted for 40 per cent of total investment sales.

Thanks to land sales, compared to the previous quarter, residential investment sales jumped 48.2 per cent. Two Government Land Sales (GLS) sites – at Tampines Avenue 10 and Kampong Java Road – were among the top five largest transactions during the quarter.

On a year-on-year basis, commercial investment sales quadrupled to $1.1 billion in the first quarter on a low base.

Colliers expects investment activity to pick up in the coming quarters, including potentially more commercial (office and retail) deals to be concluded towards the end of this year.

Sales in February this year were lower due to the Chinese New Year festive lull and the absence of new launches. It said the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Draft Master Plan 2019 incentives could spark more investor interest in the redevelopment of older buildings in the Central Business District.

In the industrial property segment, investment sales value doubled to $555 million in the quarter from the year-ago period, mainly due to SGRE Banyan’s acquisition of warehouse facilities on Jurong Island for $228 million.

For the whole of 2019, the firm estimated that total investment sales will be $38 billion, on a par with last year’s level.

Tricia Song, head of research for Singapore at Colliers International, said: “During the quarter, major private investment sales in Singapore continued to be dominated by institutional investors.”

Such sales included the acquisitions of Manulife Centre by ARA Asset Management and British group Chelsfield, Rivervale Mall by local private equity firm SC Capital Partners, and warehouse facilities on Jurong Island by SGRE Banyan.

“These deals, together with a bumper quarter for government land sales, helped to prop up investment sales in Q1 2019,” Song said.

The up-and-coming Jurong Lake District in Singapore will welcome a new 7ha integrated tourism development from 2026.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) will be calling for an expression of interest exercise for the development, which will feature a hotel, attractions, eateries and shops, it was announced on Tuesday.

The now-vacant plot of land sits adjacent to Chinese Garden MRT station and the site where a new Science Centre will be built in Jurong Lake Gardens East.

Making the announcement at STB’s annual tourism industry conference, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Chee Hong Tat said that with its “unique waterfront environment and location… we envision this area to be transformed into a key attraction from 2026”.

The new development is in line with STB’s strategy to spread out its tourism offerings across different parts of Singapore, he said, adding that the exercise will close in early November.

The 360ha Jurong Lake District is positioned as Singapore’s second Central Business District, and previously announced plans for the area include a commercial precinct, housing and expanded gardens.

It will also host the Singapore terminus of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail, and has been earmarked as a car-lite district.

To complement upcoming parks in the Mandai nature precinct, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) will be refreshing the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and River Safari, said Chee. – The Straits Times

Payment platform LinkAja set for April 21 launch

State-owned digital payment platform LinkAja will be officially launched on April 21.

LinkAja, which will be operated by PT Fintek Karya Nusantara (Finraya), was established by the State-Owned Lenders Association (Himbara) and several other state-owned enterprises.

“Actually, we have used it. The soft launch has taken place. But officially, it will be launched on April 21,” said state-owned lender Bank Mandiri’s president director, Kartika Wirjoatmodjo.

He added that LinkAja had completed the migration of electronic money users to a server owned by Himbara.

Kartika said LinkAja had 25 million users comprising about 2.5 million active users, adding that Himbara believed that it would garner between 5 and 10 million active LinkAja users by the end of the year.

He said, in the future, LinkAja’s financial resources would not only come from electronic money, but it also from credit card users, debit cards and Himbara bank account holders. – The Jakarta Post

Maxis launches commercial narrowband-IoT service

Maxis Bhd launched Malaysia’s first commercial Narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) service in selected areas including Cyberjaya, Penang, Kuching, Putrajaya, Johor Bahru, and KLCC.

It said on Tuesday it had activated its NB-IoT network in these selected areas which were within the key IoT market centres.

NB-IoT, a dedicated network for IoT technology, brings 5G-like capabilities albeit for lower bandwidth applications.

Maxis said NB-IoT can support millions of connected things which consumes very low power and therefore lends itself to delivering a long battery life.

The technology will power up Big Data and enable advanced data analytics to help make decisions in areas such as potential cost savings, improved efficiency and new business opportunities.

“As part of the launch, Maxis will also offer NB-IoT solutions and promote the development of the local ecosystem through sharing of global best practices and the curation of best in breed solutions. – The Star

Vietnam Airlines approved for listing on HoSE

The national carrier Vietnam Airlines has gained approval of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) to list its 1.4 billion shares on the southern bourse.

The company will move to HoSE from the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) and the stock ticket will remain as HVN.

The company’s market value on HoSE is approved at 14 trillion dongs (US$602 million, Bt19.2 billion).

