Vietnam News Today (Apr. 16): Australia Supports Climate Action Cooperation With Vietnam

Australian Ambassador Kristin Tilley (L) meets with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet, discussing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership plan of action for climate adaptation and resilience. (Photo: Australian Embassy)

Australia supports climate action cooperation with Vietnam

Australian Ambassador for Climate Change Kristin Tilley visited Vietnam last week to further cooperation and strengthen bilateral engagement on climate and energy, according to the Australian Embassy in Hanoi.

During the working trip that took her to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho, Tilley met senior government officials to continue momentum following recent high-level exchanges between Australia and Vietnam, in particular the recent elevation of the bilateral relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which includes a dedicated climate and energy pillar.

She shared Australia’s approach to climate diplomacy in a policy exchange on climate and energy with the Vietnam - Australia Centre at the Ho Chi Minh Academy of Politics in Hanoi, cited VOV.

The Ambassador also took part in the Australia-Vietnam Green Economy Summit alongside Australian Government Assistant Minister for Climate and Energy Senator Jenny McAllister. Her visit to Can Tho highlighted Australia’s support for climate adaptation and resilience in the Mekong Delta region firsthand.

“Australia is partnering with Vietnam to support our mutual ambition for energy transition and decarbonisation and to address the key challenge of our generation through ambitious climate action,” said Tilley.

“I am proud the Australia-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership includes a standalone pillar dedicated to climate and energy cooperation, the first of its kind for Australia. This strong commitment signals to the region, and to the world, that Vietnam and Australia not only recognise the impact of the climate crisis, but the importance of boldly addressing the challenges and harnessing the opportunities to strengthen economies.”

“Golden” chance to start domestic tourism boom

The upcoming National Reunification Day (April 30) and May Day (May 1) holidays, which spans five days from April 27 to May 1 and marks the start of the peak season, will provide a "golden" chance for the tourism sector to promote growth through domestic and international traveling activities.

This year, many visitors are heading to the northern province of Dien Bien, the host of the Visit Vietnam Year 2024, where various activities have been held to mark the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory.

Nguyen Van Hoan, a resident of Hoang Mai district in Hanoi said that for the holidays this year, due to high air fares, he chooses to visit Dien Bien instead of visiting his son in Ho Chi Minh City. The war veteran said he and his friends bought a tour from a travel firm to visit the site of the glorious historic victory.

Catching this trend, many travel companies have designed tours to Dien Bien, which is easy to access by land and air.

Along with historical relic sites, Dien Bien also boasts unique cultures of local ethnic minority groups such as Mong, Xa Phang and Dao.

Other popular destinations in the north include Hoa Binh, Ninh Binh, Ha Nam, Thanh Hoa, Hai Phong, Bac Ninh and Nam Dinh, according to VNA.

Dien Bien province, the host of the Visit Vietnam Year 2024 and home to the Dien Bien Phu Victory, is a popular choice for many tourists in the upcoming National Reunification Day (April 30) and May Day (May 1) holidays 2024. (Photo: VNA)

In the central region, Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An are among top choices. Particularly, visitors can enjoy a heritage train tour connecting the three destinations and admire the natural beauty along the route passing through the Hai Van Pass, which was named among the 10 most beautiful drives in the world.

Many travel firms have made use of railways for their tours in 2024 to provide new experience for domestic tourists with a reasonable price amid high air fares.

Meanwhile, many tourists choose outbound tours. A representative from Saigontourist said that the firm has coordinated with Vietnam Airlines to build more than 200 tours, expecting to serve more than 110,000 visitors, of whom nearly 60% choose outbound tours.

Pham Van Thuy, Vice Director of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the industry has designed plans to roll out comprehensive measures to attract visitors and meet the diverse demands of domestic and international travelers, while renovating methods and contents of tourism promotion.

At the Vietnam International Travel Mart (VITM) 2024 that took place from April 11-14 in Hanoi, tour operators offered more than 10,000 tours and tourism products with attractive promotion during the five-day holidays and upcoming summer. At the event, Vietnam Airlines offered 10,500 seats for the peak tourism season.

Heat wave grips regions, temperatures rise to 42 degrees

A heat wave has hit the northern and central regions over recent days, causing daytime temperatures to rise up to 40-42 degrees Celsius in some areas.

On April 14 alone, the northern and central regions saw daytime temperatures climb to 41 degrees in Son La and Dien Bien in north-western Vietnam, and in Nghe An province in the central region.

Notably, Yen Chau district in Son La province even recorded a high temperature of 42.2 degrees, becoming the locality with the highest temperature in the country on April 14, VOV reported.

A heat wave has hit the northern and central regions over recent days. (Photo: vtc.vn)

According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Weather Forecasting, hot weather will spread across the northern and central regions, from Dien Bien and Son La to Thanh Hoa and Phu Yen provinces, with daytime temperatures ranging from 35 to 38 degrees.

As the El Nino phenomenon is subsiding, from May to July, the Central Highland and the southern regions will suffer from drought, while the northern and central regions will experience extremely hot days, according to meteorologists.

Doctors warn that hot spells could threaten people’s health, especially children and the elderly, and especially laborers working outdoors for a long time. Children are therefore advised to be kept in airy homes during hot days, avoid bathing in the sea from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., vaccinate fully, and maintain a clean living area.

Apple announces increasing investment in Vietnam

US-based tech giant Apple will increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam – a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook is paying a two-day visit to the country, starting on April 15.

The group announced the information in a statement on its website but gave no details of how much it will spend as well as where the money will go.

During his stay in Vietnam, Cook will meet with programmers, students, and content creators, cited VNA.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is on a two-day visit to Vietnam. (Photo: VNA)

Apple will boost its connection with local suppliers, clean water projects and education opportunities, Cook was quoted as saying on his arrival.

