Is Apple About to Set-up Company in Vietnam?

In the August 2015 work plan of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, it has been recently revealed that a section to review the registration of a company named Apple Vietnam company limited. Is it the American multinational teconology company with its famous products i.e. Mac, Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, Apple watch…about to set-up company in Vietnam to promote and distribute its own products i.e. the upcoming Iphone 6s, and Iphone 6s plus?

According to the information from the official dealer of Apple in Vietnam, Apple has already had a representative in Vietnam and began contacting with agents in the country from early 2015. The current business activities of Apple with domestic partners are done through Apple Thailand. Therefore, Apple’s representative in Vietnam will help to smooth out this arrangement because of the better understanding the local market and no language barrier.

Although Apple has not had their representative office or official company in Vietnam but they have many authorized dealers to sell its products. Apple products like the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have always led the top 10 selling phones in many domestic retail systems since its launching in late 2014. According to the statistic of IDC, in the first quarter of 2015, Apple ranked 2nd in value in the largest smart phone manufacturers in Vietnam; in the tablet market, Apple accounted for 16.6% of the market – ranked 2nd in the market – but accounted for 29.1%, the highest in terms of market value.

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TPP Helps Vietnam Become an Important Base in The World Production Chain

Vietnam is considered to be the biggest beneficiary country of the 12 countries participating in the TPP.

The fact that countries which have large markets like the US, Japan and Canada reducing import tax to 0% for Vietnam goods will create tremendous boost to export of Vietnam. Particularly the textile industry, turnover could increase significantly.

The textile and footwear industries, the agricultural, forestry and fishery goods of Vietnam will have the opportunity to increase export significantly.

Joining TPP will also help Vietnam and other countries to have new opportunities from new supply chain, which will be formed after TPP takes effect. TPP countries currently account for 40% of global GDP and 30% of global trade. Moreover, it includes major markets such as USA, Japan which will certainly open up many opportunities when the new supply chain formed.

Accordingly, a number of corporations and large companies in the world have considered investing in Vietnam with the goal of making Vietnam become one of the important bases in their production chain. Joining TPP will help this trend grow stronger, which is an important condition for Vietnam to step on stage to develop new industries with higher technological contents.

The commitments in TPP in service and investment are also expected to have a positive effect in improving the investment environment, contribute to attracting foreign investment. Many studies confirm that foreign investment will increase as TPP takes effect.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that Vietnam enterprises will also can join into the public procurement market in the United States, Japan, Canada… According to the data from the US, the market for public procurement of this country is about 10-12 billion USD each year. This is an attractive distribution channel for export goods from Vietnam.

The completion and strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights will open opportunities to attract investment in sectors with high knowledge content, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, including bio-medicine and especially vaccine.

TPP will create condition for enhancing growth, creating job and increasing income, contributing to poverty alleviation, improving the quality of human resources and health care for the community.

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Will Vietnam Become The Silicon Valley of South East Asia?

15 years ago, it was hard to find an information technology (IT) company in Vietnam, but now there are nearly 14,000 IT enterprises that produce and develop hardware, software and digital. The Government of Vietnam considered high-tech industry as one of the pillars to promote economic growth of the country. Vietnam has invested heavily in the construction of infrastructure and adopts economic policies to encourage both domestic and foreign enterprises to invest and do business in Vietnam.

Besides, Vietnam has more than 90 million in population with average age of over 30 years old, in which the number of programmers, engineers, young entrepreneurs and students are increasing, that will be the effort to promote economic growth and technological innovation in the country.

More than 20 years ago, the leading technology corporation IBM has opened an office in Da Nang in 1992 and then opened in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City in 1994. Also in 2012, Da Nang was recognized by IBM as one of 33 most dynamic cities in the world and was awarded by the company with 50 million USD under the program to support the improvement of infrastructure in three years time.

Many hi-tech parks are established under the IT projects of Vietnam in 2020 that has been responsive to the growing demand for infrastructure for hardware manufacturing, companies producing software and international information technology… This is giving the central city of Vietnam strength to become a center of high-tech boom.

Moreover, three largest IT universities in Vietnam (that are located in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City) are the main workforce for the high-tech zone with hundreds of IT students graduating each year. Many young engineers were recruited immediately to famous companies such as Cisco, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Intel, LG, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba.

In October 2015, the Vietnam IT Conference will be held in Ho Chi Minh City with the attendance of representatives from 150 multinational IT companies, along with more than 200 IT companies from Vietnam and 20 universities. There will be speeches from Gartner, KPMG, HP, LogiGear, Microsoft, Samsung. This is the chance for Vietnam IT industry to present to the world and everyone will witness the boom of the Vietnam IT industry.

