From Market Entry to Factory Launch - Manufacturing Expansion in Vietnam 2026 | Business Talk

From Market Entry to Factory Launch A Practical Guide to Setting Up Manufacturing in Vietnam As Vietnam continues to strengthen its position as a leading manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia, many global companies are exploring opportunities to establish and expand their operations in the country. However, the journey from initial market entry to a fully operational factory involves navigating complex regulatory, financial and operational landscape. This webinar provides a practical end to end guide for companies looking to set up manufacturing operations in Vietnam. From understanding the current manufacturing landscape and market entry strategy to selecting the right location, setting up banking and payment structures, and overcoming common bottlenecks during factory launch, our experts will walk you through each critical stage. The Session this this afternoon's webinar is organized by Incorp Vietnam, an Ascension company part of the Global Ascension Group, supporting business and integrated corporate advisory and outsourcing solutions throughout their expansion journey in Vietnam. We are also joined today by industry experts from leading organizations including SAVOS Vietnam, Standard Charter Bank Vietnam and BW Industrial, providing insights across industrial real estate, banking and factory operations. Next slide please. So we'll quickly go through the agenda. I will start off my presentation, my name is Jack Wing and then we'll follow by John Campbell, Hing Duang and Hao Zheng. Next slide please. Okay, next slide. Hi everyone, Just a quick introduction about myself. My name is Jack nguyen. I'm the CEO of InCorp Vietnam. We are part of the Ascension Company Group. I have over 25 plus years of international experience working across market entry, accounting, finance and workforce strategy in Vietnam, Asia and North America. I've been living and working in Vietnam for the last 14 years and previously to that I hold senior financial and leadership positions in similar similar companies in Vietnam. Next slide please. Quick introduction About Asentium we are a group of companies that comprise of a number of other global brand names such Carney's, Fiduciary, Virtuzone and Lynx. Next slide please. We operate in more than 27 countries across the world in 50 plus cities. We serve over 30 65,000 client entities and we our team comprise of over almost 3,000 professionals across the 27 countries, mostly in Asia Pacific, but we also have presence in Europe, uk, Middle east and the Americas, South America particularly. Next slide please. So this is a summary of the services that our company offer. You can think of US as a one stop shop for foreign companies particularly SMEs that wants to enter and operate in Vietnam. We provide services for market entry to compliance work, tax accounting, hr, payroll as well as advisory services, recruitment, staffing and business intelligence. Next slide please. Right, so I'LL start off my presentation by walking you through Vietnam's manufacturing landscape today. If you've been watching global supply chains over the past few years, you've seen in the same, you've seen the same patterns. Companies moving production out of one place, looking for a new base in Asia. And Vietnam keeps coming up. Not three years ago, not pre pandemic, we're talking about 2026 and forward. Here's the short version. Vietnam has stopped being a cheap assembly shop. It's becoming a real manufacturing hub. And the data proves it. Let me walk you through three numbers that tell you the story. As you can see on the slide. First, 1.8percent growth. Vietnam's GDP group 8.02% in 2025. That's one of the highest rates in all of Asia, let alone globally. And the main engine behind the growth is manufacturing. The processing and manufacturing sector grew over 10%, the best performance since 2019. In fact, manufacturing alone contributed over 31% of the entire country's value added growth. That is a massive number. Second number is the 55% of all FDI go into manufacturing. Last year, Vietnam attracted roughly US$38.5 billion of registered foreign direct investment. More than half of that 55% over $21 billion went straight into manufacturing. Not real estate, not services. Factories, production lines and industrial parks attracted these foreign investments. But here's what's really interesting. A big chunk of that money wasn't from new investors. It was from existing ones, expanding. They're already operating in Vietnam. They're increasing capacity, upgrading technology and extending their timelines. That tells you something important. The companies already in Vietnam are doubling down. They see their investment in Vietnam as a great return. They're not leaving. And the third number is 88% of exports. That's the share coming from processed industrial goods, electronics, machinery, phones, garment, footwear. In 2025 alone, computers and electronic products hit US$107 billion in export, up 48% from the year before. Mobile phones added another 56 billion. So when you set up in Vietnam today, you're not an experiment. You're going joining a mature, fast moving ecosystem with real scale. Next slide please. So what's driving this growth? Two things. First, Vietnam's trade deal network. You may have heard, Vietnam has signed numerous multiple trade agreements with many countries around the world through evt, fta, Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, CPTPP with Japan, Australia, Canada and rcep. With the wider region, manufacturers based in Vietnam can prefer access to some of the world's biggest markets. That's not nice to have as a structural advantage you can't easily find elsewhere in Asia. Secondly, the government is actively pushing for higher value stuff. Gone are the days when Vietnam was open to textile and apparel manufacturer. Now Vietnam wants to attract semiconductors, components, green manufacturing, electronics. They're not just chasing volume anymore. They want technology transfer, research and development and real value added manufacturing. So that's the landscape we're looking at in Vietnam right now. Growing fast, shifting up the value chain, and well connected to global markets. Next slide, please. So what's changed in policy and regulations? Now let's talk about the rules of the game. Because a lot has changed in the last 12 to 18 months. Really only last year and a half. And if you're basing your plan on all information, you could easily miss out on serious incentives or worse, run into compliance trouble. I'm going to cover two sides of the same coin. The good news on incentives and the new realities on compliance. First, the good news. Incentives are stronger than ever. Vietnam introduced a new law on digital technology industry that took effect in January 2026. Under that law, high tech manufacturing projects can get four years of full corporate income tax exemption, followed by nine years at a 50% reduction. If your project is very large or over US$2.3 billion, it's even better six years of full exemption than 10 years at half rate. On top of that, the pilot free trade zones in Danang and Haiphong are now operational. These are game changers. In those zones, corporate tax can be as low as 10% for 15 years, with land rent completely waived, import duties on equipment exempted, and simplify procedures that let you go set up a legal entity first and get investment approval later. So yes, Vietnam is very serious about attracting advanced manufacturing. The incentives are real and they're competitive with anywhere in the region. Now the flip side is regulation is also getting tighter and stricter. On March 1, 2026, a new investment law came to effect. The overall philosophy shifted from hard to enter, loose once you're in to, and I like this phrase, easier to enter but stricter once you're operating. What does that mean? Practically, for most manufacturing projects, you can now incorporate your company first and apply for the investment certificate after that saves you two to four months of waiting. That's a big improvement and that's a big change in Vietnam. But and this is critical, post licensing companies, compliance is tougher. Environmental impact assessments, labor, law enforcement and rules of origin are all being checked more carefully. Vietnam wants to stop simple assembly operation that just glued Parts together and claim made in Vietnam, you need to have a real value added in the country. Typically that means either achieving 30 to 40% local content or a genuine tariff classification change. Next slide please. The real cost of doing business, labor and compliance. Two things that sometimes get overlooked until it's too late are labor and compliance. Because here's the truth. Vietnam's costs are rising and the rules are getting stricter. First, the labor costs. At the start of this year, in January 2026, the regional minimum wage went up by 7.2%. That's the biggest single increase in years. What does that mean in real numbers? In major industrial zones like bac, Ninh Binh Zhu and Ho Chi Minh City, production workers are now earning around 350 to 380 US dollars a month. Skilled technicians are over 400 US dollar a month and climbing. And it's not just the wage itself. Competition for talent is heating up, especially in the North. Big anchors like Samsung and Foxconn are constantly hiring, which means smaller and newer entrants have to work harder to track and keep good people. So if you're building a labor intensive operation, you need to budget realistically. Don't use numbers from two years ago. Secondly, compliance is no longer a formality. Vietnam is cracking down on a simple assembly