Vietnam Airlines planned to switch to HoSE from UPCoM in 2018, but the decline of the stock market in the second half of 2018 made the firm delay its plan until now. – Viet Nam News

The move comes as analysts expect IBM to report weaker earnings, down around 3 per cent for its first quarter, after the close of trading in the US yesterday, in part due to an ageing mainframe product cycle.

The US firm will move the manufacturing of its mainframe computers IBM Z from Singapore to Poughkeepsie in New York.

It is part of “IBM’s continual review of the most efficient way to source our products”, said the New York-headquartered firm in a statement.

IBM has declined to reveal details of its retrenchment exercise in Singapore, but Today newspaper has estimated that up to 600 workers would be laid off by July at the company’s manufacturing plant in Tampines.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Manpower has said that IBM had notified it of the retrenchment exercise.

For workers who are retrenched, Workforce Singapore and the National Trades Union Congress’ Employment and Employability Institute will offer employment services support through the Adapt and Grow initiative, said the spokesman.

United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries executive secretary Melvin Yong said the union is working closely with IBM to help the affected workers.

IBM has stressed that Singapore remains a strategic location for the company as its Asia-Pacific headquarters, Watson Centre, cloud data centre, blockchain and other service units will remain operating on the island.

“IBM has been in Singapore for 66 years. It remains committed to being an essential part of its growth, and is working with many companies in Singapore to enhance its position as a worldwide innovation hub,” said an IBM statement.

When the Tampines plant was set up in 2010, the company hailed it as one of the world’s most technologically advanced manufacturing facilities to serve high-end clients across Asia, Africa and Europe.

When the Tampines plant was set up in 2010, the company hailed it as one of the world’s most technologically advanced manufacturing facilities to serve high-end clients across Asia, Africa and Europe.

An IBM executive told reporters then that the Singapore facility “gives (IBM) a geographical location close to these global clients, and provides IBM increased access to talent and suppliers crucial to the manufacturing process. It also presents us greater opportunity for operational efficiency and savings”.

But in recent years, IBM has been facing increasing pressures due to declining sales of hardware servers as clients move into cloud computing.

Bloomberg reported that the company’s workforce shrunk by 54,000 between the end of 2012 and the end of 2017 as it cut jobs in the US, Canada and other high-wage regions in cost-cutting efforts.

While its revenue grew last year, its fourth-quarter results were dragged down by poor hardware sales.

Revenue in the systems segment fell 20 per cent year on year due to a 44 per cent plunge in mainframe sales as the product is nearing the end of its cycle.

FPI said the government should heighten efforts to combat smuggling, which continues to cost the country billions of pesos in foregone revenue driven mostly by leakages in the oil sector.

The group compared the estimated revenue loss before and after the first tax reform package got implemented starting from January last year.

The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act lowered the personal income tax while raising consumption taxes.

The law, which has contributed to last year’s inflation, has been tagged by critics as anti-poor, especially since minimum wage earners will not benefit from lower personal income tax since they are exempted from the tax in the first place.

“Prior to TRAIN, we were losing an estimated P40 billion in revenue to oil smuggling,” said FPI chair Jesus Arranza.

“But with the implementation of additional excise taxes beginning 2018, we expect this number to have increased by about 30 per cent. This is why anti-smuggling efforts should be enhanced and be more targeted especially at the import terminals,” he noted.

He said that the Department of Energy should pay closer attention to importers to check on possible mis-declaration and under-declaration of oil products.

Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa told reporters last Monday that the BIR had expanded its investigation to also include about 2,000 foreigners employed in the Clark and Subic economic zones.

“They are consultants, engineers, designers, IT (information technology workers)… Our estimates showed that there are around 2,000 [foreign workers in economic zones] but what we are really prioritising are the Pogos,” Guballa said.

The BIR official said majority of the Pogo workers in the country were Chinese.

He said all of these Chinese workers in Pogos did not secure tax identification numbers (TIN) from the BIR. As such, they are not registered as taxpayers.

“We are looking for all of them. Although they are employed in online gaming, what we are checking is if they are paying their taxes,” Guballa said, as he noted that some Pogo firms actually had remittances to the BIR.

“We will check if their remittances are correct, if [payments were] below the actual [income tax] rate or below the declared income. We are counterchecking the income that they receive,” he said.

Before this month ends, the BIR will finalise the list of Pogo workers as it is currently in the process of validating data.

For those to be found not paying taxes, “we will file the corresponding necessary enforcement—if you are not registered, then we impose penalties on those unregistered.”

Guballa said many Pogos were already registering because they now know that the government was very much aware of their activities.

But even after these Pogos finally register, Guballa said the BIR “will stretch back as far as we will determine [how long they were operating so they] will pay for all the penalties of all those violations.”