Vietnam News Today (Sep. 13): Vietnam Treasures Relations with Japan

Illustrative image. Photo: VNA

Vietnam reports 2,013 Covid-19 cases on September 12

A total of 2,013 new Covid-19 cases were recorded on September 12, an increase of nearly 600 compared to the previous day, according to the Ministry of Health.

The new infections brought the country’s total caseload since the pandemic broke out to 11,441,626, cited VNA.

Also on September 12, 15,100 patients were declared to recover from the disease, lifting the total number of recoveries to 10,337,137.

Meanwhile, one death was reported on the day, raising the total fatalities to 43,130, accounting for 0.4% of the total infections.

More than 258.69 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered so far.

Vietnam, US expand cooperation on higher education

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has signed its first-ever Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) to improve the quality of Vietnamese higher education.

MoET Minister Nguyen Kim Son and USAID/Vietnam Mission Director Aler Grubbs signed the MOU on September 9, at a ceremony hosted by MoET.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) sign its first-ever Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) to improve the quality of Vietnamese higher education. Photo: VOV

The MOU builds upon USAID’s decade-long cooperation with Vietnam on higher education partnership programs. The MOU expands USAID’s support to MoET to advance Vietnam’s higher education to be even more innovative and competitive.

“We applaud the Government of Vietnam on its reforms to build a globally-competitive higher education system,” said Mission Director Grubbs during remarks delivered at the ceremony. “This first-ever MOU between USAID and the Ministry of Education and Training marks our ongoing commitment to collaborate on a wide range of higher education partnership programs that will directly support MoET’s ambitious higher education reform goals.”

Vietnam’s 2018 Revised Law on Higher Education is prompting significant changes to move the country toward a more open higher education system. The law sets out details for public universities to have new authorities around curriculum, recruitment, enrollments, and resource mobilization and management. USAID supports Vietnam’s efforts to modernize its higher education system, according to VOV.

In partnership with US higher education institutions and the private sector, USAID is helping Vietnamese universities to improve academic quality and enhance institutional governance to serve as modern models of higher education and drive Vietnam’s socio-economic development.

Many of these programs have connected Vietnamese universities with leading US higher education institutions and private sector companies to develop innovations in teaching and learning, accreditation, curriculum reform, research, and university and industry linkages.

With the signing of the MOU, USAID will support MoET with a new project that will provide direct technical assistance to review and improve higher education policies. Improving policies will advance university autonomy, quality assurance, digital transformation and innovations in key sectors that are critical to Vietnam’s continued economic growth and development.

Vietnam treasures relations with Japan: Party official

A delegation of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) led by Truong Thi Mai, Politburo member, Secretary of the CPV Central Committee and head of its Organizing Commission, paid a working visit to Japan from September 9-12.

During her stay, Mai, who is also President of the Vietnam-Japan Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group, met with Japanese President of the House of Councillors Hidehisa Otsuji, Chairman of the Japan - Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Alliance Toshihiro Nikai, and Tsutomu Takebe, Special Advisor to the alliance.

The delegation also visited Hokkaido prefecture where over 10,000 Vietnamese people are living and working, attended the Vietnam Festival in Sapporo - the capital of Hokkaido, and met the prefecture’s Governor Naomichi Suzuki, reported VNA.

At the reception. Photo: VNA

During the meetings, Mai affirmed Vietnam’s consistent policy of attaching importance to its relations with Japan, and its wish to deepen the bilateral relations, for the common interests of the two countries' people, and contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

She proposed the Japanese leaders and officials support both sides’ efforts to strengthen political ties, promote relations between the two parliaments, and boost cooperation in economy, trade, human resources, labour, hi-tech agriculture and health, and pay more attention to the Vietnamese community in the country.

The hosts affirmed that Vietnam is an important partner of Japan, and agreed with measures to promote the bilateral ties proposed by the Vietnamese side.

The Japanese side also made several cooperation initiatives such as assisting Vietnam in the fields of agriculture and health, while stressing the importance of collaboration in human resources training.

They said that they will organise delegations to visit Vietnam to further develop their bilateral ties, especially when the two countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2023.

Nation welcomes arrival of further 1.5 million doses of Pfizer vaccines

Approximately 1.5 million additional doses of Covid-19 vaccines for children aged 12 and above produced by Pfizer of the United States arrived in the country on September 12, according to National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

The move aims to boost the supply of vaccines to the nation amid the number of severe Covid-19 cases increasing.

