Joining CPTPP – Opportunity for Vietnam to Attract Quality Investors | ANT Consulting

The UK discussed for the first time with all CPTPP members, including Vietnam, to discuss joining this agreement.

Pursuing the goal of joining the CPTPP is one of the UK government’s priorities and is an important part of the free trade strategy.

Becoming a CPTPP member not only opens new opportunities for UK businesses, but also promotes investment and trade as well as develops sustainable economic cooperation between the UK and CPTPP members.

British companies have invested nearly 98 billion pounds (125.27 billion USD) in CPTPP members in 2018. By 2019, the value of trade transactions between the UK and CPTPP member countries is more than 110 billion pounds.

CPTPP will help complement bilateral trade agreements that the UK has entered or is negotiating with CPTPP members.

Currently, the UK and Vietnam are also working hard to translate the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) into the UK-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement later this year. This will ensure continuity and bring commercial benefits to both British and Vietnamese businesses; at the same time, British businesses coming to Vietnam to set up company will also want to take advantage of attractive trade conditions.

The UK is the 15th largest investor in Vietnam in terms of investment accumulation and the 13th largest investment country in 2019. British investors who are present in Vietnam include HSBC financial services firms, Standard Chartered Bank, Prudential; Jardines in real estate; AstraZeneca and GSK in the pharmaceutical sector…

In 2019, bilateral trade in goods and services between Vietnam and the UK reached about 5.8 billion pounds (7.41 billion USD). The total trade turnover between the two countries grew at an average rate of 13% per year in the 2009-2019 period.

According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report, Vietnam’s global competitiveness 4.0 has significantly improved. Vietnam has also announced a national vision for the development of a digital economy with the goal that by 2030, a digital economy will reach 25% of GDP.

These are areas where the UK can help Vietnam such as smart city development, digitalization in construction and healthcare, fintech application to support inclusive business and financial growth.

The CPTPP will reduce tariffs between member countries by 95% and establish modern rules in areas that are increasingly important to UK businesses, including digital commerce, data, finance, and professional and business services. It is expected that areas like fintech, medtech and AI will grow rapidly.

Vietnam is the leading anti-Covid-19 country in the region. This is not only a testament to a strong public health, but also demonstrates Vietnam’s resilience. The International Monetary Fund (IFM) forecasts that Vietnam’s economic growth in 2020 will reach 2.7%. Vietnam has become the fastest growing economy in the region, outside Singapore; increasingly open to global trade…

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Vietnam and Denmark promote clean energy development | ANT Consulting

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam has cooperated with Denmark on clean energy development. Denmark has contributed to provide an important foundation for economical and efficient use of energy in Vietnam.

Another important cooperation content of the Vietnam – Denmark Energy Partnership Cooperation Program is the biennial publication of the Vietnam Energy Outlook Report. This report emphasizes energy efficiency as a cost-effective tool for Vietnam’s green transition to 2030 and 2050 and recommends investment in energy-saving technologies because of this technology will be more cost effective due to the significant savings in fuel costs. Economical and efficient use of energy has many benefits, including major benefits to society such as reducing environmental pollution and enhancing national energy security.

Vietnam is a country with the potential to develop clean energy such as wind energy, solar energy, tidal energy, … with the advantage of being a country adjacent to the sea, near the equator, with high hours of sunshine in a year, these are enough for Vietnam to become a country with a sustainable clean energy base. However, due to many objective factors, Vietnam has not been able to make good use of this resource. The limitation in science, technology, engineering and finance makes the clean energy sector in Vietnam not really focused on development.

Denmark is a European country with many years of experience in clean energy development. After many years of researching the clean energy market in Vietnam, many Danish investors have found the benefit and the ability to develop this field. With the goal of developing clean energy, providing energy efficient and safe platforms. Meanwhile, Denmark has many companies in wind and solar power and is very interested in market entry into Vietnam market through setting up company, or manufacturing in Vietnam.

In addition, Danish investors also promote development, investment cooperation, building smart city in Vietnam, apply science and technology applications and clean energy to build and develop a sustainable way. Therefore, this is an opportunity for Vietnam to attract energy investment from Denmark and also an opportunity for Danish investors to invest in Vietnam. In the coming time, Vietnam hopes to have more investors from Denmark implementing energy development projects in Vietnam so that they can reap high returns for both investors and Vietnam in the future.

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Tips to reduce risks when purchasing medical supplies from Vietnam | ANT Consulting

 As the Covid 19 pandemic is still occurring in many countries around the world, a large number of medical equipment or accessories being Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as N95 respirator masks, surgical masks and other items essential to protecting doctors, nurses, others on the front lines of the pandemic are required to be purchased and sold from many different countries to meet the demand for treatment disease globally.

Vietnam is a country that has many enterprises producing medical supplies such as medical gloves, medical masks, which are the focal points supplying goods to many businesses around the world. However, buying and selling quickly, and without researching their partners has caused many businesses to face many risks when purchasing of medical supplies in Vietnam. Here are some tips for buying and selling medical equipment in Vietnam safely and effectively.