The company has spent nearly 16 billion USD since 2019 through its local supply chain, and more than doubled its annual spending to Vietnam during the same period. Since its operation in Vietnam a decade ago, Apple has helped generate more than 200,000 jobs.

Vietnam is among the five leading mobile game producers in the world. Apple’s iOS app economy has seen jobs in the country nearly tripling since 2017.

Vietnamese foods on way to conquer global market

Vietnamese foods are ranked fifth in the global food category, including organic foods. Many businesses are creating more products to expand their presence in the global market.

General Director Nguyen Dang Hien of Tan Quang Minh Production and Trading Company said that using only the traditional recipe of processing lemons into Vietnamese salted lemon drink, the company's salted lemon beverage product Bidrico has been displayed in the US, Japanese and Chinese markets.

Surprisingly, after the company launched its products in foreign markets, it has been popular amongst customers abroad. From that success, the company has expanded to many other products such as bird's nest juice, aloe vera juice, and orange juice. The company's production capacity has so far reached 400 million liters of all kinds of fruit juices yearly.

Similarly, General Director Pham Thi Xuan Huong of OPC Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company said that through many years of research, the company found that Ngoc Linh ginseng is a precious medicinal herb because its active ingredients contain over 52 types of Saponin, including 26 types that are not found in other types of ginseng in the world.

In particular, Ngoc Linh ginseng contains MR2, which has the effect of preventing and inhibiting the growth of tumors and enhancing users’ health. Therefore, the company has successfully extracted the MR2 content in Ngoc Linh ginseng and mixed it with domestic bird's nest to launch the product Sanolin 20 Ngoc Linh ginseng and bird's nest.

Right after the launch of the products, the company received more export orders from partners in the US, European and many Asian countries. This product is just one of hundreds of the company's products that have successfully conquered the global market. Ms. Huong added that in 2023, the company received many businesses from the United States, Europe, and Japan that wished to cooperate and invest in the production of nutritional drinks from Vietnamese agricultural products and medicinal herbs to export back to the three above-mentioned markets.

Many businesses believe that Vietnam possesses diverse agricultural and food products. Therefore, businesses need to standardize the growing process according to international standards combining with investment in packaging and branding, they can expand their market shares.

Photo: VNN

Huynh Van Thon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Loc Troi Group, shared that as soon as the group's exported rice products with the brand ‘Vietnamese Rice’ was built, the company's products were introduced into two distribution systems, Carrefour and Leclerc, with nearly 800 hypermarkets and more than 3,000 supermarkets and convenience store chains throughout France. As a result, the company's revenue has increased significantly.

He revealed that by the end of 2023, Loc Troi Group reached a revenue of more than VND16,000 billion, growing more than 38 percent compared to 2022. This outstanding growth is thanks to the main contribution of the food industry with more than VND11,000 billion accounting for 70 percent of total revenue.

In the first quarter of 2024, an influx of foreign investors into Vietnam poured a total investment capital of US$6.17 billion, an increase of 13.4 percent over the same period last year.

Foreign enterprises decided to invest in 17 economic sectors and their capital poured most into the processing and manufacturing industry with a total investment capital of nearly $3.93 billion, accounting for nearly 63.6 percent of total registered investment capital. Even domestically, the market also witnessed the race to expand the production investment scale and market share of food processing corporations such as Korean CJ Group, Kido, Vissan, Acecook, and Bidrico.

President Nguyen Thi Kim Huyen of LNS International Corporation, emphasized that about 7 million Vietnamese people living in foreign countries want to enjoy Vietnamese products, SGGP reported.

However, in order for Vietnamese products to be traded globally, businesses need to invest in machinery and equipment as well as constantly research to improve product quality. The product must be good to retain customers. In addition, businesses must have full information on nutritional ingredients which must suit each market. In particular, the product must be exported through the official route to ensure stability and sustainability in the market.

In addition, it is necessary to see that the majority of Vietnam's agricultural, aquatic, seafood and processed food export groups enjoy a zero tax rate thanks to free trade agreements. Therefore, businesses should necessarily make the most of this advantage, and at the same time exploit more exclusive elements of traditional flavors to expand market share globally, Mr. Huynh Van Thon shared.

Paying attention to other elements, director Nguyen Dang Hien said that the transition to a green economy is creating more advantages for Vietnam in general and food processing enterprises. In addition to the improvement of production lines and technology to meet green technical barriers, organic farming will help farmers, cooperatives, and businesses increase revenue from selling carbon credits. This is also an important factor to help Vietnamese products improve their competitiveness in the market. In addition, businesses in this field also have the opportunity to exploit a new and potential market - the Halal market.

However, in addition to solutions such as capital support and preferential investment policies, trade promotion programs need to be practical and effective to promote the export of Vietnamese products in general in the coming time. Commercial counselors need to make more to lead Vietnamese firms into the global market, Mr. Nguyen Dang Hien emphasized.

Deputy Director Cao Thi Phi Van of Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center disclosed that room for agricultural and food exports is huge.

Statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center show that Vietnamese enterprises have exported products to 200 export markets including 50 key markets with the global Halal market becoming a new, potential market for Vietnamese businesses as the Halal food market size was valued at $2.3 billion annually.

Vietnam is one of the largest agricultural and aquatic product exporting countries in the world with many products suitable to the needs of consumers in the Halal food market such as rice, rubber, tea, cashews, coffee, pepper, shrimp, and fish. Currently, it is estimated that Vietnam's import-export turnover to Muslim countries in the ASEAN region is nearly US$30 billion a year and the room for exports to these markets is quite huge.

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