The disbursement of public investment was estimated at VND398 trillion (US$17.24 billion) as of the end of December, meeting 82.8% of the Government’s plan – the highest rate in the 2016-20 period, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Vietnamese athletes are working hard to secure a second slot in gymnastics at the coming Olympics in Tokyo this year.

Real estate prices in 2021 are expected to increase by 10% over the previous year, said Nguyen Van Dinh, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Real Estate Association (VNREA).

The regulatory sandbox for financial technology (fintech) which is expected to be created this year, coupled with efforts to promote the use of digital financial services, are expected to accelerate the development of fintech in Vietnam.

In the first 11 months of this year dragon fruit exports fell by 10% because of the COVID-19 pandemic but still dominated Vietnamese fruit exports with shipments of more than US$1 billion.

Handicrafts are identified as one of the product groups with great export potential and high-profit margin that Vietnam needs to boost in the future.

Vietnam’s total revenue from retail trade and services reached over VND5 quadrillion (US$219.5 billion) in 2020, representing a modest yearly rise of 2.6%, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The COVID-19 pandemic caused retail revenue to drop sharply in 2020, impacting the domestic retail property market, according to Savills Vietnam.

Inspections against transfer pricing will be increased as per a proposal by the Ministry of Finance in the context that more than half of foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises reported losses.

The Import and Export Sub-Department, has received complaints from businesses and business groups about a shortage of containers that has led to an unprecedented increase in shipping tariffs, its deputy director Tran Thanh Hai has said.