The US Agency for International Development (USAID) on November 1 announced a new project promoting urban energy security in Vietnam at an event held in HCM City.

Vietnamese manufacturers need “integrated marketing solutions” comprising both online and offline platforms to gain access to buyers in both traditional and emerging markets, experts have said.

Vietnam has become central to the US policy in the Asia-Pacific region as ties between the two countries have strengthened in recent years, Marie Damour, the US consul general in HCM City, said at a recent conference.

The Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank, HOSE: HDB) has reported impressive results in the third quarter of this year, with pre-tax profits increasing by a record 51 percent year-on-year to over 1.23 trillion VND (53.4 million USD).

A national public service website will be launched in late November to improve the quality of public services from State agencies, according to Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung.

Instead of investing millions of dollars to build properties in HCM City’s inner districts, real estate developers are renting properties and furnishing apartments and putting them up as mid-priced serviced apartments for rent.

Amid increasingly sophisticated and complex intellectual property (IP) violations, Vietnamese businesses remained slow to register their products and protect their rights, said experts.

As the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games approach, the Vietnam national U22 football team are hard to work preparing for their tilt at the gold medal.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province's Customs Department had seized a suspicious aluminum shipment worth US$4 million that was heading to the US and other countries, a General Department of Vietnam Customs official said.

Reducing smuggling of sugar into Vietnam requires strengthening of preventive measures and co-ordination among relevant agencies, further lowering of sugar production costs and requiring sugar to have clear origin details among other things, a seminar heard in HCM City on October 29.