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[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Win liao lo......expat forum u also know........

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

too free...so join this and that to read....find out what's happening around us...

found more expat leaving Vietnam...less coming in...harder to get jobs...

[Hurricane88]

Hundreds of workers besiege Saigon garment factory to demand wages

By Minh Nhat, Van Hoai January 15, 2018 | 06:41 pm GMT+7

Desperate workers and their children are holding out for payment ahead of the Lunar New Year.


https://e.vnexpress.net/news/video/h...s-3698986.html

[shikinta]

Thanks above bro for luxe hotel recommend. I think is snipe bro. . Didn't logg in for long and not good in quote.

Pardon me for another question and bro know where to tailor made cloths in HcMC? Was hoping to tailor some in this trip. . Thanks in advance!

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

found more expat leaving Vietnam...less coming in...harder to get jobs...

That is goot news to us lesser competition

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by shikinta

Thanks above bro for luxe hotel recommend. I think is snipe bro. . Didn't logg in for long and not good in quote.

Pardon me for another question and bro know where to tailor made cloths in HcMC? Was hoping to tailor some in this trip. . Thanks in advance!

I dun tailor clothes but fortunately for you I have 1 other travelling kaki that does & its very very near your hotel

However you need to look around a bit just in case my memory fails me the tailor shop should be just around the corner on Truong Dinh St from your hotel called Queen something, cum out from your hotel turn right to the X-junction and turn right few shops down before Baskin Robbins

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

That is goot news to us lesser competition

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

dun go to foreigners area so dun care...yea less competition...

[Hurricane88]

Vietnamese women arrested in Singapore for public nudity, drug offenses

By Ngan Anh January 16, 2018 | 03:55 pm GMT+7



The women were seized during a six-hour police operation at public entertainment outlets.

Police in Singapore arrested eight women last week, seven of them Vietnamese nationals, for public nudity and drug-related offenses.

The women were arrested during a six-hour joint operation conducted at public entertainment outlets in Cuppage Plaza from 11 p.m. on January 11, the Straits Times reported on Tuesday.

Three women were arrested for appearing nude in a public place, and two of them also face employment and immigration-related charges.

The other five women were arrested for drug-related offences. Seven of the women were Vietnamese, while the eighth was Malaysian, said the Straits Times.

The investigation is ongoing.

The police said they take "a serious view of anyone found breaking the law and will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies to eradicate criminal activities."

[shikinta]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

I dun tailor clothes but fortunately for you I have 1 other travelling kaki that does & its very very near your hotel

However you need to look around a bit just in case my memory fails me the tailor shop should be just around the corner on Truong Dinh St from your hotel called Queen something, cum out from your hotel turn right to the X-junction and turn right few shops down before Baskin Robbins

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

Thanks bro.
End up didn't manage to get a room at luxe.
Book Alagon instead. Will follow your way to go the tailor shop. Thanks thanks

[Hurricane88]

Airport operators defy government inspectorate conclusion to collect road fee

The Government Inspectorate previously asserted that the toll is a serious violation of the law

By Tuoi Tre News January 17, 2018, 19:22 GMT+7



Road tolls are still being collected at Vietnamese airports although the Government Inspectorate has previously concluded that the fee is against the law.

In an announcement made three months ago, the Government Inspectorate stated that road tolls at airports across the country are not legal.

However, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters noticed that the fee is still being collected at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.

All automobiles entering the airdrome are required to pay from VND10,000 (US$0.44) to VND40,000 ($1.76) regardless of how long they stay inside the venue.

Nguyen Quang Linh, an Uber car driver, recounted his trip with a foreign passenger who booked a ride from the airport to downtown areas.

Linh had to pay the VND10,000 toll despite only entering the facility for a few minutes to pick up his customer.

Many passengers refused to pay the additional charge, the driver stated, adding that it is difficult to explain it to them.

Four-wheeled vehicles are also subjected to extra charges if they stay inside the airport for extended periods of time.

According to T.M.T., director of a company providing transport services from Tan Son Nhat to the southern beach city of Vung Tau, the firm has to pay some VND13 million ($572.4) per month in terms of road tolls at the aerodrome.

About 10 of the company’s 16-seater tourist buses enter the facility on a daily basis, T. elaborated.

