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Oct 7, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Yuji Nitta
HANOI -- A month after Typhoon Yagi tore through Vietnam, claiming over 300 lives, the government is grappling with damages estimated at 81.8 trillion dong ($3.29 billion). The storm dumped torrential rain on northern Vietnam, triggering floods and landslides. Around 400,000 homes were damaged as of the end of September, along with roughly 290,000 hectares of paddy fields. More than 5.76 million heads of poultry were lost.
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Sep 27, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Yuji Nitta
HANOI -- Hanoi residents are embracing its new urban rail line for commutes and outings after weeks of frenzy over its long-awaited opening. Hanoi Metro began commercial operation on Aug. 8 of an 8.5-kilometer stretch of Line 3 that runs above ground between Nhon Station and Cau Giay Station. Construction on the line's 4-km-long underground section, which will connect Cau Giay to Hanoi Station, is still ongoing.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Yuji Nitta
HANOI -- Leading Vietnamese tech company FPT will enter semiconductor back-end processing, where chips are assembled and tested, planning to boost related personnel to 10,000 by 2030, Nikkei has learned.
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Sep 24, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama |Yuji Nitta
TOKYO/HO CHI MINH CITY -- Japanese retailer Aeon has opened a shopping center in the central Vietnamese city of Hue, gaining a footprint in an important growth area. Aeon Mall Hue was packed with families on Sunday, the day after its full-scale opening. Customers flocked to Japanese houseware and apparel brand Muji, domestic cafe chain Phuc Long and other retailers that opened their first locations in Hue.
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Sep 18, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Yuji Nitta
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia -- A port in Cambodia's seaside city of Sihanoukville will enlarge its capacity nearly fivefold by 2030 with support from the Japanese government. The terminal completed an expansion project that was marked by an inauguration ceremony held Sept. 12. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet delivered an address that day amid heavy rain.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Yuji Nitta
HANOI -- Vietnam's appetite for instant noodles has swelled since the COVID pandemic, with Japanese noodle producer Acecook leading the market on the strength of an established presence and product lineup. Last year, Acecook sold roughly 3.3 billion servings in Vietnam, equating to a roughly 40% share of the market. The sales volume is equivalent to nearly 60% of Japan's annual instant noodle consumption.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Yuji Nitta
HANOI -- Vietnam Electricity has brought new transmission lines online, supplying more power from the central part of the country to the north's factories in hopes of averting more costly blackouts. The state-owned enterprise finished the grid project in around half a year at the direction of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, local media report, instead of the three to four years that such improvements could take. Chinh attended the inauguration ceremony for the new lines Thursday.
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Aug 21, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Yuji Nitta
HANOI -- Vietnam's long-awaited first subway line is slated to open in Ho Chi Minh City by the end of this year, although the delays that have plagued construction prompted Japanese company Hitachi to file for arbitration seeking payments from the city as costs pile up. Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line No. 1 will connect Ben Thanh Station in the city center with the eastern suburbs along 19.7 kilometers.
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Aug 10, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Yuji Nitta
HO CHI MINH CITY -- A Vietnamese payment app is using a popular Japanese anime to draw customers into physical stores, part of a trend toward online-to-offline (O2O) commerce in the growing Southeast Asian economy. A cinema in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city, was crowded with families on a recent day to see the newest title in the long-running Case Closed series, "Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram."
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Yuji Nitta
HO CHI MINH CITY -- The Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Thursday began commercial service on part of the the city's second metro rail line after nine years of delays. Only the elevated portion of Hanoi Metro's Line 3 between suburban Nhon Station and Cau Giay Station in the capital is operational, while construction on the underground section remains ongoing.
