News highlights for April 2, 2023

Hanoi sets up international incorporation committee

A steering committee has been founded to guide the capital city through its international cooperation. The committee comprises 15 members, led by the Hanoi People’s Committee vice chairman, Nguyen Manh Quyen, involves officials from the municipal departments of Industry and Trade, Foreign Affairs, and Labors, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The committee is tasked to support municipal and local authorities in carrying out international collaboration activities and instruct the implementation of the policies regarding Hanoi’s international incorporation. The Department of Industry and Trade is the permanent agency that collects opinions on Hanoi’s international collaboration and reports to the committee for solutions.

Free Fire is the best online game in Vietnam

The Vietnam Game Awards 2023 on April 1 honored roleplaying survival game Free Fire, a product of game developer Garena, as the best. The player community highly values the game for its well-designed graphics and gameplay and the updates of costumes and real-life events for the players through special item packages.

The Vietnam Game Awards 2023 was the key event of the Vietnam GameVerse 2023, co-hosted by the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Vietnam Game Development Alliance for the first time. The two-day event, ending on April 2, also features four other titles: the best mobile game, the best e-sport game, the best Vietnamese game, and the best-designed game.

Khanh Hoa Province plans conference to lure investment in 2023

Authorities of the southern province of Khanh Hoa have announced the plan to host an investment conference to attract private investors. The conference will receive some 1,000 attendees and several large-cap corporations about to sign investment agreements with the municipal authorities.

The most outstanding companies are in the fields of industrial park development, real estate, and seaport operation, such as conglomerate Vingroup, Trung Nam Group, Sun Group, Shinec Joint Stock Company, Sonadezi, Becamex IDC, AEON Mall, and telecommunication group FPT. The province will also hand over the certificate of investment for Viglacera JSC to build the Doc Da Trang Industrial Park worth VND1.8 trillion (US$76.7 million).

Thai Binh home to Vietnam’s first pharmaceutical-biological development cluster

Thai Binh provincial People’s Committee on April 1 agreed with private investors to build an industrial park to develop pharmaceutical and biological products, the first of its kind in Vietnam. The project is expected to assist the Vietnamese government in attracting private companies and boosting the pharmaceutical industry.

Partners in the project are Makara Capital Partners Pte. Ltd., Sakae Corporate Advisory Pte. Ltd., and Newtechco Group JSC. The project will span nearly 346 hectares in the four communes of An Vinh, Quynh Xa, Quynh Trang, and Dong Hai in Quynh Phu District. The project's total investment is estimated at VND3.65 trillion (US$155.5 million), and the province expects to lure a total of US$4 billion worth of business operations by 2030.

Long-standing, popular banh mi brands praised

The first-ever Vietnamese banh mi (baguette) festival in HCM City has honored the 10 most famous brands. The four-day festival, ending on April 2, recognized the 10 brands, such as Banh Mi Bay Ho, Banh Mi Nhu Lan, Banh Mi Hoa Ma, and Banh Mi Co Diep. In addition, the event organizer Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA), also lauded 10 collectives and 18 individuals that had made great efforts to the festival's success.