Vietnamese auto giant suffers from sluggish sales and heavy losses due to selling Chinese electric cars

TMT Motors Corporation (TMT Motors, code TMT) has just announced its financial report for the second quarter of 2024. After deducting all expenses, after-tax profit was negative VND 95.3 billion, down about VND 97.4 billion compared to the same period in 2023. This is the highest loss in TMT Motors' operating history.

In the first 6 months of the year, TMT Motors achieved net revenue of VND1,322 billion and a loss of nearly VND100 billion, while in the same period last year the company recorded a profit of VND1.2 billion.

TMT Motors is currently the distributor of China's Wuling Mini EV electric cars in Vietnam. In 2023, TMT Motors sold only 591 Wuling Mini EV electric cars in the Vietnamese market, equal to 11% of the plan of 5,525 units. Therefore, this year, the company adjusted its sales target down to 1,016 cars. (See details)

Stirring up the 360-degree rotating house in Bac Giang, paid $1 million for copyright

Mr. Nguyen Van Luong (born in 1957, in Bac Giang City) researched and built a unique 360-degree rotating house that has attracted a lot of attention.

The owner of the rotating house admitted that he had recently heard a lot of information about the copyright of the rotating house being sold for 1 million USD (about 25 billion VND). But he said that this information was "just a rumor". (See details)

360-degree-rotating-house

Extending the pilot period for Vietnamese people to play in casinos

The draft Decree amending Clause 2, Article 12 of Decree No. 03/2017/ND-CP on casino business has just been submitted to the Government by the Ministry of Finance.

The draft Decree stipulates that the pilot program for Vietnamese people to play at Phu Quoc casino (Kien Giang) will end by December 31, 2024. For other casino businesses, the pilot period is 3 years from the date of issuance of the Certificate of Eligibility for Business. (See details)

Bao Chau Pharmaceutical President Nguyen Lan Huong was arrested.

On August 24, Ha Giang Provincial Police announced that the Provincial Police Investigation Agency had initiated a case, prosecuted the accused, and temporarily detained Ms. Nguyen Lan Huong (51 years old, residing in Cau Giay, Hanoi) for 3 months. Ms. Huong is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Bao Chau Pharmaceutical Group Joint Stock Company (address: Vi Xuyen District, Ha Giang). Ms. Huong was temporarily detained by the police to investigate the act of illegally printing, issuing, and trading invoices and documents for payment to the state budget.

The company chaired by Ms. Huong had no revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 and had planned to list its shares on the stock exchange but failed. (See details)

Proposal to add individuals banned from leaving the country, stop paying interest for people with delayed tax refunds

The Ministry of Finance has just sent the Government a proposal to develop a draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Securities Law, the Accounting Law, the Independent Audit Law, the State Budget Law, the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets, the Tax Administration Law, and the Law on National Reserves.

In particular, it is proposed to abolish Clause 3, Article 75 of the Law on Tax Administration on the regulation on the amount of interest payable to taxpayers when tax authorities are late in processing tax refunds with an interest rate of 0.03%/day.

The Ministry of Finance also proposed to add more subjects to be temporarily suspended from exiting the country, including: individuals who are legal representatives of cooperatives, cooperative unions, individuals who are business owners, and individual entrepreneurs. (See details)

The State Bank announced that long-term deposit interest rates have reached a very high level of 6.9-7.4%/year.

The State Bank has just announced information on developments in deposit interest rates and lending interest rates of credit institutions for customers in July 2024.

Accordingly, the average interest rate on deposits in Vietnamese Dong of domestic commercial banks is 0.2%/year for demand deposits and deposits with terms of less than 1 month; 2.4-3.4%/year for deposits with terms from 1 month to less than 6 months; 4.4-4.8%/year for deposits with terms from 6 months to 12 months; 5.5-6.2%/year for deposits with terms from over 12 months to 24 months and 6.9-7.4%/year for terms over 24 months. (See details)

Impersonating the State Bank to send biometric update link

The State Bank of Vietnam has just released information stating that recently there has been a phenomenon of scammers impersonating the State Bank of Vietnam, faking the State Bank of Vietnam's email interface to send information to lure people and customers to click on fraudulent links to update biometric information for banking transactions.

The State Bank of Vietnam confirmed that this is an act of impersonating the State Bank of Vietnam to trick recipients into following the scammer's request to collect customer information. (See details)

Hanoi Market Management inspects 116 gold production and trading establishments

The Hanoi Market Management Department has just issued a specialized inspection plan to strictly control compliance with legal regulations in gold trading activities.

Accordingly, this inspection will take place from August 15 to October 15. There are 116 enterprises including enterprises producing, processing, trading, buying and selling, and repairing gold jewelry and fine arts in Hanoi that are subject to this inspection. (See details)

Crocodile, frozen durian, fresh coconut officially have 'visa' to China

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has just announced that frozen durian, fresh coconut and crocodile products from Vietnam are officially allowed to be exported to China.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that the signing of these three protocols was the result of active exchanges and negotiations between specialized units of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the General Administration of Customs of China. (See details)