Vietnam

7 March 2016

459

General information

Vietnam Information

Vietnam is in the east of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia. With its capital city of Hanoi, Vietnam is limited by China to the north, Laos, Cambodia and the Gulf of Thailand to the west and the South China Sea to the east and south. Covering an area of 331,698 square kilometers, Vietnam has about 89.5 million inhabitants.

General

Official name: Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Government type: centralized state, one-party rule
Head of State: Truong Tan Sang, President of the Republic
Head of government: Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister
CPV General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong

Geography

Area: 331,041 km²
Capital: Hanoi
major cities: Hanoi (7.3 million inhabitants), Ho Chi Minh city (8.1 million inhabitants),
Hai Phong (1.8 million inhabitants), Da Nang (926 000 inhabitants)
Official language: Vietnamese
Current Language: Vietnamese
Currency: the 04/06/2015: 1 EUR = 24,680 dong
National Day: September 2

Vietnam, on the edge of Southeast Asia, extends along the eastern coast of the Indochinese peninsula over 1,700 km from north to south. Its width does not exceed 300 km (50 km to the closest area). The territory is bounded on the east by the South China Sea – the Vietnamese call the East Sea (3260 km of coastline), north China, west and south-west by Laos and Cambodia. Covering an area of 331,000 km², Vietnam claims the Paracels archipelagos possession and Spratlys in the South China Sea. The terrain is varied and formed three-quarters of mountains and plateaus.

Demography

Population (2012) ²: 89.7 million
Density: 263 / km²
Population Growth: 1.0% (estimated over the period 2010-2015) ²
Life expectancy (2012) ²: 75.4 years
Literacy (2012) ²: 93.2%
Religions: Buddhist (75%), Catholics (7%), Cao Dai (2%), Hoa Hao (2%), Protestants (0.75%), Muslims (0.1%)
Human Development Index: 0.617 (127th Place – 2012 km²)

Economy

The Vietnamese economy is open from the early 1990s with the so-called policy of “renewal” (doi moi). It has since grown remarkably: per capita GDP has tripled over the period (1500 USD / cap today.), Allowing the country access in 2010 to the status of middle-income countries (lower bracket) .

Vietnam is a member of ASEAN since 1995 and has acceded to the WTO in 2007. The deterioration of the international situation in 2012, as well as the slowdown in domestic activity in Vietnam, have resulted in a withdrawal of countries in terms of market access.

The country aims to become an industrialized economy by 2020, but structural reforms are expected in particular because of the fragility of the banking sector and the public sector. Vietnam was forced to lead a sanitation policy since 2011.

More analysis and statistics: www.tresor.economie.gouv.fr

GDP (2014) ¹: 186.2 billion USD
GDP per capita (2013) ¹: 1895 USD / hab
growth rate (2014) ¹ 5.9%
unemployment rate (according to the ILO, 2013): 2.3%
Inflation rate (2014) ¹ 4.1%
Budget balance (2014) ¹: – 5.3% of GDP
Trade Balance (2014) ¹ 2.1 billion USD

Main customers (2014) ¹: United States (19.1%), EU (18.6%), China (9.9%), Japan (9.8%)
Major suppliers (2014) ¹: China (29.6%), South Korea (14.7%), Japan (8.7%), Taiwan (7.5%)

Share of main sectors in GDP (2014) ¹:

agriculture: 18.1%
industry: 38.5%
services: 43.4%

Main sources of income:

Vietnam live mainly from agriculture (rice), fishing, production of oil, coal. Tourism now holds a prominent place in Vietnam’s economy, with several sites inscribed on the List of World Heritage by UNESCO

Strengths / weaknesses
International Trade
– With France
With Europe
ambitions
Barriers to entry

Source : www.diplomatie.gouv.fr

Good to know

Currency

The Dong (ISO 4217: VND) is the currency of Vietnam since 1978. The State Bank of Vietnam issues and controls the Dong. Since its reunification, Vietnam has suffered a state of chronic inflation, and its currency has been steeply devaluated. The Dong was the second least valued currency unit after the Iranian Rial in 2014. Vietnam has since devalued the Dong five times in an effort to help spur exports.

The Euro to Dong exchange rate converts at 24 968 on May the 30^th, 2016.

Climate

Safety

Where to go?

How to settle there?

Business

To do business

Tax system

Taxes on people

Vietnam applies a progressive tax of 5 to 35%

From 0 to 60,000,000 VND	5%
From 60 million to 120 million VND	10%
From 120 million to 216 million VND	15%
From 216 million to 384 million VND	20%
From 384 million to 624 million VND	25%
From 624 million to 960 million VND	30%
Above VND 960 000 000	35%

(VND 960 million = € 40 000, January 2016)

Income tax

Vietnam has progressively reduced its tax rate on companies..
The 25 % rate has been reduced to 22 % in 2014. . On January 1st 2016, it has been fixed at 20%.
However certain sectors, such as Oil & Gas, may still be imposed at high rates up to 50%.

VAT

Vietnam applies a standard rate of 10 %.
Exports are not subject to VAT
26 categories of transactions, such farm products, postal services, life insurance are exempted from VAT.

First necessity products, inclusing medical and scientific equipment, are subject to a 5% rate.

There is no minimum income to be VAT liable. It depends on the type of activity.

Foreign Contractor Tax

The rates depends on whether the foreign contractor has a permanent establishment in Vietnam, whether he is registered for Vietnamese Accounting System (VAS), the duration of the services that are provided, or the nature of supplies.

Other taxes

Rights record.

They apply to certain transactions, including the acquisition of buildings and vehicles utilitiares.
Rates vary from 0.5% to 20%.

Aeronautics

Airlines

Industry

Armed forces

Airr Force

Type	In service	On order
Combat
Su 22	36
Su27/30	37	10
Specialized missions
An 28 (MPA)	1
Transport
An 26	30
C295	3
Helicopters
Ka 32	2
Mi 8/17	87
Mi 2	25
UH1 H	26
Training
L39	26