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| The Anan Saigon's owner and chef Peter Cuong Franklin (Photo: oivietnam.com) |
According to VOV, the Anan Saigon is a restaurant that turns street food flavours into contemporary creations and was the only Vietnamese representative to be ranked among the top 40. Last year saw the eatery placed at 65th in the list.
The restaurant’s name comes from the Vietnamese words "an an", meaning ‘eat eat’, and is located in Cho Cu, the oldest wet market in the centre of Ho Chi Minh City along Ton That Dam street.
Anan Saigon was originally founded by Peter Cuong Franklin, a Vietnamese-American chef who studied at Le Cordon Bleu and trained at world-famous restaurants, including Caprice in Hong Kong (China), Alinea in Chicago, and Nahm in Bangkok.
Other outstanding restaurants to make the list were Le Du of Bangkok, Sezanne of Tokyo, Nusara of Bangkok, Den of Tokyo, Gaggan Anand of Bangkok, Odette of Singapore, Florilege of Tokyo, La Cime of Osaka, Sorn of Bangkok, and Narisawa of Tokyo.
The 'Asia's 50 Best Restaurants' list was originally created by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, a group of more than 300 leaders operating in the restaurant industry throughout Asia.
This year, the list was revealed through an awards ceremony held on March 28 in Singapore.
World cultural heritage striving to welcome 300,000 visitors in 2023
The UNESCO-recognised My Son Sanctuary in the central province of Quang Nam is striving to welcome 300,000 visitors in 2023, according the management board of the heritage site, reported VNA.
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| On average, the site receives up to 1,500 visitors a day in the first months of this year, mostly from the Republic of Korea, Japan, the US, the EU, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and China. (Photo: VNA) |
On average, the site received up to 1,500 visitors a day in the first months of this year, mostly from the Republic of Korea, Japan, the US, the EU, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and China.
To better serve visitors, the board has been implementing several digital transformation projects to improve conservation efficiency and promote heritage values, including digitising artefacts preserved at the site and the museum.
Once the religious and political capital of the Champa Kingdom, My Son Sanctuary is located in a hilly landscape in Duy Phu commune, Duy Xuyen district, about 70 km southwest of central Da Nang city and 40 km from Hoi An city.
The sanctuary was recognised as a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO in 1999. It comprises eight groups of 71 monuments built throughout the 7th to 13th century. Having their spiritual origin from Hinduism of the Indian sub-continent, My Son temples were built to the Hindu divinities such as Krishna and Vishnu, but above all Shiva.
The first construction of My Son dated back to the 4th century under the reign of Bhadravarman for the worship of God Shiva-Bhadresvara. But later on, the temple was destroyed.
At the beginning of the 7th century, King Sambhuvarman had it rebuilt. Each new monarch came to My Son after his accession to the throne for the ceremony of purification and to present offerings and erect new monuments, which explains why My Son was the only place where Cham art flourished without interruption from the 7th to 13th century.
According to the UNESCO, conservation of the My Son monuments began in the early part of the 20th century soon after their discovery in modern times by French archaeologists. As a result of wars, many tower temples were damaged. However, preservation work has been carried out and the remaining tower temples have been maintained and are well-preserved./.
Key Vietnamese agro-forestry-aquatic exports plummet
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam’s export of several key agro-forestry-aquatic products endured a sharp drop on the impact of rising inflation globally, causing its first-quarter export turnover to decline by 14.4% year on year to US$11.2 billion.
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| Key Vietnamese agro-forestry-aquatic exports plummet (Source: VOV) |
March alone witnessed the country’s agro-forestry-aquatic exports bring in more than US$4.6 billion, representing a fall of 6.5% compared to the same period from last year, reported VOV.
Major items which contributed to pulling back the industry’s growth, were coffee, rubber, tea, pepper, pangasius, shrimp, timber and wood products, rattan, bamboo, and sedge mats.
In contrast, some items which recorded higher export value included rice (US$952 million, up 30.2%), fruit and vegetables (US$935 million, up 10.6%), cashew nuts (US$708 million, up 14.2%), milk and dairy products (US$33.3 million, up 22.2%), and meat products (US$37 billion, up 80.1%).
China remained the largest importer of Vietnamese agro-forestry-aquatic products, with turnover reaching US$2.4 billion and accounting for 21.5% of the overall market share.
The United States ranked second with US$2.04 billion, followed by Japan with US$936 million, and the Republic of Korea with US$528 million
The MARD pointed out that the sharp decline can be attributed to the global economic slowdown, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and high inflation hitting some major economies around the world.
Experts have advised local businesses to take the full advantage of new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs), especially the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) in an effort to accelerate the export of key products moving forward.
The MARD revealed that it plans to organise a conference on enhancing trade connectivity among border provinces between Vietnam and China to support enterprises in signing new export orders in the near future.
Vietnamese rice export prices on the rise globally
The export price of Vietnamese rice in the first quarter of the year recorded an annual rise of 9.2% on average to reach US$531 per tonne, VOV cited the data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
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| Vietnamese rice export prices on the rise globally (Source: VOV) |
Vietnam exported 1.79 million tonnes of rice for US$952 million in the past three months, down 19.3% in volume but up 30.2% in value compared to the same period last year.
On average, the price of Vietnamese rice in January and February stood at US$519.3 and US$528.5 per tonne respectively.
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| Photo for illustration (Source: baochinhphu.vn) |
Vietnamese 5% broken rice was sold at US$450 per tonne in late March, up US$5 per tonne compared to the beginning of the month.
Addressing a conference on rice exports held in late February, Nguyen Ngoc Nam, chairman of the Vietnam Food Association, stated that rice exports would continue to reap a greater profit as rice prices are forecast to remain high in the second quarter.
Import orders from traditional markets such as China, Indonesia, and Africa are likely to keep rising moving forward, he predicted.
The first two months of this year has seen the value of Vietnamese rice exports to Indonesia increase by 304.6 times, the highest among export markets, while the value of exports to China also nearly doubled compared to the same period last year.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), several countries are at risk of drought in the second half of the year and food production may therefore decline. To ensure food security, the FAO is seeking to increase the purchase of rice reserves, and the move will benefit Vietnam, one of the leading rice exporters in the world./.