VIETNAM

GROUP MEMBERS

Name Roll.No.:

• Mosam Shah 26

• Nikhat Koor 27

• Nimit Soni 28

• Payal Patel 29

Vietnamese People

• Vietnam is a populated country of over 85 million people. Although the villages have played a key role in Vietnam's psyche and social order, most people now live in the major cities where jobs are more plentiful. Due to the war, there are fewer older men in Vietnam (although they still are predominant in the government) and many younger people.

• Military service is still compulsory for 2 years.

• The literacy rate is impressively high (over 90% are able to read). However, Vietnam is still a relatively poor and less healthy country.

Vietnamese Language

• Vietnamese is the primary language. It is a tonal language, relatively easy to read but difficult to speak. Luckily, English is growing in popularity. Some French is spoken in the North.

RELIGION

• Vietnam contains a rich mixture of religions, reflecting the influences of many cultures. Traditional Vietnamese religion included elements from Indian beliefs and three Chinese religious systems: Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.

Vietnam Trade

Vietnam’s currency VIATNEMESE DONG (VND)

• Trade agreements and increased modernization are making a great improvement in quality of life for Vietnamese and Vietnam's visitors.

• Tourism is increasing with better transportation, services and accommodations.

• Major exports are crude oil, marine products, rice, coffee and tea, rubber and clothing.

Vietnam’s Position in 2010

Significant growth over the last two decades.Widespread reduction in poverty.Resilience in the face of the global economic

crisis. BUTStill low level of prosperity and productivityGrowing concerns about the economic

sustainability of Vietnam’s current development model.

Vietnam’s Current Development Model

• Structural change, fuelled by Vietnam’s integration into the global economy, has been the key driver of Vietnam’s growth

• Foreign investors have combined capital with Vietnamese labor and imported inputs to serve global markets, increasingly also domestic demand.

• Despite increasing exports of processed goods, value added and productivity in Vietnam’s export sector remains low

• Vietnam’s strongest export market position is in labor-and natural endowment-driven clusters with little direct linkages between them

• Vietnam’s attractiveness to investors is almost solely the result of the low prevailing wages

• In a changing global market environment, this is unlikely to be sufficient for sustained growth

Vietnam’s Exports By Type of Industry

Foreign Direct Investment in Vietnam 1988-2008

Vietnam Overview pg 1

Sound fundamentals

• 87-million and 93% literacy rate population, 75% of which are under the age of 40. Individual wealth has been rising remarkably with CAGR of GDP per capita reaching 12.3% for 1988-2010 .

• Annual GDP growth averaging 7.2% in the past decade, only behind China in Asia, confirms the strength of the domestic economy.

• Vietnam’s competitive labor costs, highly-ranked political stability in the region with the government’s emphasis on efficiency, competitiveness, infrastructure developments, continuous power supply and reduction of state budget deficits, further show the nation’s investment appeal.

Pg 2 Rich resources

• Crude oil and gas reserves in Vietnam’s 9 off-shore fields rank Vietnam behind Australia in Southeast Asia for petroleum resources and this resource wealth is expected to increase with expanded exploration.

• A US Geological surveys indicated that Vietnam was a leading supplier of anthracite coal in the Asia and Pacific region.

• Vietnam also contains large, recoverable reserves of other minerals, including, magnesium, gold, phosphate, tin, and copper

pg 3• Singaporean businesses encouraged to invest in Vietnam Sembcorp has already built four industrial zones in Vietnam and

Keppel has cooperated with Vietsopetro to set up new oil drilling platforms.This will contribute significantly to Vietnam’s socio-economic development

• Italian firms urged to invest in Vietnam Several key areas for expansion and co-operation between the two

business communities, including agriculture, engineering and infrastructure, while also acknowledging tourism and technology as promising sectors.

• Dutch businesses to increase investment in Vietnam in various fields, especially in clean and renewable energy, bio-diversity, the environment, urban planning, and water management. On the occasion, a number of lucrative cooperative agreements in ship-building, training and oil exporting were signed by Vietnamese and Dutch businesses

Vietnam Named 2nd Most Attractive Asian Investment Destination

• Foreign direct investment accounts for 25% of Vietnam’s property market, with foreign investors registering to carry out 669 property projects worth US$60 billion during the first half of 2011,  the majority of them being located in Ho Chi Minh City.

• The largest group of foreign investors in the country are from Taiwan, followed by Korea, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia

• Some of the biggest problems with investing in Vietnam include concerns investors have about the inflation rate, the high lending rate of between 22% and 25% annually, the government’s credit growth cap of 20%, and state-owned firms low business efficiency.

Vietnam Infrastructure

Supply chain Airport

Why Vietnam• Vietnam has a large market, skilled workers and a good

investment environment while still maintaining lower production costs due to lower ages then in India or Thailand.

• One additional reason why Indian firms are getting more interested in Vietnam is the India- ASEAN (Association of Southeastern Asian Nations) Free Trade Agreement, decided on August 13, 2009 in gangkok and effective from January 1, 2010.

• The Vietnam-India bilateral trade relationship was worth US$2.75 million last year. In January and February 2011 the bilateral trade value stood at =S$643 million and it seems to be rising.

Vietnam Industry Sectors: Key Players Food processing

• The government of Vietnam is implementing several programs to increase the production of rice, corn and tapioca, and enhance food processing technologies.

• The country has already become a food product processing hub with an annual growth rate of 20-30%.

• The changing food habits of locals, who tend to use preliminarily-treated foods for making meals, are increasing the demand for processed foods.

• The availability of processed and packaged foods in Vietnam will increase as modern food retailing businesses expand their operations to meet the rising demands from affluent consumers.