operations. You can't just bring in parts, glue them together and slap made in Vietnam on the box anymore. Here's what you need to know. Environmental impact assessments are mandatory and they're rigorous. You need to plan for waste treatment, emissions, water usage, all of it. Labor law enforcement is strict contracts, overtime, social insurance. The authorities are paying attention to all these. And lastly, rules of origin. To qualify for Vietnam's tariff beneath under FTA, you generally need either 30 to 40% local content or a genuine tariff classification change. That's not optional. That's the price of entry into those preferential markets. So the bottom line is this. Vietnam is no longer a place where you can show up, rent a factory and figure things out as you go. The incentives are real and generous. I covered those earlier, but they come with expectations. You need a professional entry plan. You need to budget for compliance, not just rent and wages. And you need local partners who understand how to navigate this. Next slide please. Connecting this to your location planning. Next slide, location planning. So where should you put your factory? All right, let's get straight to the question. Everyone in this room is thinking. Where exactly should I put my factory? That's that will help. Transportation helps attracting labor. The honest answer is it depends on your Supply chain that's the main driver. Not just land price, not just labor costs, but where your components come from and where your finished goods need to go. So let me break it into three simple scenarios. First is the northern region. We're talking about Hanoi and the outlier provinces around Hanoi. If 40 or 50 to 50 or more of your bills and materials is coming from China, components, sub assemblies, raw materials, then in the north is your natural fit. Provinces like bac, Ninh, Haiphong and Taiwane have built their entire industrial ecosystem around cross border supply chains. Why? Because these provinces are very close to the border with China. Trucks crossing are efficient and lead times are short. That's why Samsung, Foxcomm and LG are all up north. So think about the northern border region as part of the whole total supply chain ecosystem of these major companies like Samsung and Foxconn. Okay? Supplies and parts are not just in China, but also in Vietnam as well. Secondly, Southern Vietnam. If your supply chain is global, coming from Korea, Japan, Europe or the United States, then the south makes more sense. Okay, so it's not from, if not from China, then Southern Vietnam is where you need to be. Ho Chi Minh City and Binyun give you access to deep water ports like Kaimat Tvai. That's Vietnam's only port cluster with direct shipping routes to America and Europe. No trans shipment through Singapore or Hong Kong. That's the real logistic advantage. And if you think about the, the, the, the merger of the three major geographic location between Ho Chi Minh City, Binyun and Vung Tao, there's a purpose behind that merger is to give, you know, it's to give that, that merge new location, access to deep water ports like Kai Met. Thirdly, Central Vietnam. If cost is your absolute top priority and you're willing to build your supply chain over time, meaning you don't need fully mature supply ecosystem on day one, then central Vietnam around Danang is worth a serious look. Land prices are lower, occupancy is only around 56% and the new free trade zone and this are very attractive for early movers. So the rule is simple. Follow the supply chain. If it's China heavy, then go north. If it's global sourcing, go south. If cost is a priority and you, you have the time to build out, then central is your best bet. Next slide please. So let's talk about land availability and market opportunity. Because a lot of investors hear high occupancy rates and think there's no space left. But that's not the full picture. Yes, occupancy in northern industrial parks is around 80 to 85%. In the south, it's up to 90%. But here's where those numbers don't tell you. First, secondary provinces still have good supply. Places like Hunging Vinh Phuc in the north or Lom Ang in the south. Just outside, the main hubs have land available. And new industrial zones are being launched in phases. So don't assume you're locked out. Secondly, ready built factories are a game changer. In 2025, the north absorbed over 420,000 square meters of ready built factory space. In the south, ready built factories based occupancy is around 95%. That's how popular they've become. And you'll hear more about later from speakers from Savos and bw. Why are these popular? Because of speed. Compare the timeliness. If you land lease land and build your own factory, you're looking at 12 to 18 months before you produce your first product. Permits, construction, utilities, they all add up. But if you rent a ready built factory, you can be operational in six to nine months. That's half the time. For many companies, that speed advantage alone justify the slightly higher rent. Now one thing more. Don't underestimate the domestic market. A lot of foreign investors come to Vietnam purely for exports. But Vietnam has over 100 million people, a young population and rising incomes. That's a real consumer market. If your product can sell locally, and many can, then Southern Vietnam gives you a huge advantage. You're close to your customers, distribution networks are better and the services ecosystem is more developed. So before you decide, ask yourself a simple question. Are you here for just for exports or do you also want the domestic market access? Next slide please. Free trade zones a strategic shortcut for manufacturing entry. Okay, so regulation is getting tighter. That sounds like bad news. But here's where the government is actually helping you and providing more benefits and incentives. Government has created what's called free trade zones. Vietnam has two pilot free trade zones up and running right now in Da Nang and Hanging. So let me tell you what that means in plain language for Danang tax for factories setting up the free trade zone is as low as 10% and that's applicable for 15 years. Land rent is waived in the first 10 years and custom. Very simple. One window and you're done. And who is this for? For new players. Vietnam wants to attract new entrants into the market that that's willing to build their own supply chain but want lower cost and less pressure for haifong. No import Tax on machinery or raw materials. No VAT between zone companies. Cargo clears in under two hours. And who do they want to attract in Hai Phone exporters. High volume shipping to eu, us, Japan. For those companies that care about working capital and lead times. Now, real talk moment. Free trade zones are not a free pass. You still need 30 to 40% local content. Remember that 30 to 40% local content. You still need real value. Add simple assembly. If your intention is just do simple assembly, then the authorities will catch you. Okay, it has to be real manufacturing. So here's my practical advice. Use a free trade zone. If you export most of your stuff 80% or more, it can cut your launch time by three to four months. But if you're selling inside Vietnam, don't bother thinking about free trade zone. The tax benefits stop at the zone border. You also need to match the zone to your supply chain. Haiphong to the north is China linked. Danang. If you're building from scratch and costs is king. The incentives are real. But they reward people who come prepare. So that ends my presentation for this afternoon. I'll pass along to the next speaker for this webinar, Mr. John Campbell. Back to you, Cindy. And over to you, John. Thank you. And Jack. And next up would like to invite John to the session. Sorry, just want to make sure my sound is on. Hi guys. So I'm just going to share my screen and I'm going to pull up my presentation. I'll be sharing the slides myself. Just give me one second here. Okay. Okay, here we go. Okay, so just want to make sure you can see the screen. Cindy, is that visible? It is visible. Perfect. Okay, so Jack covered quite a bit there already, especially with regard to manufacturing. So Mike, John, you're on mute. Sorry, sorry. Can you hear me now? Yes, hello. Okay, so for my presentation today, I'm going to focus on from site search to cost drivers. Jack talked a lot about the manufacturing already. I'm going to go into bit about the manufacturing and then I'm going to go into a bit more about the industrial property landscape and how companies are running their site search and selection process when they move to Vietnam. First of all, just a quick introduction. My name is John Campbell. I'm originally from Ireland. I've been in Vietnam for 13 years and working at Savold, Vietnam for eight years where I set up the industrial services team. So our team, what we do in a nutshell is we help companies moving to Vietnam to find their best location for their industrial land. Ready built factory or ready built warehouse. So that's for them to expand their manufacturing, assembly or logistics activities in Vietnam. Okay, so just to start off, let's talk about the market in a nutshell. So we have, I would say one of the key factors in Vietnam in recent years is the strong exports and very resilient manufacturing. Especially since the bounce in 2022 after Covid in the bounce back. Competitive labor costs has always been a key driver, especially for lower value added industries in the past. But it still remains an important piece of the decision making process for many industries. Extensive free trade agreement network. So Vietnam is in more FTAs than any other country in Southeast Asia. So it has fantastic market access. Continued China +1 relocations and