Searching for a partner is the necessary work. Currently, to meet the increasing demand for buying and selling medical supplies, many companies switch to the medical supplies business as the broker to take opportunities in this field. It will help the buyer finding a selling partner more convenient because more brokers reach out to buyers. However, there are many sellers who do not have a valid business registration or are not able to supply the goods, however, they still approach the buyer and guarantee to deliver the goods on request. Many buyers have been deceived by businesses that are not capable of doing business with the deposits, failure to deliver goods, deliver the wrong quality, quantity, … Therefore, searching for the seller carefully, and undertaking due diligence on the seller with the help of local risk management company will help buyers to avoid the risks of buying the wrong goods.

In terms of product prices, when buying medical supplies from a third party (not directly from the manufacturer), the price of the equipment could increase many times compared to the price offered by the manufacturer. Sometimes, the brokers could not fix the price because their offering price depend on the buying price they receive from manufacturers or traders while the supply of goods are not guaranteed. This could create problems for the buyer if the delivery and price have been committed to final clients oversea with hefty fine clauses if breaching the contract.

When trading with an unqualified seller, there is a risk that the seller cannot meet the required quantity of the goods, especially in the case of the sellers are not the manufacturer. Because the number of goods produced could not meet the demand, in fact, many manufacturing companies in Vietnam have stopped accepting orders for some time from many customers. However, many the third-party continue to receive orders from buyers, resulting in an inability to deliver on time or inability to meet the required quantity. When having a request for delivery from the buyer, these sellers will not answer the buyer’s questions, refuse to receive phone calls, emails, … leading to the buyer being inaccessible to the seller at this time which affects the business of the buyer.

Especially in the difficult situation when limited traveling between countries are allowed due to the pandemic, the discussion via electronic means such as Email or social network platforms, … will help the parties can discuss in an easy way. However, discussion or exchange of information via electronic means, will meet potentially risk when the buyer exchange with another third party (who may not be representative of the seller). In many cases, the parties exchange messages via regular messaging apps, which cannot determine if the subject exchanging is exactly the seller or not. In the event of a dispute when buying or selling goods, this proof is that the message which cannot determine the sender shall not be enough to prove the wrongdoings. Therefore, when exchanging communication, the parties should take precaution steps to verify the other parties ensuring the exchange is carried out properly with the authorized person.

In addition, to ensure the rights in the purchase and sale of medical supplies, signing the sale and purchase contracts is extremely important. The contracts should be in written and duly signed and stamped by parties. Trusting in business should be accompanied with legal documents for sustainable business. When performing the contract in accordance with the regulations of the law will help the parties to limit risks and this is considered as specific legal evidence that forces the parties to comply with regulations and ensure their rights when buying and selling goods, especially international sale goods.

Finally, with significant transaction, the buyer could minimize risks through the helps of local risk management company in Vietnam to undertake due diligence on the seller’s business registration certificate, business location, real operation at site, adverse media check for past wrongdoings and general personal or corporate reputation.

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How to minimize risks buying from Vietnam sellers in the new era? | ANT Consulting

 Currently, the purchase and sale of international goods are very popular from Vietnam and around the world, taking the advantage of Vietnam the signing a number of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), and the application of technology 4.0 in the business helping the international transaction of goods just got easier. However there are many risks involved in the meantime for international buyer purchasing goods from Vietnam sellers if due diligence on the seller, whether being corporates or individuals are not under taken.

In the international goods sale and purchase using technology, the best benefits are that, the parties in the transaction do not need to meet, negotiate, and check goods before buying. All of the international goods purchase and sale activities are done via the internet means such as Website, Email, Social media,… which help parties save time and costs when doing the purchase. However, the use of digital technology in the goods sale and purchase transactions still has many hidden risks that the buyer cannot foresee.

Specifically, in the process of discussion of the purchase and sale of international goods, there are many cases where the Vietnam seller does not provide the expected quantity of goods or the goods are meet the minimum quality requested by the buyer, but the seller still signs the contract and require the buyer make the deposit/payment before delivery. Some time, all the transactions are conducted via social media and there is no contract at all. Unless the transaction is small, it is always suggested a proper contract to be properly signed with the envision of potential disputes might arise.

Further, there might be fraudulent activities involved taking advantage of the urgent needs of buyers whom skip the process of verifying the business partner for business existence, reputation, financial capability, bad history, and potential fraudulent acts. In some cases, the seller could go further to forge legal documents, quality certificates, … to create confidence for the buyer in performing the contract. Some lure buyers by creating fake websites, fake contracts, fake phone numbers, …using alias names to avoid being traced when taking fraudulent activities.

With significant transaction, the buyer could minimize risks through the helps of local partner on the ground to check the seller’s legal documents including corporate documents to be able to trace back the and if the seller does not perform, at least they could be located for legal action. The buyer could send people to physically check the seller’s office, factory to ensure that the seller operates at the registered address. Before making a deposit, the buyer could check if the beneficiary’s account matches the seller’s registered account. The more information about the partner, the better. The buyer needs to thoroughly check the information that their partners provide including phone numbers, emails, bank accounts, business registration certificate, and other legal documents … If involved significant transactions, more emphasis on risk management especially understanding business partners through corporate intelligence investigation, background studying adverse media search on company, owners, shareholders, business managers through professional background check consultants in Vietnam whom understand languages, cultures, legal environment and business practices could help.

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