• Vietnamese food processing industry is dominated by seafood and agriculture products. Seafood export includes shrimps, Tuna and Tra fish.

Construction

• The construction segment plans to expand housing till 2020, targeting 30-32 million sq. meters of construction area within the country and 12 sq meters of living space for each individual.

• Vietnam also has ongoing projects to support housing foundations, handle flooding in the central coastal region and the Mekong Delta, develop real estate market, register transactions and create centralized information system to facilitate overseas Vietnamese to purchase housing in the country.

Manufacturing:

Vietnam, the fastest growing ASEAN economy, is host to the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) 2010.

• The country is steadily becoming the global manufacturing center.

• Its plastics and rubber industries are developing quickly to serve a diversified industrial base.

Restrictions for foreign investors• Restriction on holding of equity ownership. Currently, foreign

investors can hold up to 49% shares of public companies unless otherwise provided by law in some sectors

• Restriction on transfer of shares. Within the first three (03) years upon the issuance of the Business Registration Certificate, founding shareholders in a joint stock company can only transfer their shares to a party which is not a founding shareholder if the transfer is approved by the General Shareholders’ Meeting.

• Restriction on the transferee. In securities companies, only the foreign securities company can buy shares or contribute capital to a domestic securities company or a securities company which has the license in fund / asset management, or an insurance company can buy shares or contribute capital to a fund management company, with a cap of 49% of equity of respective company.

• Restriction on the ownership right or the right to use particular assets which prevent foreign investors from owning 100% of the capital of a company.

India & Vietnam

• The 40th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations with Vietnam falls next year

• Relations with Vietnam is a vital pillar of India’s Look East Policy

• Vietnam is helping strengthen India’s relations with the ASEAN countries

• Ties are expanding rapidly and in practically all areas including trade, investments, energy, security, human resource development, capacity-building, IT, science and technology, culture

India-Vietnam Defence Treaty

• The defence cooperation with Vietnam in fact pre-dates India’s “Look East” strategy in the region.

• In 1980, India opened its military attach office in Vietnam while Vietnam opened its military attach office in Delhi in 1985.

• In April 1994, during a visit to Vietnam by Minister for Power N.K.P Salve, India was reported to have offered defence technology to Hanoi.

• Vietnam accepted the offer and thereafter during the course of Prime Minister P.V Narsimha Rao’s visit to Vietnam in 1994, a protocol on defence cooperation was signed.

• India and Vietnam have also agreed to raise bilateral relations to the level of a broad-based “strategic partnership” that they believe would better enable them to deal with the evolving economic and security environment in the region

• There was a small but vibrant Indian community in the country -- comprising mainly merchants and moneylenders, chiefly Tamils and Sindhis.

• At one time, Indians also dominated Saigon's retail textile trade, especially along the city's main shopping destinations. Full of fashion boutiques, jewelry sellers, luxury brand vendors, spas and high-end restaurants, these streets today resemble New York's 5th venue or Singapore's Orchard Road.

• But at one time they were crowded with textile shops manned by Indians. Almost all left the country after Communists seized control of Saigon in 1975.

• Titan Industries, is planning to build an assembly plant for watches in Vietnam for better access to emerging markets in South East Asia.

• For Indian investors information technology, shipbuilding, animal-feed and processed foods are some of the potential industries where Indians can have an early advantage

• Vietnam particularly seeks Indian investments in sectors like high technology, IT, biotechnology, energy including renewable energy, iron and steel, auto components, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, food processing, and other areas.

• Earlier this year with effect from 1 January, India have extended the visa-on-arrival facility to Vietnam.

• The total Indian investment in Vietnam is over 400 million dollars

• ONGC Videsh has been present in Vietnam for quite some time, including in a major joint venture for offshore oil and natural gas exploration. They are in the process of further expanding their cooperation and operations in Vietnam.

• Also ESSAR exploration and Production Limited, which is a subsidiary of ESSAR Oil, has been awarded an oil and gas block in Vietnam

TAXATION LAWS IN VIETNAM

Form of Tax in Vietnam

Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Value Added Tax (VAT) Capital Assignment Profit Tax (CAPT)

All above structuring are considered when M & A transaction take place. The Vietnam tax environment were newly introduced with effective from 1-01-2009

Corporate Tax

Companies incorporated in Vietnam are subjected to a standard CIT rate of 25%.

Oil & Gas companies are subject to tax at rates from 32%-50% depending on project.

Tax losses are carried forward for a maximum period of 5 years in which loss arose.

Dividends received by a Vietnamese company are exempted from tax.

Withholding Tax

Foreign Companies performing business in Vietnam without establishing a legal entity are subject to “Foreign Contractor Withhold Tax” Which includes a VAT & CIT

Effective VAT rate

Deemed CIT rate

Royalties Exempt 10%

Interest Exempt 10%

General Services 5% 5%

VAT

VAT applies to goods & services used for production, trading & consumption in Vietnam.

VAT implies on the duty paid value of imported goods.

VAT rates are 0%, 5% & 10%. Certain goods & services are VAT exempt.

CAPT

Gains on transfers of interest ( as opposed to shares) in a Vietnam ltd liability company are subjected to 25% CAPT.

Taxable gain is determined as the excess of the sales proceeds less cost less transfer expenses.

In case of transfer of shares in joint stock company by a foreigner, CIT payable is 0.1% of gross sales proceeds.

Transaction Cost

ASSET DEAL

Assets Registration Fee rates

Land & Housing 0.5%

Ships & Boats 1%

Deep- sea Fishing Boats 05%

Motorcycles 1-5%

Automobiles 2-5%

Shotguns & Sports guns 2%

Thank you