Each of the vehicles is required to pay VND40,000 upon entrance and an extra VND20,000 ($0.88) every two hours, he stated.



A similar toll is also being collected at the Phu Quoc Airport, located in the namesake tourist island off the southern province of Kien Giang.

Four-seaters are charged VND15,000 ($0.66) each while seven-seaters are charged VND20,000 each.

Serious violation

A previous inspection by the Government Inspectorate showed that 21 out of 22 airports managed by the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) were carrying out the collection of such road tolls.

The rates ranged from VND7,000 ($0.31) to VND30,000 ($1.32) and could also be collected monthly at VND600,000 ($26.4) to VND1.65 million ($72.6).

This fee is applied to automobiles that do not use the airport parking service and only stop inside the venue for several minutes to pick up or drop off passengers.

From January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2015, ACV accumulated about VND551 billion ($24.26 million) from airport road tolls.

The Government Inspectorate admitted that the money had brought about benefits for the ACV.

It also contributed to the national budget before the ACV was partly privatized in 2016.

However, the toll policy is a serious violation of the current law, causing financial damage for airport commuters, the agency asserted.



To be continued

According to Le Manh Hung, general director of the ACV, as the institution was put in charge of managing local airports, it is responsible for carrying out renovations and improvement of infrastructure within the facilities to provide passengers with better services.

The toll is used for the maintenance and operation of roads within the airdromes, as well as the installation of traffic signs, power and water systems, and recruitment of security units along the roads.

The expenditure for such activities is much higher than the toll collected, Hung stated.

The fee also acts as a tool to ensure traffic order inside the airports, he continued, explaining that congestion would emerge if vehicles were allowed to freely enter the facilities.

Hung said that the toll will continue to be collected, but the rates will be adjusted based on the present situation.

The central government has tasked the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance to have a close look into the case.

[Hurricane88]

Standard Chartered offloads entire stake in Vietnam’s ACB

The British bank previously held a 15 percent stake in ACB following two share acquisitions in 2005 and 2008

By Tuoi Tre News January 17, 2018, 23:03 GMT+7

British bank Standard Chartered has transferred its entire holding in Asia Commercial Bank, commonly known as ACB, wrapping up a 12-year relationship with one of Vietnam’s largest private banks.

Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited and its subsidiary, Standard Chartered APR Limited, have offloaded a total of 154 million shares of ABC, making a complete exit from the Vietnamese bank.

Standard Chartered APR Limited transferred 89.9 million, or 8.75 percent of ACB’s capital, to Estes Investment Ltd and Sather Gate Investment Ltd, the Vietnam News Agency said, citing an announcement by the Vietnam Depository Securities Center.

Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited sold 64.2 million shares, or a 6.25 percent stake, to three investment companies, Boardwalk South Ltd, Whistler Investment Ltd and Estes Investment Ltd.

As these four companies are also foreign entities, the current foreign ownership of ACB remains unchanged following the Standard Chartered exit.

The disinvestment came as no surprise, with the British bank having already signaled plans to remove its representative from the ACB board of directors and to withdraw its 15 percent stake in the Vietnamese lender in March 2016.

The disinvestment is part of the British lender’s bigger plan to withdraw from the Asian market.

At an ACB shareholder meeting in April last year, representatives from both Standard Chartered Bank and ACB told stakeholders that the Vietnamese lender no longer needed support from the British bank as it could ‘walk alone.’

The Standard Chartered representative, Andrew Colin Vallis, officially left ACB in November 2017.

In 2005 Standard Chartered Bank acquired 8.56 percent of ACB for US$22 million before buying another 6.16 percent stake in 2008.

As of August 2017, ACB reported total assets worth VND100 trillion ($4.41 billion), according to Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.

[Hurricane88]

Vietnam caps promotions for prepaid mobile subscribers

No more than 20 percent of a service’s value is to be offered as a bonus to prepaid users

By Tuoi Tre News January 17, 2018, 22:05 GMT+7

Mobile carriers in Vietnam will have less freedom in their promotions to prepaid subscribers following a circular by the Ministry of Information and Communications enforcing a ceiling on how much ‘free value’ can be offered.

Specifically, telecom providers in the country are now only allowed to offer no more than 20 percent of a service’s value to prepaid subscribers as a bonus during promotional campaigns.

The limit will apply to different forms of promotion, including bonus credits, in-kind benefits, and other perks.

