Vietnam News Reports
Dollar rises to VND23,000 on Vietnam black market
TUOI TRE NEWS UPDATED: 11 / 25 / 2016 10:30 GMT + 7
The dollar rose in both the official and unofficial market on Thursday, continuing a rally that follows on the heels of the market’ s reaction to fiscal policy initiatives proposed by U. S. President-elect Donald Trump. On Thursday morning, the State Bank of Vietnam( SBV) set the mid-point rate at 22,131 dong per dollar, up 13 dong from Wednesday. With the dollar / dong trading band set at +/- 3 percent of the mid-point rate, the new ceiling price for the dollar is VND22,795 a greenback. Following the mid-point rate adjustment, the SBV quoted the dollar at that ceiling price, prompting several local banks to do the same. ACB and Eximbank quoted the rate at VND22,795 per dollar, up VND95 per dollar from yesterday. Meanwhile, Vietcombank and Vietinbank quoted at VND22,794 per dollar, only one dong below the ceiling. In the unofficial market, the dollar was quoted at VND23,000, up VND230 from Wednesday. Local banks attributed the dollar rally in Vietnam to expectations held by investors toward new policies proposed by President-elect Trump following his surprising election victory on November 8. The dollar has risen 2 percent against the dong since Trump’ s victory in the U. S. presidential election. In 2015 the dong fell 4.94 percent against the dollar on the interbank market, faster than a decline of 1.38 percent the previous year, according to Reuters data. In the latest development, the dollar also rose to an eight-month high against the Japanese yen Friday morning, as Trump ' s victory in the U. S. presidential election stoked speculation of higher U. S. economic growth and inflation, according to Reuters. The dollar rose reached 113.64 yen, gaining about 0.3 percent in early Asian trade.
Vietnam to deactivate 12 million unregistered SIM cards
TUOI TRE NEWS UPDATED: 11 / 24 / 2016 14:39 GMT + 7
In just two weeks ' time, 12 million mobile phone users in Vietnam may find themselves in need of a new SIM card once the Ministry of Information and Communications deactivates all unregistered and improperly registered SIMs in the country. In Vietnam, a SIM card must be properly registered at the time of activation with the owner’ s correct information, including their name, date of birth and ID number. However, some SIM card dealerships have defied the law by self-registering cards en masse with fake information and selling the ready-to-use cards for cheap prices with considerable prepaid account balances to customers, particularly foreigners unaware of the registration process. To combat the use of improperly registered cards, the Ministry of Information and Communications has launched an extensive campaign aimed at deactivating the improperly registered SIMs. A recent inspection by the ministry found a number of SIM cards registered with false information, including fake names and ID numbers. Despite the false registration information, the SIM cards still function normally, so users may not be aware they are using an invalid SIM. According to the ministry, some dealerships either use a single ID to register numerous SIM cards or declare such nonsensical names as“ con heo dat”( piggy bank),“ happyzone,” and“ khong ten”( no name) in the registration. Using this trick, one dealership was able to register 134,357 new SIM cards each year, with more than 11,000 new users each month. The ministry’ s inspection also found some service providers violating promotion laws by generously‘ gifting’ users balances bigger than those allowed for their new SIM cards, leading to customers taking advantage of the deals to buy SIM cards in bulk in order to send spam SMS and fraudulent messages. According to data gathered from local mobile carriers, there are some 12 million SIM cards that will be deactivated for violating these laws unless their users re-take the registration process with correct information. Under a request by the information ministry, mobile carriers have notified users of violations via SMS, requesting that they register their SIM cards or risk losing them within 15 days of the notification.
48 The MAG Vung Tau