46 years is a half of a human life, 46 years of an Enterprise is a long way with countless changes, growth, and many challenges. Founded on July 25, 1974, Viglacera Corporation – JSC during its 46 years has created “miracles” featuring its own hallmark of Viglacera – a strong Vietnamese brand name that continuously reaches out in the international arena.

Mr. Nguyen Quy Tuan – President of the Corporation Trade Union, on behalf of the Board of Directors, made a welcome speech at the meeting

Going through a 46-year journey of construction and development with many challenges, a journey with great changes in Viglacera’s operating model and position from its inception to the present. Viglacera has completely transformed from a small-scale enterprise – a Construction Ceramic Tiles company – to a Viglacera Corporation – JSC – a pioneer manufacturer in the field of Building Materials and Real Estate Business. That change comes from the enthusiasm, dedication, right decisions of the Board of Directors of the Corporation and member units as well as the contributions of many merits, strength, wisdom and passion from generations of employees of the Corporation.

Along with the ceaseless efforts and determination of enthusiastic hearts, the Board of Directors and all Viglacera employees are confident that they will unanimously preserve and promote good traditional values, the fire of aspiration and passion to write new more glorious pages of Viglacera Corporation – JSC.

The revised Construction Law 2020 officially shortens the time for granting the construction permit in the case of construction work, including the permit with definite term, adjusting and relocation.

Specifically, according to the revised Construction Law 2020 which takes effect from January 1, 2021, from the date of receipt of complete and valid dossiers, the competent agency must consider the issuance for the permit within a period of 20 days for the case of a construction work permit, including the permit with a definite term, adjusting and relocation, and 15 days for a privatehouse.

Thus, the time to issue a construction permit is shortened from 30 days today to 20 days. This regulation brings positive signals, saving time and money for many construction units.

In case the time of licensing is due but it needs to be further considered, the construction permit-granting agency must notify the applicant the reason in writing, and at the same time report to the direct managing authority to address the issue, but not more than 10 days from the date of expiration as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 102 of the Law on Construction 2014.
At the same time, the new Law also supplements the provision: “The time to grant a construction permit for advertisement shall comply with the law on advertising” ./.

(Source: VOV.VN)

According to JLL’s Market Overview Report, the number of inquiries is still significant but the transaction is stalled because of Covid-19 outbreak.

In Q1/2020, the demand for land is still high thanks to Vietnam’s good industrial development background in previous quarters. However, from February 2020 when the COVID-19 outbreak began, the restriction of movement among regions has caused the delay to the transaction, because investors especially foreign investors, can not directly take a field trip or work with industrial park developers. Successful transactions in the quarter were mostly done before the epidemic. The occupancy rate of the whole area is increased at a relative rate, about 200 percentage points compared to that in Q4/2019 and reached 72% by the end of Q1/2020.

Photo: Internet

The land area is still sufficient to meet the leasing needs

According to a report of the Department of Economic Zone Administration (Ministry of Planning and Investment), by the end of March 2020, Vietnam has established 335 industrial parks (IPs) with a total natural land area of about 97.8 thousand hectares; in which industrial land area is about 66.1 thousand hectares, 260 industrial parks have been put into operation with the occupancy rate of about 75.7%; 75 industrial parks are under construction with a total area of about 29.2 thousand hectares. For economic zones (EZs), the whole country has 17 coastal economic zones with a total land area and water surface of more than 845 thousand hectares, the leased land area in functional areas in the EZ reaches over 40 thousand hectares.

No new IPs has been put into operation in the last quarter. Bac Ninh and Hai Phong with large supply still play the role of two leading industrial markets in the North. Thanks to the strong industrial development foundation, the trend of new industrial parks and expansion stages will also focus on developing mainly in these two provinces. Land price keeps rising amid the crisis and Vietnam has been a promising destination since the wave of factory relocation from China began. Although the Covid-19 epidemic is causing certain difficulties with business decisions and relocation activities, IP owners are still confident to increase land prices as it is a long-term investment trend. With a well-developed infrastructure and sharing border with China, the North attracts most of the major manufacturers who want to diversify their production portfolio besides their facilities in China. Therefore, the average land price in Q1/2020 reached US $ 99/m2/lease period, up 6.5% over the same period last year. Ready-built factories – a favorite choice of small and medium-sized businesses – remain stable at rent of US$ 4.0-5.0/m2/month, and are fully occupied already.

Source: Report of Department of Economic Zone Management, Quarter I / 2020 – Ministry of Planning and Investment; JLL.

On March 30, 2020, the Council of Europe adopted a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and Vietnam (EVFTA).

Mr. Gordan Grlić Radman, Croatia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs – the EU’s rotating chairperson – said: “This agreement is the second document that EU has signed with a Southeast Asian country, after Singapore. It is also the most ambitious free trade agreement ever signed with a developing country.”

The Vietnam – EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) was also signed at the same time with the EVFTA Agreement on June 30, 2019 in Hanoi. The EVIPA Agreement will need to be ratified by all member states according to the respective national procedures before it becomes effective. Once approved, this Agreement will replace the bilateral investment agreements that 21 EU member states currently have with Vietnam.

Leaders of the Party, State and National Assembly have recently affirmed their determination to ratify EVFTA in the shortest time.

EVFTA is a comprehensive and high-quality agreement, it guarantees mutual benefit for both Vietnam and the European Union (EU), having taken into account the development gap between two sides.
This agreement was started and concluded in the context of the sound bilateral development of Vietnam-EU bilateral relations, especially in the field of economy and trade.

EU is one of Vietnam’s leading trading partners with a two-way turnover of US$ 56.39 billion in 2019, of which exports reached US$ 41.48 billion, imports from the EU reached US$ 14.91 billion.
On February 12, the Free Trade Agreement and the Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) were approved by the European Parliament (EP). On March 30, the European Council decided to ratify the EVFTA Agreement. This is an important decision, marking the completion of the entire process of ratification of the EVFTA Agreement on the European Union’s side.

Under the process, the EVFTA Agreement will take effect after being ratified by the National Assembly of Vietnam and 30 days after the two sides complete the procedures to notify each other.

Source: evfta.moit.gov.vn