Previously, the maximum promotional value was set at 50 percent for both prepaid and post-paid subscribers. This limit remains unchanged for the latter.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the new promotion ceiling aims to promote post-paid subscriptions and represents a crackdown on the abuse of prepaid SIM cards to send out spam messages, a technique typically employed by advertisers and online scammers.

The regulation will also ensure fairer competition in the telecom market and better protect the rights of mobile subscribers, the ministry said.

Prepaid users who switch to post-paid subscription plans will enjoy the 50-percent promotion limit after the switch.

“Mobile carriers found to be in violation of this new regulation will be subject to administrative penalties and tax arrears for illegal promotional campaigns,” a ministry official said.

Recently, three major providers in Vietnam – Viettel, Mobifone and Vinaphone – were forced to stop offering data plans that granted subscribers unlimited data to access Facebook and YouTube.

These plans were found to be in violation of pricing regulations for telecom services.

[Hurricane88]

Vietnam’s top taxi firm fears bankrupcy in the era of Grab, Uber

By Nguyen Hoai, Phuong Dong January 17, 2018 | 09:24 pm GMT+7



Mai Linh has asked for its debts to be frozen for the next 20 years to fight off the threat of imminent insolvency.

Vietnam’s leading taxi company Mai Linh has asked the government to ease its social insurance responsibilities, saying that popular ride-hailing apps are pushing it to the brink of insolvency.

The company has sent the request to the legislative National Assembly, Vietnam Social Security and the Ministry of Finance asking to be released from loan interest payments and penalties for social insurance debts.

As of the end of October last year, the company owed nearly VND182 billion ($8 million) in workers’ social insurance contributions, it said.

The company is asking for its interest and penalties to be frozen for the next 20 years, promising to clear the debt by then and fulfill all its insurance payments from now on.

Starting this year, businesses now face criminal responsibility for workers’ social insurance contributions, according to Vietnam’s revised Penal Code.

Ho Huy, chairman of the company, said “intense and unfair” competition from Grab and Uber had caused its revenue to drop by 30 percent from previous years.

The company, which launched its own ride-hailing motorbike taxi app last year, now only makes enough to cover daily expenses and cannot afford to clear its debts and interest payments, he said.

Mai Linh could be driven out of the market soon, leaving its 24,000 drivers jobless, he said.

“Without support from government agencies, Mai Linh will go bust very soon,” Huy said in a letter obtained by VnExpress.

The company’s communications officer later refused to comment on the issue.

A financial report from Mai Linh showed accumulated losses of nearly VND800 billion ($35.2 million), 80 percent of its registered capital, at the end of June 2017. Its workforce has also dropped by 20 percent from late 2016.

These figures should raise doubts about its ability to maintain stable operations, according to auditors.

Grab and Uber arrived in Vietnam in 2014 and operate both car and motorbike taxi services. The two services have been running on a trial basis since early 2016 and will be officially authorized soon, according to a proposal made by the transport ministry earlier this month.

Since their arrival, Vietnamese traditional taxi firms including Vinasun and Mai Linh have repeatedly reported losses and sliding revenues, blaming “unhealthy” competition from the new players.

Taxi firms have accused the two of tax evasion and devaluation tricks.

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by shikinta

Thanks bro.
End up didn't manage to get a room at luxe.
Book Alagon instead. Will follow your way to go the tailor shop. Thanks thanks

So is Alagon GF-friendly??? Dun tell me it is "Alamak gone" thats why called Alagon

How much is the standard room per night???

Cheerios.....SS08 ^_^

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

Airport operators defy government inspectorate conclusion to collect road fee

The fee also acts as a tool to ensure traffic order inside the airports, he continued, explaining that congestion would emerge if vehicles were allowed to freely enter the facilities.

Actually this one is very true, long long time ago the old airpork machiam pasar malam the moment you exit out from the arrival hall immediately you kena accosted by soooooo many touts now altho still have but only a handful especially if they see you using your HP to call Grab or Uber

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Actually this one is very true, long long time ago the old airpork machiam pasar malam the moment you exit out from the arrival hall immediately you kena accosted by soooooo many touts now altho still have but only a handful especially if they see you using your HP to call Grab or Uber

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

they just collect and defy the order by hcm authority...steady pun pi pi...