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US Billionaire Mark Mobius Expanding Investment in Vietnam

US billionaire Mark Mobius – one of the most famous investor in the world visited Vietnam to seek and expand investment through M&A in Vietnam.

In the world, billionaire Mark Mobius is considered one of the best investors of the 20thcentury, alongside names such as Warren Buffett, George Soros and Julian Robertson.

During this business trip to Vietnam, Mark Mobius met partners in potential areas such as banking, logistic services. Till now, the Fund entitled Franklin Templaton by Mark Mobius as chairman has invested nearly 300 million USD (equivalent to nearly 6,000 billion VND) in Vietnam.

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Benefits of Setting up Business in Hanoi

Benefits of Setting up Business in Da Nang

Benefits of Setting up Business in Ho Chi Minh City

Assistance in Setting up Business in Vietnam

M&A Services in Vietnam

In particular, billionaire Mark Mobius has declared that Franklin Templeton Investment Fund may invest 3 billion USD to Vietnam market in the coming time. This figure is equivalent to 1/10 of the total GDP of Vietnam in 2014.

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Pharmaceutical and healthcare in Vietnam

Vietnam is a large and fast growing population, which is expected to reach 96 million by 2019, and it will continue to attract the interest of foreign players. Although the country’s regulatory environment will remain fairly challenging, the introduction of global standards for manufacturing and pharmacy distribution will improve the market value. 

Globally, Vietnam ranks 66th out of 83 countries surveyed in our ever-expanding pharmaceutical universe. Valued at US$1.54bn in 2009, it is expected the Vietnamese pharmaceutical market to post a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.03% in local currency terms (14.80% in US dollars), to reach a value of US$3.07bn in 2014. At over US$33 in 2014, spending per capita will have almost doubled in five years, with further growth expected through to 2019. Over the ten-year forecast period, overall market CAGR will slow somewhat (to 12.79% in local currency), due to a higher uptake of cheaper, domestically-produced medicines, patent expirations and likely measures to reduce consumption in government hospitals, as the government deals with budget deficits.

In common with many of its regional neighbors, the Vietnamese pharmaceutical market is underdeveloped and suffers from poor regulatory and intellectual property (IP) standards, which have held back foreign investment in the country. Low-cost, locally-produced generics – as well as counterfeit products – account for a sizeable proportion of drug consumption due to low consumer purchasing power and an under-funded healthcare system. Uneven and inadequate public insurance coverage means that patients are responsible for financing many of their medical needs, which in the past has hampered stronger market growth. Consequently, pharmaceutical consumption represents only 1.7% of Vietnam’s GDP, although we expect this figure to top 2% from 2014.

Moreover, membership of the WTO will serve to promote the development of Vietnam’s pharmaceutical sector as well as to reduce the role of counterfeit trade. The domestic industry, traditionally characterized by poor manufacturing standards and obsolete facilities, is likely to undergo a wave of consolidation in the face of rising pressure – and associated costs – on companies to implement international GMP standards. Additionally, WTO membership will have a positive effect on the sector as it encourages imports and foreign direct investment (FDI) and improves operational efficiency in what has traditionally been an overly bureaucratic and

less than dynamic industry.

Prescription medicines will remain dominant over the next five years, with the biggest focus on drugs for the treatment of infectious and chronic diseases. The over-the-counter (OTC) sector has the potential to be boosted by the re-categorisation of popular traditional medicines, although presently there are no such plans. In the meantime, market figures will remain distorted by the lack of a distinction made between prescription and OTC drugs, with most medicines available without a prescription.

Vietnamese drug makers account for only 40% of the total medicines market, while the country imports around 90% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in drug production. However, capacity is improving gradually, and in Q409 the government announced its aim to ensure that 60% of domestic demand is met by local pharmaceutical companies during 2010. At the start of 2005, there were more than 10,000 kinds of medicines registered for sale in Vietnam, of which some 60% were produced locally. The figures represent a marked improvement on 1995 when the local sector produced only 80 substances, as well as on 2002, when 384 products were manufactured.

Vietnam’s pharmaceutical market was valued at around VND27,351bn (US$1.54bn) in 2009. Over the next five years, BMI forecasts that the market should grow at a CAGR of 16.0% in local currency terms to reach a value of VND57,515bn (US$3.07bn) in 2014. BMI’s long-range forecast is for the market to reach VND91,166bn (US$5.61bn) in 2019, equating to a CAGR of 12.8%.

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