diversifications into electronics, especially in the north, has been a big benefit as well. So 2026 is also a year where we have new infrastructure developments, especially in the Southern economic zone in the south. What I'm referring to here is the ring road which is upcoming soon and of course Long Tan International Airport which is also upcoming. Some of the short term challenges, of course, Since April in 2025 we have the presence of the US tariffs which some manufacturers have to consider. More recently there has been a bit of geopolitical uncertainty with US and Iran. Domestically we have the rising land prices and tight supply in some key provinces. And power supply as well is a factor for many of the big high tech manufacturers and semiconductors or the data center investors. Also looking at Vietnam, the long term challenges. The government's plan of course is to keep moving Vietnam up the value chain. And a big part of doing that is upskilling the labor and that means semiconductors. AI once we have the labor upskilled that they can accommodate these industries and these industries and companies will have the people to to join their workforce. Ongoing infrastructure and transport, infrastructure upgrades and long term grid sustainability. And of course meeting the rising ESG and sustainability expectations of these international occupiers is also important. I will get to that at the very end of the presentation. We're going to talk about industrial property and ESG expectations. I won't spend too long on this. Just Jack already covered about 8% last year. But I just want to show you this chart so you can see this from a perspective of Vietnam versus the other countries in Southeast Asia. So in 2024 about 7.1% GDP growth and 8% in 2025. So you can see Vietnam versus Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore. It's fantastic performance when you look at it regionally. Vietnam is by far having the fastest GDP growth on the bottom left we have the average manufacturing salaries. So Vietnam is cheaper than most of the competitors like Malaysia and China and Thailand, but just a bit, just a bit more expensive than Indonesia. So right now it's about US$350 per month or end of 2025. Population, young and dynamic workforce, over 100 million people. This is another key factor for a lot of the companies coming here in terms of hiring. But it's also a key factor for the growth of the E commerce and logistics as well. The rising middle class, more disposable income, the big population and young people purchasing things on their phone is another reason why we're seeing a lot more E commerce companies and some of the new players coming from China into Vietnam as well, like Shane and these companies trying to set up warehousing here. Another thing that's very important when it comes to costs when manufacturers move to Vietnam is they need to look at the electricity costs and the construction cost. So the electricity costs for corporate use is actually very competitive. It's just a bit ahead of Indonesia. But you can see there on a global scale compared with China, India and these other countries, it still is competitive. Construction costs a bit of a similar story. So in yellow is from basically is for basic factory shell and in the dark navy is kind of for a more higher quality tailor specific factory facility. So around 300 to 380, $400 a square meter construction cost. Now I will put a disclaimer in this and say these were some estimates from last year we put together. But of course with the geopolitical tensions in the world, there has been quite a big increase in the average construction cost. So the number is a bit higher now. But just for reference, you can see how Vietnam stacks up against other countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. Okay, exports. So this chart is something I like to usually in my presentations I like to show because about 10 years ago, 15 years ago, when you look at the biggest FDI manufacturing projects coming in and the biggest exports going out, a lot of it would have been low value products like textiles, apparel, footwear. But when you look at this chart here, you can see from 2019 all the way to 2025, computers and electronics has risen every single year. You can see there it's actually stepped like a staircase. It's up every year on the right there you can see some interesting figures. So electronics from 2019 to 2025 is up 140% and that's significant. And that really shows the growth story of Vietnam moving up the value chain. It's no longer rolling out the red carpet to any project with that has money. But they have chemical or hazardous waste. No, it's far more selective as a chubby, especially in the key provinces near the main cities. On the bottom left we have the biggest export markets, so US is still the biggest market, followed by China as Well. Okay, total FDI. This is from 1988 now. So Korea is still number one. But you can see here Singapore is catching up. It's very tight now. Most of the Korea FDI is due to manufacturing, especially from Samsung, LG and some other players. But most of the Singapore FDI is more due to the real estate and financial investments. And Japan in number three is a mix of both. Japan has some big manufacturing here and also some big infrastructure projects and and real estate investments as well. Now, when we talk about total fdi, what's more interesting to me is to look at the manufacturing FDI because it's related to the industrial sector. So you can see on the left in yellow is the total fdi and in dark navy is the manufacturing fdi. The point of this chart is just to show that every year manufacturing takes up a massive piece of the piece. It's usually 50 to 60% of total FDI every year is attributed to just manufacturing and processing. And then on the right side, we broke down the number of manufacturing projects every year by new project, existing project or manufacturing capital contributions. So in yellow you can see every year the amount of new manufacturing projects. And I feel that's quite interesting information for this webinar because we're focusing on market entry. And in yellow that represents the companies that are moving and entering the market for the first time in Vietnam. Just a quick look at the manufacturing FDI towards the end of last year. So about 58% was manufacturing of all FDI. What we did at Savill was we broke down every single manufacturing FDI investment from 2025 and we filtered it which was in the RE, which was in the north, which was in the south, which province it went to. So here are some of the findings. So 59% of all new manufacturing investment last year was in the north by terms of Investment Capital and 33% was in the South. Now only 9% is in Central. That might not sound like much, but most years central has quite a smaller piece of the pie. Even 23 and 2024 was much smaller. So 9% is actually a big increase year on year for Central. So Deny High Tech park and some of these parks around Quang Nam and Quang Ngai, they're actually getting more manufacturing projects now in recent years and we're expecting that to continue as well, especially around Da Nang and the high tech zone by province back Ninh got the most manufacturing investment last year, followed by Hai Fung. And then in third place we had Dong Nai representing the South. Now this is a quite cool to see. So by country China in terms of manufacturing, of new projects, China invested the most capital last year and it also had the Most projects. Over 406 new manufacturing projects were Chinese manufacturing project last year. So that's by far the biggest in terms of number compared to the other countries. And in terms of FDI capital, it was over 33%. So that's a massive year for China investment. China manufacturing investments in Vietnam last year, huge. A few years ago, 2019, 2020, you know, we were thinking a lot of the manufacturing coming out of China is foreign companies diversifying out of China. But now we're seeing domestic Chinese companies diversifying to Southeast Asia and Vietnam as well. So it tells an interesting story. One more thing about this chart is Hong Kong is in third place. And a lot of these Hong Kong investments are actually in China companies with office in Hong Kong. So you could say that this 33% number is even higher by industry. Computers and electronics was about 20%, fabricated metals of 15% and electrical equipment 9, 10%. So again quite towards the high value added end of the spectrum. Whereas rubber, plastics, food and beverage and these other projects took a smaller piece. Okay, so let's get into the real estate, the property. So now I already told you about all of the manufacturing, the new manufacturing investments in 2025. So what we also did was we broke them down. How many were land lease deals and how many were factory lease deals? At Ready Built Factory we have how here from BW id, the biggest Red Eel factory developer in Vietnam. She'll talk more about what they do in their model. But this slide can show you that there's been such a rising interest in the last few years from Readybill Factory, from tenants who seem to prefer moving into these units as opposed to land. So when a company comes to Vietnam, they can buy land for 50 years, but then they have to pay for the land and they have to pay for construction. And also they're making a 30 to a 50 year commitment. Right. But with the ready built factory model, they can move in like an office. They can move in, sign a three, five or a 10 year lease. So last year in 2025 was the first year we've ever seen that the number of ready build factory deals has overtaken the number of land deals. Now. That's why I think this is quite interesting, because it's