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| Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam (L) and President of Kiraboshi Bank Hisanobu Watanabe introduce ST25 rice (Photo: VNA) |
Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam appreciated the two sides’ efforts to bring the grain to such a high-standard market like Japan.
Vietnam is one of the world’s leading rice exporters, and the country’s grain has been available in more than 100 markets over the world. But it is the first time the ST25 rice has been shipped to Japan.
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| Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam |
The diplomat expressed his hope that more varieties of Vietnamese rice will be able to approach this choosy market.
He revealed that to bring ST25 to Japan, Vietnam must meet over 600 technical standards.
Businesses asked to use e-invoices from July 1
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| Illustrative image (Source: vnexpress) |
Except for several special cases, all enterprises, business households and individuals must use e-invoices instead of paper invoices starting from July 1, according to a circular issued by the Finance Ministry.
Vietnam News Agency reported that under Circular 78/2021/TT-BTC guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Tax Management Law and Government’s Decree 123/2020/ND-CP on invoicing regulations, before July 1, only firms that received a notification from the tax authorities were required to switch to e-invoices as stipulated in the timeframe issued by the tax department.
Previously, businesses were encouraged to switch to e-invoices if they had necessary infrastructure in place to implement the use of e-invoicing.
Meanwhile, small- and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives, business households and individuals in areas with difficult and extremely difficult conditions that are not able to make transactions with tax department via electronic methods, and have no accounting software will be exempted from using e-invoices.
In reality, the use of e-invoices has been implemented in all 63 localities across the country since April 2022. However, businesses have still reported many difficulties during the process.
Samsung emerges as largest foreign investor in Vietnam
Vietnam has attracted more than 14 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first half of 2022, and electronic giant Samsung has attained its position as the largest investor thanks to its additional large-scale investments, according to VOV News.
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| Electronic giant Samsung continues to inject money into Vietnam (Photo: thanhnien.vn) |
The Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment reported that Vietnam continued to be a magnet for foreign investment attraction due to its socio-political stability, strong economic recovery and conducive investment environment.
Many foreign manufacturers have injected new capital or expanded operations in Vietnam. Among them, Danish toy production company LEGO Group unveiled a plan to invest 1.32 billion USD in the construction of its first-ever carbon neutral factory, including investment in solar energy on a 44-hectare site in Binh Duong province.
Goertek Vina, one of three major suppliers for Apple in Vietnam, hiked its investments by approximately 306 million USD and 400 million USD for its factories in Bac Ninh and Nghe An respectively to manufacture electronics, network equipment, and multimedia audio products.
But electronic giant Samsung emerged as a pioneer in pouring additional investment capital into the country. Samsung Electronicc HCMC CE Complex Co. Ltd. (SEHC) recently funneled an additional 841 million USD into its ongoing project at Saigon Hi-tech park which manufactures household electronic products of all kinds including smart TVs, LED TVs and high-resolution monitors, printers, medical equipment and other household utensils.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electro-Metranics Vietnam also increased its investment by a further 920 million USD in its project in Thai Nguyen province that manufactures and assembles high-density interconnect printed circuit boards, components and spare parts for telecommunications and mobile devices, and other electrical and electronic products.
Domestic tourism continues to be top choice
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| An Bang Beach, Hoi An (Photo: nhandan.com.vn) |
It is estimated that Vietnam's tourism industry has served 60.8 million domestic tourists in the first six months of the year, according to Nhan Dan Online News.
This figure is more than 1.5 times the number of domestic tourists for the whole of 2021, showing that domestic tourism continues to be the first choice of Vietnamese tourists after COVID-19.
Statistics of the General Department of Tourism show that the tourism industry will serve about 40 million domestic tourists in 2022.
Thanks to the coverage of the COVID-19 vaccine, the effective fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, and the efforts of each business and each locality to renew their own tourism products, causing tourism activities in the first six months of 2022 to witness a boom.
In the months of May and June in particular, the number of domestic tourists increased to record highs for recent years, reaching 12 million and 12.2 million respectively.
The number of domestic tourists in the first 6 months of 2022 also exceeded the target of the whole year of 2022. Accordingly, the tourism industry has set a target of 2022 to serve 65 million tourists, including about 60 million domestic tourists and 5 million international visitors.
The number of domestic visitors matched indicators of a spike in domestic tourism demand. According to the Google Trends tool, the number of searches for domestic airlines and accommodation in June 2022 exploded, steadily increasing to more than 500% over the same period last year. The search peak on June 20 saw an increase of 567%.
The 10 most popular domestic destinations for Vietnamese tourists include Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Quoc, Hanoi, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Da Nang, Vung Tau, Quy Nhon, Hue, and Phan Thiet./.