A beach in Phu Quoc (Photo: VNA)
Trung said after COVID-19 infection cases were found, the provincial authorities held a meeting with local leaders and decided to zone off and trace down cases, lock down several hamlets in An Thoi ward, and raise warning level from “new normal” to “at risk”.
Therefore, the plan will still be launched in November. However, testing for SARS-CoV-2 will be added in order to ensure safety for local residents and visitors. At the same time, all residents will also be fully vaccinated, including workers coming from other areas.
The province and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism advocated making thorough preparations for the plan, contributing to promoting the country’s anti-pandemic achievements and popularising the images of Phu Quoc as a friendly, modern and safe destination for foreign visitors.
Director of the provincial Tourism Department Bui Quoc Thai said the reception to tourists from the airport and hotels will be rehearsed from November 1-11 before the island city is officially open.
During the pilot period, the scheme is only applied for those involved in full-package tours organised by travel agents, and not for those with other purposes. Foreign tourists joining in the scheme will make immigration procedures via charter or commercial flights.
The province has chosen seven enterprises in Phu Quoc, 14 four to five-star hotels with 8,000 rooms to serve foreigners. All of their staff have been given two full vaccine shots.
Conference seeks to boost investment link between Vietnam and Japan
Delegates at the conference. (Photo: nhandan.com.vn)
An online trade conference on boosting investment link between Vietnam and Japan was held on September 22, gathering representatives from more than 400 Japanese firms and Vietnamese industrial parks and businesses, reported Nhan Dan Online News.
The event was jointly held by the Ministry of Trade’s Department of Trade Promotion (VIETRADE), the Vietnam Trade Office in Japan, and the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) along with trade promotion agencies of Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.
Participants at the event reviewed the Japanese investment flows in Vietnam and discuss ways to boost the bilateral investment link in the context of the complicated development of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world and in Vietnam in particular.
Representatives from Da Nang City and Ho Chi Minh City also introduced the Japanese firms to their business investment environment, as well as their efforts and achievements in containing the pandemic while maintaining economic development.
The event aimed to provide a direct information exchange channel for businesses and investors in order to update them on the COVID-19 situation in Vietnam, thus boosting effective coordination with local authorities and relevant agencies in maintaining safe business and production activities amidst the pandemic.
A trade exchange event was also organised within the framework of the conference, attracting the participation of nearly 30 Japanese investors and Vietnamese industrial parks.
Japan increases investment in Vietnamese market despite COVID-19 challenges
Despite facing a range of adverse impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, several foreign investors have maintained their investment in the Vietnamese market, with Japan being the only major investor to increase its capital in the country, reported VOV News.
Japanese investors have injected money in Vietnam despite adverse impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: VOV)
Ta Duc Minh, Vietnamese trade counselor in Japan, said the East Asian nation is currently the fourth largest Vietnamese trading partner with a total two-way trade turnover reaching 40 billion USD.
During the opening seven months of the year, mutual import-export turnover surged by 11.9% to reach 24.5 billion USD against the same period from last year
Japan represents the second largest foreign investor with 4,690 projects capitalised at 62.9 billion USD, thereby accounting for roughly 16% of the total foreign investment capital in the nation.
Among 92 countries and territories investing in the country during the initial eight months of the year, Japan has an investment capital exceeding US$3.2 billion, accounting for 16.8% of total investment capital, and representing an annual rise of 94.9%, behind only Singapore.
Most notably, only the East Asian nation is moving to increase investment capital in the country, while other major partners like Singapore and the Republic of Korea have tended to reduce investment capital amid COVID-19 challenges.
Minh elaborated that while the global economy is seeing a strong wave of M&A on a large scale, the M&A market domestically has also become bustling with major deals, thereby turning the nation into the leading M&A destination in Southeast Asia.
Amid the trend of shifting production out of China which began back in mid-2020, several foreign investors, including Japanese financiers, have selected the Vietnamese market as a destination to redirect their focus, largely due to its political stability and positive economic growth, despite the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the world economy.
The Vietnamese M&A market continues to be led by investors from four countries, including Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Singapore.
According to experts, the size of the Vietnamese M&A market this year will be between 4.5 billion USD and 5 billion USD, with a specific focus on fields such as consumer goods, retail and real estate, industry and agriculture.
As a means of attracting more foreign investors, apart from fine-tuning the legal system and improving the local investment climate, the nation needs to be more flexible in taking pandemic prevention measures. This can be done by accelerating vaccinations for employees, reducing taxes for enterprises to stabilise production, while resolving issues regarding logistics and supply chains, said Minh.
In order to minimise the adverse impacts of the pandemic, the Government should also consider relaxing social distancing measures, while simultaneously creating favourable conditions for experts and foreign investors to return to the country to work and survey the investment climate, the Vietnamese trade counselor added./.