kind of showing a shift from the tenant mindset, the occupier mindset of, you know what? I would prefer flexibility. Even though it's nice to have the red book and own the property for the 50 years, I would like to have the flexibility and I would like to have the security of having a landlord behind me who knows how to manage the facility, can take care of me of any issues I have with the authorities. And that's worth a lot of money, having that peace of mind. So just at the number there, so you can see 38% were land deals and 62% were factory deals. I also broke this down for the North Economic Zone in the south as well. But you can see in the south, especially a really big portion of the factories, sorry, a really big portion of the manufacturing projects in the south were factory deals, about 68% and about 32% were land deals. A bit closer in the north, about 56% were factory deals and 44% land deals. So talking about infrastructure, and then I'm going to talk about the site search criteria. So this is just a map of the North Economic Zone. So you see some of the main roads and projects there. I guess one of the few things we talk about with Hanoi is it doesn't have a port in the city like Ho Chi Minh, but it does have a fantastic expressway going to Haiphong, which is only an hour and a half away. That used to be nearly three hours drive. And it's almost cut in half now. So even companies who are in Hanoi or BAC Ninh, they're not that far from the port. Even though it looks like it's quite far on the map in terms of driving distance, it's not that far. Now, the south is in the media a lot in the last year because 2026 and 2027 are the years that we're expecting, after a very long wait, expecting these new infrastructure projects, namely the ring Road Number 3 and Longtown International Airport. So you can see here in yellow the ring road number three. That's, I mean, going to connect Binzhong with Dong Ngai Longan and to Ho Chi Minh City. So this is going to be. It's going to play a big role in reducing congestion around the city and creating better access between the different industrial areas. And then Longtown International Airport, which is over here. And you can see this number one sign that is also going to be a factor because we talk about the electronics is in the North. But having a massive international airport in the south will help encourage some electronic investment to the south as well. Because a lot of these type of companies that are involved in chip assembly or high tech precision assembly of chips, they don't necessarily need to be near the port. They actually prefer air cargo because that's what they import and export a lot of their chips and their small parts. So a lot of these companies want to be near the airport. So this is why Long Tan is going to be quite a driver for the south to get some more of this electronics investment here. Whereas traditionally we always think it just goes to the North. Okay, let's look at the actual industrial property performance. So north here Nez is the North Economic Zone Industrial park ip. So this is the industrial land here. So we looked last year at all of the active industrial parks across the main provinces in the north, the average land lease price was about 3.4 million dong, which is, if I'm correct, I think it's about 143, $144 a square meter, roughly. The occupancy across these provinces was 85%. So there is quite a bit of demand and a bit of a need for more supply in some of the key areas. For example, Bat Ninh is a very sought after province. It's almost 90% occupied. So there is some new supply needed there. Hai Funga is also just above 80% now as well. In terms of developers, when you look at the north and the south, it's kind of interesting because this all comes back to when, if I'm a manufacturer, if I'm moving to Vietnam, the first thing I need to decide on which region before I decide on which province. I start here in the funnel and I go down. So when I start at the funnel at the region, I have to look at the north versus the South. And when I look at the north, one of the factors is not just the price or the occupancy, but who are the developers, what are their company profiles like? What are they like? Are they state owned, are they private developers? How do they operate? So here you can see the top five developers in terms of hectares of land. Vigla, Serra, kinBac City, Deepsea, TNI holdings and VSIP. So all of those companies, except for VSIP, none of them have a presence really in the south of Vietnam. When you look at the big developers in the north and the big developers in the south, apart from vsip, they're totally different companies. It's almost like some developers stick in this region and some stick in this region. With the ready build factory developers, it's different, there's a bit more overlap. But with the industrial park developers, it's quite interesting to see different players prominent in each region. I'm going to go back to this. I want to show you the south industrial park overview. So the average land price about 4.7 million Vietnam dong which is about 186, $187 a square meter. So that's almost a $40 difference more expensive than in the south, which is quite a lot when you look at a big project. So this is somewhere where there is some concerns in the south and the key areas like Dong Nai or Binzhong. Because finding land is hard. But also any land you do find that the asking price is quite high now. So this is something that, you know, depending on the industry can be more concerning. If it's electronics or high value added, these margin, these, these industries have high margins. The cost of the land is not their biggest factor so they can afford to spend a bit more because they care more about skilled labor. But for the other industries like fabricated metals, furniture, it's very difficult because these are cost sensitive industries. So occupancy at 90% quite high. Binh Zhong is almost 100%, not much aside from VSIP3, there's not much land available. Dong Nai is 93, 94% which is very high. We do have new supply coming. We're waiting for long Duk3 for example to come live as well, which will bring much needed supply to the province. Barrier Vung Tau is becoming popular in recent years because the land is more competitively priced. So the reason for this is we have two ports. We have two main popular ports in the south. One is Kat Lai port in Ho Chi Minh City and the other is in Khaime port in Bariya Vung Tau Khaime port is a deep water capacity port. So some manufacturers now they think why do I need to pay this extra money and get land near Ho Chi Minh to when I can buy land in Barrio Vung Tau that's cheaper and I'm near Khaimat port and I export all of my product to US or to the Europe. So that's why Barrier Vongtao is starting to get that interest. In recent years when we looked at the North, I told you about the top five developers. So here again, totally different developers aside from Vsip these other names are not really present in the north, so becamex, Sana, Daisy, tinya, Idiko. So really a totally different set of companies there managing the parks. Here you can also see 25,000 hectares. So the amount of industrial land in south is a lot more. That's because some of the first industrial parks in the country like in the late 90s, early 2000s were built in the South. Now let's look at the ready built factory performance, ORBF and RBW's ready built warehouse. So this is to developers like BWID Logos or Logi who build factory warehouse shells and lease them out. So in the north, the average rents we recorded last year was about $5 a square meter per month, which is a bit high because a lot of the supplies in BAC Ninh, which is very close to Hanoi and aimed at the electronic segment. So the rent is quite high occupancy, but 83%. And you can see there are some tight vacancies in Hungin and A Haifong. Now we'll look at the South. Interestingly, the ready built, the average ready built factory and readybuild warehouse rent is cheaper. It's about 4.4, 4.5 dollar a square meter per month. But the occupancy is high as well, it's 92%. So you can see here little supply in Binzhong at the moment. So we're having the same issue with Dong Nai. Thankfully, Dong Nai has developers like ktg, bw, kcn, they have new phases of their projects in Long Tan and in Nam Chak district in Dong Nai. So we do have supply coming this year and next year. But you can see there the it's getting tight. We're nearly at 95% soon. So there is a massive need for more supply because most of the manufacturing inquiries, as I said earlier, are more interested in leasing factory than building factory. So we need to ensure we have more ready built supply able to accommodate them. So part of the presentation I wanted to get into is at Savills, we help the companies when they move to Vietnam analyze the whole market and filter down to find the best locations. That's what we do. It's what we're very good at. What are the site search considerations? I talked to you about the industrial property performance. But if you're a manufacturer moving to Vietnam, what are the factors that are very important for your real estate expansion? So some of the key points we note down is the market access, of course, labor dynamics and supply of skilled labor. Especially infrastructure, utilities and power supply of property like ready built supply and provincial factors, you know, I mean, is it very easy to get the IRC or erc or is it easy to get set up in certain provinces compared to others? All of these are things that my team and I would factor in when we're helping companies tailor with a tailored real estate strategy to find the best location for their business. Two years ago we