At present the country has administered roughly 258.7 million Covid-19 vaccine shots, cited VOV.

Photo: VOV

It is now one of the nations with the largest vaccination coverage globally as almost 100% of people aged 18 and above have now received their first or second dose. In addition, 77.3% of the population have had their third dose and 78.8% of the population have had their fourth inoculation.

In addition, in the 12 to 17 age group, first-and-second-dose coverage also hit almost 100%, while third-dose coverage reached 55.2%.

After five months of implementing Covid-19 vaccinations for children aged five to 12, over 16.1 million doses have been administered, with first-dose coverage hitting 86.4% and second-dose coverage reaching 58.1%.

Outlook bright for many industries in second half of year

Businesses with good profit growth in the first six months are expected to decline in the rest of the year, whereas the group of businesses that saw sharp dip in profits in the second quarter will have the opportunity to recover and accelerate.

In the report for the second half of the year, FiinGroup assessed that the real estate and basic resources industries are the main cause of the decrease in profit after tax growth rate due to unfavourable business activities, amid regulators are trying to tighten policies to control corporate bond issuance and lending (for residential real estate) and rising raw material prices as well as falling demand (for steel).

Excluding these sectors, profit after tax of the remaining industries continued to post an impressive growth of 64.2 per cent, largely contributed by export-related industries, including chemicals, commodities, food, and industrial services, and benefiting from a rebound in consumer demand post-Covid-19.

FiinGroup said that most of the industries with high growth in the second quarter are expected to slow down in the second half of 2022. Accordingly, chemicals, fisheries, fertilisers, logistics, shipping, garments, and rubber are forecasted to hardly maintain a high growth momentum in the final months due to weak exports and a sharp drop in commodity prices.

The expansion of the personal goods industry will also face challenges, as inflation, while slowing, will continue to have a negative impact on jewellery purchasing power for the rest of the year, VNS reported.

For the information technology sector, inflation and recession risks in major economies, including the US and European countries, can limit global demand for software. This could be a risk to FPT Corporation’s profit growth because the foreign market contributes about 37 per cent of its profit after tax in the second quarter.

In contrast, the industries whose profits dropped sharply in the second quarter have chances to recover. For example, in the dairy industry, the profit margin of dairy enterprises fell to a very low level in the second quarter of 2022 and is expected to improve in the third quarter thanks to the decrease in the price of raw milk. The Global Dairy Trade Index fell 30 per cent from the peak set in March and reached its lowest level since early 2021.

Dairy products on shelves at a supermarket. Dairy producers are expected to post positive performances during the rest of 2022. Photo: sggp.org.vn

Similarly, livestock companies were negatively affected by the soaring prices of animal feed and the sharp drop in the selling price of live pigs. With corn and soybean meal prices falling greatly, FiinGroup believes the livestock industry’s profit will recover well in the second half of 2022.

There are many other industries that are expected to experience accelerated profits in the second half of 2022, according to the report, including plastic pipe manufacturers, the pharmaceutical industry, and non-financial sectors.

Of which, the sharp correction of plastic resins prices helped plastic pipe producers record a growth of 77 per cent over last year in profit after tax in the second quarter. The prices of plastic resins are expected to continue to go down along with oil price movements in the second half of 2022.

For the pharmaceutical industry, the Ministry of Health re-organises tenders for purchasing drugs and medical supplies after many months of hiatus. This is a positive support for the profit growth of enterprises focusing on distribution through hospital channels (ETC).

Meanwhile, in terms of valuation, the non-financial sector is currently valued at 16.6 times the profit of the last four quarters, down 27.3 per cent from the beginning of the year thanks to the strong decline of 15 per cent in share prices since the beginning of the year. On the other hand, the first six months' profit increased by 37.4 per cent. This valuation is equivalent to the 2011-to-date average but higher than the 2015-2016 average (13.3x) and the period 2011-2012 (12.1x).

The non-financial sector's estimated price per earning ratio (P/E) valuation for 2022 may reach 13.9x based on its expected profit outlook for 2022. In a conservative scenario, FiinGroup believes that the profit after tax in 2022 may rise by 35.6 per cent thanks to high growth in the first half of the year.

The profit after tax growth in the second half of 2022 may reach 32.3 per cent.

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