https://www.scmp.com/rss/330245/feed Le Hong Hiep is a Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Vietnam Studies Programme at the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Decades after the liberalisation of Vietnam’s banking sector, private banks remain tightly controlled by a handful of owners, many of whom use their banks to funnel cheap loans into their other businesses. This practice, which dates back to the early 1990s, was laid bare by the case of Truong My Lan, who became the first private businessperson in Vietnam to face capital punishment for embezzlement after she was convicted of siphoning billions from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and leaving it –... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3294298/vietnams-private-banking-sector-has-chronic-disease-can-it-be-treated?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3294298/vietnams-private-banking-sector-has-chronic-disease-can-it-be-treated?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Jan 2025 04:00:26 +0000 Beijing’s “nine-dash line” claim in the South China Sea caused an uproar in Vietnam recently. Earlier this month, Vietnamese authorities banned the film Barbie, produced by Warner Bros, for containing an illustration that allegedly depicted the nine-dash line that China uses to claim most of the disputed waterway. In the same week, it was dscovered that IME Entertainment, a Chinese firm that is organising a concert of the K-pop band Blackpink in Hanoi later this month, included a map on its... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3227682/south-china-sea-why-chinas-business-interests-vietnam-are-stake-amid-nine-dash-line-controversies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3227682/south-china-sea-why-chinas-business-interests-vietnam-are-stake-amid-nine-dash-line-controversies?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Jul 2023 02:30:09 +0000 The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), which concluded in early February, resulted in several surprising personnel arrangements. One of them was the election of two army generals into the party’s Politburo – the first time this has happened in 20 years. In addition, the number of military representatives in the Party’s Central Committee also increased from 20 to 23, cementing the status of the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) as the largest voting bloc in the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3131727/how-vietnamese-armys-rising-influence-politics-reflects-south?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3131727/how-vietnamese-armys-rising-influence-politics-reflects-south?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 May 2021 09:00:16 +0000 As a fast-growing economy, Vietnam’s demand for new infrastructure has been increasing over the years. According to the Global Infrastructure Outlook, Vietnam’s investment needs for infrastructure projects between 2016 and 2040 amount to US$605 billion, of which power plants account for US$265 billion. Facing delays in current power projects and difficulties in financing new ones, Vietnam’s power shortage is projected to reach 6.6 billion kWh in 2021 and 15 billion kWh in 2023, or 5 per cent of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3120522/vietnams-power-plants-us-finds-counter-chinas-belt-and-road?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3120522/vietnams-power-plants-us-finds-counter-chinas-belt-and-road?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Feb 2021 23:00:14 +0000 Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport announced last month that it had cancelled an international tender invitation for eight sections of the North-South Expressway project, which will run almost the length of the country. More importantly, the ministry decided to rule out foreign investors and said it would instead invite fresh tenders with lowered criteria from local investors next year. Although this will delay the important project, being implemented under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3032394/vietnams-dilemma-chinese-infrastructure-investment-should-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3032394/vietnams-dilemma-chinese-infrastructure-investment-should-it?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Oct 2019 01:00:17 +0000 The Vietnam–China stand-off at Vanguard Bank in the South China Sea has been going on for more than one month. Despite Vietnam’s repeated diplomatic protests and international pressures, China has not completely withdrawn its vessels from the area, which is part of Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. According to marine traffic data, the Haiyang Dizhi 8 survey vessel, which is at the centre of contention,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3021936/south-china-sea-stand-shows-vietnam-has-few-options-dealing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3021936/south-china-sea-stand-shows-vietnam-has-few-options-dealing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Aug 2019 08:45:14 +0000 After a short-lived lull during which Beijing seemed to be refraining from mounting aggressive actions against other claimant states in the South China Sea, it has again started flexing its muscles in recent weeks. Since mid-June, a Chinese coastguard vessel has been harassing Vietnamese ships trying to service the Japanese oil rig Hakuryu-5 in Vanguard Bank, which Vietnam considers part of its continental shelf but China claims is part of the Spratly Islands. China also dispatched survey... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3019890/beijings-south-china-sea-stance-driving-vietnam-americas-arms?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3019890/beijings-south-china-sea-stance-driving-vietnam-americas-arms?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jul 2019 23:30:13 +0000 Vietnam may soon become one of the first Southeast Asian countries to go 5G, with local telecoms firms racing to develop the country’s first nationwide network. But the cutting-edge advancement is likely to come with one notable absentee: Chinese tech giant Huawei. The country’s biggest carrier, Viettel, announced on April 25 that it had successfully tried out a 5G broadcast station in Hanoi with a speed of 600 to 700Mbps, reportedly on par with Verizon in the US. A full 5G network test is... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3008714/vietnam-races-launch-5g-network-chinese-tech-giant-huawei-notably?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3008714/vietnam-races-launch-5g-network-chinese-tech-giant-huawei-notably?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 May 2019 07:00:12 +0000 The Southeast Asian bloc of nations and China are a step closer to forming a Code of Conduct (COC) for the South China Sea, and for Vietnam it’s a chance to replace a disappointing and toothless diplomatic pact with real dispute management provisions. The two sides agreed last August to the negotiating text that forms the basis of talks on the contentious subjects of a new COC. With such a development came valuable insights into the positions of all negotiating parties, particularly Vietnam,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3005221/vietnam-wants-south-china-sea-dispute-resolution-pact-teeth-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3005221/vietnam-wants-south-china-sea-dispute-resolution-pact-teeth-not?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Apr 2019 01:00:06 +0000 Over the past three decades, Vietnam has looked to boost its levels of industrialisation by developing an indigenous automotive industry. Yet so far it is home to only a handful of assembly facilities and has few supporting industries to show for its efforts. In 2002, the government set a target of increasing the localisation ratio – which refers to the proportion of parts used in final assembly that are not imported – for passenger cars to between 20 and 25 per cent within the next three years.... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2183718/can-real-estate-developer-jump-start-vietnams-car-industry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2183718/can-real-estate-developer-jump-start-vietnams-car-industry?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Jan 2019 05:00:45 +0000