worked with a Thai company. We analyzed five provinces. In the end they chose Tainan. Tin in is not somewhere we worked with much in the past, but for their business requirements, for their what they were producing, what they needed, it was the perfect location. Another Thai company we worked with in the following month, we worked close a deal with them. They chose Dong Nai. So every company has their very specific goods, their way they work. And every real estate location is different. It's not one size fit all. So you can see here all of it comes in together. The real estate, workplace, finance, all of it is connected into the strategy. So I mentioned a few differences with the north and south earlier, but just to show some of the key characteristics. So electronics, automotive, solar, these are the big industries in the North. In the south we have more diversification. There's more industries and more nationalities as well. So the north is popular with the Korean and Taiwanese and a lot of Asian manufacturing, whereas the south has us, European and from all sorts of countries. Land price is obviously another factor that's different when it comes to logistics. What a lot of the Chinese companies like in the Taiwanese companies is the proximity to China from the north, from Haiphong. Whereas in the south, we benefit from the commercial port in the city, Catalai Port, IP developers. I already mentioned some of the names, RBF developers. BW is in both north and South. We have some developers in the north like Core five, Soil Build, who are not present in the south really. And then other developers in the south like ktg, kcn. So those are some of the big players that carry a lot of supply tenants. Samsung, lg, Foxconn, Kumpul. These are some of the famous names in the North. In this business in the south, much different industries. We have Intel, JABL, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Univaco, a lot of these type of companies. So if we sum up the north and the South, I would say the south is like supply chain integration and the north is market access and diversification. All right, so let's say I'm working with a company and they know. Okay, John, we really like Dong Nai Province. That's where we want to be. We like the south, we like Dong Nai. But they also have to think what type of industrial property are they going to do. There's three different types of industrial property solutions. Okay. Broadly there's three, you can be more specific but these fall under three umbrellas. Industrial land, long term land lease. Yeah ready built factory or warehouse or built to suit. So the industrial land a company has to come in, they have to basically buy land for 50 years in a long term lease that they call it but that can cost 150 to $180 square meter and then they have to pay for their construction. So the disadvantage of this is it's capex heavy. It costs money. It's a lot of money up front. Also it takes time. It can take 12 to 15 months to get your factory up and running. You know from when you, when you get the site finalized. So if you're a big project like Coca Cola's 19 hectare factory then yes, you have to do a land lease because that scale is so big and you have to plan in advance. But a lot of comps, smaller requirements. They don't want to make that commitment, they don't want to spend that capex. They don't want to make a 50 year commitment because some of them are suppliers relying on a three year contract with their client. For example Samsung has many vendors in Vietnam and those vendors rely on a contract with Samsung. Those guys are not going to buy land for 50 years. And also they only need 5,000 or 10,000 square meter GFA which is too small for a land list. So this is why the ready built factory model became popular in Vietnam around 2018. So we have the BWS and the KCNS building these RBFs and RBWS because the manufacturer can move in just like an office and sign a 3, 5 or a 10 year lease. So it's really simple. It's speed to market, it's flexibility and it's cost efficiency and that's a big factor. Now the third one is built to suit most of the deals at Savills and most of other agencies. Most of the deals we do would be either land lease or ready built factory lease. Most of our projects have been ready with factory. About maybe 40% have been land deals. We want to, we've closed our first build to suit last year. There's not a whole lot of build to suit. Yes in Vietnam. It is getting there, we're getting there. Some of the big built to suits in the market now is an E commerce company like Shopee and in BW's project around Coochie. Because the reason if you want to do a build to suit is you don't want to buy land. But also the ready built warehouse or the ready built factory, the building specs are not suitable for your business. It's not specific enough. So let's say you say, look, we like the ready built warehouse model, but we need more loading bays, we need better ceiling height. The developer will say, okay, we have land. If you can wait 12 to 15 months, you give us your technical drawings and we'll build it according to your specs. And based on the construction cost, we'll give you a monthly rental quote per square meter per month. Sorry. And that's kind of why built to suit is being used now. So slowly but surely there is more companies doing built to suit now as well. But in a nutshell, these are the options you have when you come to Vietnam. If you are a manufacturer, you're going to do one of these three. This is just something we do in our team. We've helped a lot of companies. Coca Cola, PepsiCo Foods, a lot of these manufacturers. When it comes to doing the site search, we have tools that we incorporate that are very useful. One of them is our S22M dashboards. So we have all of the industrial park data visualized. Microsoft Power bi. We've had this for about five years now. And we don't just collect the data on the industrial parks, we also collect the data on every tenant in every industrial park. So we know every tenant by nationality, by industry, inside every industrial park. So what that helps us do is when we are showing potential locations to a manufacturing client, we're not just showing them which locations have free land, have available land, and how much that land costs. We're showing them where their competitors are, where their suppliers are, and where certain industries are, which is a big factor in their site search strategy. The second thing I want to show you here on the right is this is our in house industrial property scorecard. So sometimes when we are appointed by a client, we would like to quantify our findings and not just give our opinion. So we would work with them on a scorecard with certain weighting on each of the key variables. The variables are like site location, plot, land, the land level, transportation, waste management, management, and the commercial terms of course. So we weigh up all of these and we give an individual score on each of these factors and then we can quantify the results of side by side analysis for each site. So that's kind of how we show manufacturers which are the best locations. And there has to be a bit of method behind the madness. We can't just recommend a location, we have to back up any recommendations with clear data. Okay, so just coming near the end of the presentation, bear with me. I want to put in a section about sustainability in ESG because this is becoming a more and more important factor now when it comes to site search for manufacturers. So when you think about sustainability and technology adoption, you think energy management, the building automation, all of that enhanced design, all the fancy stuff. But sustainability in ESG is very important to facilitate the growth of green buildings and eco industrial parks. And we're seeing the first eco industrial parks in Vietnam. So some of the big industrial zones that are quite popular for how they take sustainability seriously, deep sea industrial zones is one VSIP three and there are other projects and Prodes eco industrial park also which is a new project that went live in long and last year. In the past, when you look at an industrial park master plan in Vietnam 10 years ago, you would see 80, 80% of the land is just for manufacturing and maybe 10% or 5% is commercial reception area and whatever dormitories maybe. But now when you look at the master plans of the new projects, they're much more sophisticated master plans. They have areas for R and D, areas for commercial data center, they have areas for the logistics and then they have areas for the manufacturing. So it's much more diversified and much more thought put into it and more future proof. And finally, this is something that a long time ago I did not think this would be possible. But LEED certification is now for industrial too. It's not just for office building or residential. So on the right hand side we have some end user manufacturers who build their own factory. And I got LEED Gold certification. Coca Cola, Tetrapak, Trailborg, Sparktronics. These companies build their own facility to top notch standards. They got the LEED certification. And then on the left side we have ready built factory and ready built warehouse developers too. They understand that some of their tenants want to lease LEED quality buildings and sustainability buildings. So you have BW ID, Core5 logos and Logi FM logistics and some of these players as well. I would never have guessed this when we set up the industrial team at Savills. I never would have guessed we would see so many lead certified projects happening. But there you go. It's now become an important part of the real estate site selection strategy for these companies. Okay, that's the end of my presentation. Thank you Very much for your attention. Thank you John. So from from John Campbell Savills Real Estate Agency advisor over to Real Estate industrial zone developer Ms. How Chung of BW ID over to you Hal. Thank you. Oh sorry Hing from Standard Charter bank will go and then hao chunk over to you Hing. Yeah, thank you Jack, can you hear me clearly? Yes, we can hear you very clearly. Yeah, thanks. Cindy, can you help me to share the screen to the audience? Yeah. So good morning, good afternoon and good evening everyone. Thank you very much for joining us today and thank you Jack and John for the very insightful information. My name's Hien. Covering product and solution, sales and channel development, SME banking, Standard Charter Vietnam Today I'm pleased to share with you how we support the FDI to implement the banking setup and capital account opening, operating account management and ethics governance through their establishment and growth journey in Vietnam. So the session will focus on practical banking, regulatory and operational consideration. So next slide please. So as many of you may know that Standard Charter is a leading international bank headquartered in London with over 170 years of history and we have a presence across 53 markets. We have a long standing and deep franchise in Asia, uniquely covering all ASEAN markets. With strong capabilities in China, Africa for foreign direct investment. We are really a trusted banking partner supporting capital inflows into Vietnam with the capability to manage cross border funding compliance and future expansion. I'm very proud to share with you about Standard Charter Vietnam. Standard Charter Vietnam has been present for more than 120 years. Our first branch opened in 1904 and we have a local incorporation established in 2009. We are consistently recognized for SME banking, trade finance and cash management. We are the best foreign bank for four years in a row and we receive reputational awards from Trade Finance for trade finance and Cash Management. These recognitions reflect our strong reputation in the market, our long standing commitment to support clients and market through the consistent service quality, regulatory alignment and long term partnership. In order to provide clients with the right solution and high quality service, we must gain a clear understanding of their needs and expectations. So this slide brings together the typical needs we see from foreign investors as they move through their investment journey in Vietnam. At the early stage, they focus on understanding the regulatory environment, assessing visibility and putting the right investment and capital structure in place. This stage is very important because early structuring decision can directly influence licensing timelines and how funds are managed. Later on, once the business is running attention shift to execution, making payments, meeting tax obligations and ensuring day to day transaction runs smoothly. And in full compliance. When the operations scale the priorities involved towards growth, including higher transaction volumes, trade activity, financing needs, liquidity optimization and more active management of epic exposure over time. As the investment mature, investors may look at the strategic options such as acquisition, divestment, dividend repatriation, original expansion which require WEND planning and governance. Our role is to support investors seamlessly across every stage of their journey from market entry and capital readiness through operation and growth to long term strategic objectives. Next slide please. So this slide illustrates how capital is transferred from overseas to the invested entity in Vietnam for business setup and ongoing operation with our HC Global network and our digital platform. Having the right banking setup is essential for FDI companies to operate efficiently in Vietnam. Under current Vietnam foreign exchange regulation, investment capital flows and day to day commercial flows are required to be managed through separate account structure. Capital contribution and investment related transactions are processed through DCA direct investment account. From there the funds can be transferred to the company operating account to support business daily activities. The operating accounts handle operational flows such as supplier payment, tax payment and payroll and other business expenses. As investment inflow are usually in foreign currency. Where required, epic conversion may also be required to facilitate the local commercial transaction. So to support end to end flow, our bank global network and digital platform provide centralized control, visibility and streamline treasury across foreign investors, typically the parent company, our economy holding company and the Vietnam entity. With our long term presence in the country, our deep understanding of the local market will help clients improve operational efficiency, enhance visibility while keeping maintaining the regulatory compliance. Next slide please. Having looked at the overall banking framework and capital flow structure, the next important question to the FDI is under which scenario is DCA is required? In practice, DCA is mandatory once the enterprise holds an investment registration certificate or where foreign ownership reaches more than 50%. This typically applies when foreign manufacturers set up a new production facility, inject capital into business or increase ownership through acquisition or restructuring. DCA also applies to project based investment, including public private partnership project companies as well as a situation where foreign investors participate directly under PPP or business corporation contract without establishing a local entity. In all these cases, capital flows are treated as foreign direct investment and must be managed through DCA. Former practical standpoint. You know, starting from July 2025, biometric verification of the legal representative is required. So SENEC charter we leverage our network and we support our client to complete the biometric verification at an offshore SCA office through a hybrid arrangement with the support from our college in other market that will avoid that the customer need to come to Vietnam for the Verification Next slide please. So we have identified the scenario where the D CAR is required. Second step is to understand the key regulatory principles governing the operation of the dca. Under the current regulation, FDI entity is allowed to open only one foreign currency DCA for capital contribution at a licensed bank in the same foreign currency as register. Where capital contribution is made in Vietnam Dong, they can open an additional VND D CAR at the same bank. For investors participating in multiple BCC contracts or PPP projects, separate D cards are required for each project contract. In addition, if the company has offshore borrowings in another foreign currency, the company may open a separate foreign loan account at the same bank when the D card is maintained. Lastly, if the investor wishes to change the D card bank, they will need to open the new DCA at another licensed bank, transferring the balance from the existing DCA to the new DCA before the transactions are fully migrated to the new bank to the new bank account. Next please. So this slide illustrates the typical inflows and outflows of direct investment account. On the inflow side, the DCA may receive capital contribution share premium proceeds from capital increase and disbursement of offshore shareholder loans. In the context of M and a transaction, proceeds relating to the transfer of investment capital will flow via dca. On the outflow side, common transactions include dividend repatriation, repayment of offshore shareholder loans and remittance of investment proceeds. In cases such project termination or divestment, there are some important compliance for investors that we would like to highlight to you. Capital must be completed within the timeline stated in the irc. Second, when arranging for remittance transfer, the remittance details should be carefully prepared including the investor name, amount, currency, remittance purpose and register. The address, particularly the remittance information should be consistent with the investment registration document to avoid processing delays or compliance issues later on. Next slide please. This slide highlights an area that we often that the FDI often has issue the pre licensing period. In practice, manufacturer may need to incur cost before an investment license is issued, such as feasibility studies, site preparation or advisory expenses. Vietnam regulation allows that funds can be paid through the offshore accounts or permitted foreign currency account or legitimate pre investment expenses. The critical point is how these funds are treated once licensing is granted. After the IRC is issued, amounts already transferred for the pre licensing period must be clearly documented and then either converted into registered capital, treated as shareholder loans or remitted back offshore. Therefore, having the right documentation structure from outset is essential to avoid delays, reconciliation issue or regulatory rectification later. Next Slide please. Once the operation starts, the operating account becomes the core engine for day to day execution. Through a single operating account, manufacturer can manage vendor and utility payment, payroll tax obligation and group or intercompany transaction with OWN within a controlled and compliant framework. Payments can be processed in bank or individually both locally or cross border with the ERP or Host to host integration, marker checker approval and real time status tracking. Tax payments are directly integrated with the Vietnam Tax Authority. Wide payroll solutions support monthly bank salary payments and growing headcount needs at group level. CCPAT also provides centralized visibility and satellite controls across entities and countries. In the next slide I will focus on the digital capabilities behind this setup. Next slide please so all the things you saw on the previous slide is enabled through our Straight to Bank we call the S2B. It's our digital banking platform designed with clients and for clients. The platform provides secure access with biometric authentication and mobile tokens while remaining easy to use across devices. Finance teams can get intuitive dashboard with real time visibility of accounts, payments and cash position supporting faster and better informed decision. From an integration perspective, Straight to Bank connects seamlessly to your ERP or Treasury system via Host to Host or API reducing manual processing and reconciliation. The platform also supports digital onboarding, customizable views and scalable cash management. FX and trade finance capabilities. With our S2B solution, a regional CFO or treasurer just need only a single group ID to access to multiple accounts in different countries within the group. This provides timely visibility, stronger control and the ability to grant and manage approval centrally for manufacturer. This means automation, control and readiness to scale without compromising security or compliance. Next slide please. So as mentioned before I would like to share with you on the financial markets in Vietnam. US dollar VND market in Vietnam is a managed float regime rather than fully floating EPIC market. The State bank of Vietnam play a central role in regulating the exchange rate through the central rate mechanism, trading ban and FX transaction rule. As you can see on the screen that the exchange rate is based on average interbuying exchange rate, a basket of eight currency that have a closed rate and investment ties in Vietnam macroeconomic movement and Vietnam monetary policy targets. Currently the trading band is plus or minus 5%. In practice this mechanism means the government does not allow fully market driven EPIC pricing. With this control mechanism, SBV can stabilize the market by adjusting the central rate or adjusting the trading band and interest rate or even the SBV can intervene in the market via buying or selling directly to the market. Overall SVB target is to maintain epic stability, control inflationary Pressure and support, investor confidence and ensure orderly capital inflows in a high trade dependent economy. Next slide please. So this one share with you that the popular epic transaction in Vietnam market Usually that customer can do spot transition or forward transaction. For the forward transaction that the maximum tender is up to 365 days and in Vietnam the client are required to submit the supporting document for when they want to buy the foreign currency. And no supporting document is required if they want to sell the foreign currency. For SBB Vietnam SB Vietnam that we can accommodate client up to 300 million US dollar volume per day for the normal market condition. And additional to this to support the digitalization we also have the platform for clients to deal directly with. We have the platform like iFQ or Flow Banker. We can support them to hit the system with the live exchange rate. Next slide please. So the last one I would like to share with you on the overview of the money market in Vietnam. The slide summary how deposit interest rate. Sorry. Are regulated in Vietnam by SVV for US dollar deposit interest rate cap at 0% per year for corporates and this reflects SBV policy to manage dollar liquidity and FX stability in the local market. For VND deposit interest rate also cap deposit of less than one month are capped at 0.5% per annum and the deposit of tender less than six months is capped at 4.75%. So the interest rate is calculated on 365 day basis in line with the SBB regulation. So as you can see in Vietnam ethics is regulated and also the interest rate is managed very well by the government via the spv. Next slide please. Yeah, and this is our SMB team in Vietnam. We have a medium enterprise and business banking teams in both Hano and Ho Chi Minh City. Our teams are ready to support clients from initial market entry through business expansion and regional growth. We look forward to continue through the discussion with you and answering any question in the Q and A session. Thank you very much. Right. Thank you Hing and our last but not least speaker Ms. Hal Cheng from BDU ID over to you Halloween. Thank you. Thank you Jihyun and thank you. Hi Cindy, can you help me share the screen please? Sure. Thank you. Okay. Okay. So while Cindy shared the presentation. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for saying until the last section. I will keep my presentation short so we can have time for the Q and A section. By now I think that we all agree that Vietnam is an attractive manufacturing destination. So I won't repeat it anymore. Instead I want to talk about something more practical. What Happens after your decision is made. Because the real challenge is not only on deciding to enter Vietnam, but the real challenge is moving from plan to reality. And that is what I want to share with you today. Can you move to the next slide? Yeah. So, a bit short introduction about myself. I am Hao Chun. I'm the general Counsel at BW Industrial Development. My work involves supporting foreign inventors with licensing factory sets up project launched in Vietnam. So currently we are serving about more than 500 clients over the country. Over the years, I have seen many projects from both the legal side and business side. And one thing is clear to me is that factory set up in Vietnam is not a legal process. It's a coordination process. Can you move to the next one? Okay, so let me start with a very common situation. You are an inventor. You enter Vietnam with a clear plan in mind. You say that we will set up the company, secure the site, get approvals, fit out the factory, install equipment and start operations in six or 12 months. It's very common, right? On paper, it's not very reasonable. But in reality, sometimes you can see that six months can become 12 months. 12 months can become 18 months. Or sometimes it's 24 months or even 36 months. Then at that time, you may ask what went wrong? What wrong with that? And my answer to my clients is nothing wrong at all. The issue is that execution in Vietnam require coordination. And coordination takes time. Can you move to the next one? Yeah. So let me clear that. Factory setup in Vietnam is not a single process. It's a chain of steps. First you need to get the investment license or IRC and set up the company. Then you acquire the land, only the factory for your. For your manufacturer. And then you get investmental approval. Then fire safety approval. Then you move to the construction or fix our permit. After that you can equip the the. You can install the equipment and and start your operations Exit. If you look at each step is made very simple by itself. But steps are connected. One approval may depend on another. And one authority may work for another authority's opinion. So when one step slow down, then the whole timeline slow down. By that time, the timeline is quietly expand. But maybe you don't know until you do it. Okay, can you move to the next one? Okay, so let me give you a real example. Here we have an experience that in. In the part we wanted to assess our factory design. The reason we do that was very simple. The market demand had changed. Customer wanted a different factory size and layout. From a business perspective, the decision totally Makes sense. But approvals will not simple at all. The authority asked why do we need to change the design? What is the evidence? Did you get the. The the customer's commitment yet? Of course they want. They won't commit until. Until we change. Right? Then the challenge is the market can be real. Market demand can be real, but not easy to prove on paper. From day one, customer may show their interest, but they may not sign any binding agreement until the factory is new and ready. So the lesson here is that in Vietnam, it is not enough to have good business logic. You need to have good paper and good documents at quad. Okay, can you move to the next one? Yeah. So for many projects, people ask so what would be the area that the project might be delayed? So from our observation, it could be three areas. First, about the land related procedures. This often the biggest issue. Because land connect to many legal and administrative steps. And then the second one is about environmental approval. This can be a key gate before the project can move forward. If you can. If you cannot get it, you cannot move. And the third one would be fire safety approval. Fire safety approval should be considered from very beginning, not after design finish. If you look considered after job, you finish your design, you may need to reconsider it again. And I have to be clear here that these are not only Vietnam ecs. In many other countries, they have their land, their investment, their fire safety safety requirement. It would be very similar to Vietnam. But in Vietnam, the key challenge is coordination. If coordination is not managed only the time start tributing and you may be denied further. Okay, can you move to the next one? Okay, so this is the most important point. Vietnam is not a single system. It's a network of systems. There's investment law, there's land law, there's construction law, there's investmental law and fire safety rules. Also we have different government authorities. We have national authorities, provincial authorities, industrial zone authorities, and we also have technical agencies. Sometimes you can see that the same rules can be understood differently between different provinces. You can see that this creates both flexibilities and also uncertainty. So a successful investor doesn't try to over simplify Vietnam. They learn how to navigate the system. Can you move to the next one? Okay, so Chiu may ask, what do successful inventors do? Here's our observation. First, they prepare it early. Not the legal document, but also technical documents, design documents, financial information and project explanation as well. And second, they don't work step work on their project step by step. They work on it in parallel whenever possible. For example, when they set up the company, they also review the site. They also review the contracts spec. And also when they review the site, they can start tracking investmental requestment, fire safety requestment, and then they engage earlier. They don't work, they speak to authorities, they speak to developer, they speak to consultants and contract contractors as well. Before any problem appear. And the final one, this is the most important one. They work with good, no co partners. A good local partner is the one who not only know the regulations, they also know how things work in practice and in Vietnam. Local execution capability is crucial for your success. From our observation. Okay, can you move to the next one? Okay. And also this is the question that we, we usually see from our invest. They asked how fast can we launch? I think the better question should be how should we sequence the approvals? In Vietnam, sequencing is very important. If you get the sequence right, the sequence right, you can save months. If you get it wrong, then you lose months. For example, if you finish the design before checking the fire safety requirement, then you may need to redesign it later. Or if you choose a site before you check the environmental issues, you may face delays or problem later. So the strategy here is not just to push it faster. The strategy is to plan it smarter. Okay, next one. This one I think and Jack already covers. But I scroll want to emphasize a bit here. Even you get all the approvals already and you start operation, you need to prepare for it. First, about the label in Vietnam. We have a good label force, but workers in Vietnam may need training, especially for technical manufacturing training, suit training, time. I think you should take it into consideration as part of the launch plan. And second one, about the utilities, power, water, wastewater, telecommunication technology, logistics and everything. You need to check it only and take all of them into consideration. Otherwise, a small utility issue can become a big operational issue later. And the third, the third one, I think this one also, also important is about compliance. Recently we see that in. In some provinces like Bing Zeng or Haiphong, there are more and more cases that some manufacturer got administrative penalties from the government authority for violating their reporting obligation in environmental issue, labor issue as well. So you need to pay attention to these compliance matters. But be clear that all of these are manageable. You should need to plan for it. Okay, we can move to the next one, please. Yeah. After all of this, you may ask, if execution is not simple, why do investors still choose Vietnam? I think my answer is very simple. Because Vietnam works. Vietnam has become a real manufacturing ecosystem. And it has industrial infrastructure. It has a growing supply base. It has large labor workforce, strong export connection, free trade agreements and more importantly, it has a long term policy direction that support foreign investment. So the opportunity, opportunity here is real, but the opportunity here rewards investors who execute it well. Okay, so let me leave you with one final message. Vietnam is not a plugged in and play market. You cannot simply arrive, register the company, list a factory, install equipment and expect everything run automatically. You will be wrong. Vietnam is a plan and execute market. You need to prepare early, understand the approval part, sequence the steps, properly engage earlier early and work with the right partners. Then you can move successfully. But if you underestimate the execution, the timeline will teach you. And usually the timeline is an expensive picture. In Vietnam, execution is not a risk, execution is a capability. And Vietnam reverse inventor who plan for execution not just enter the country. Okay, thank you very much for this. I hope this gives you a practical view of what happens after investment decision is made. And I look forward to your questions. Thank you. Okay, thank you Hal. Thank you everyone who, who's still here at the webinar. I think we'll, we'll in the interest of time, we'll do a couple of questions. I think we'll start off with a banking question to Hing. The question is from an offshore investor's perspective, is it possible to hedge the foreign exchange exposure relating to invested capital in Vietnam? You know, if they have to exchange and put the money Adika and bnd, how can they hedge their foreign currency exposure? Over to you, Hing, thank you, thank you and thank you the customer who provide us with leads question. So actually honestly to share with you that we receive this question from many of our clients when they have the plan of investment into Vietnam. So actually in Vietnam, as I shared before that we have the Circular 022021 issued by the State bank of Vietnam governing the ethics and including the hedging. So in Vietnam in order to do the hedging that the client need to have the legitimate underlying transaction and and also that have to prove the four factor four criteria. Amount, currency, purpose and tender. So when we mentioned about the capital investment, actually we do not have a specific or defined tender. So that's why honestly that in Vietnam is very limited. I can say that almost that the FDI cannot hedge for the capital investment exposure. However, having said that, in practice some investors they structure part of their funding in form of the shareholder loan instead of the pure equity contribution. So shareholder loans have a defined repayment obligation and tender. So they constitute legitimate underlying transaction for epic hatching. So that's the, the, the experience or the information that I, I can share with the investor here. Great, thank you. Hing and then the next question I think I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll have both Hal and John answer. So, so John, how, how early in the market entry process should investor be aligning their legal entity setup and investment structure with their site selection strategy? And what happens if those two are not aligned properly? Yeah, so I mean, I think that, I mean really the earlier the better because when it comes to the real estate side, it's one of the first aspects to look at when they enter the market is looking at the location first and how might have mentioned as well. She knows but before a manufacturer gets into the IRC application, ERC application, they need to know what location they're going to for the irc. I mean they need to have an address, they need to, you know, know roughly what landlord they're going to sign with, what they're signing in IPA or MOU with. So really it, it has to be as early as possible and there's a lot of work to do. Right. Because we're talking about comparing regions, then comparing provinces and then filtering that down. What I like from how's presentation is she mentioned coordination a lot and it really is important because there are some jobs that can be done simultaneously and if the coordination is right, it can be done. So while someone's talking to Savills and we're helping them with the real estate site search selection, they should be also at the same time simultaneously talking with their legal and tax advisors as well, as opposed to waiting for one step to finish and start the next step then, which will mean the project will take a lot longer. Right. Okay, thanks John. How, and do you want to add to that and also what, what do you see mistakes that investors make when they, during the market entry phase that later may impact their factory setup based on your experience at bw. Yeah, I agree with John on the approach. Before you apply for your investment registration certificate, you need to know clearly where you could locate your factories. So that one is important. Say for example, if a client come to John and ask John for a location for their factory factory first they need to check what exactly they will be doing their business. So based on their business requirement, we can have them check whether they can do it at that location or not because it's relating to the industries that the industrial park can accept and it relates to the environmental approval letter. So they need to be clear that they are allowed to do that business in a specific location. After that they can sign an MOU or we sometimes we call it investment in principle agreement with the landlords over there. Using that agreement, they can apply for their investment registration certificates. After that they can apply for enterprise registration certificate to set up the company. So you need to work on everything in paranoia. You don't do it step by step. When you submit for company setup, you need to prepare everything. You need to prepare investmental, prepare for the construction, prepare for the design fire, fire safety as well. So long as you do everything in parallel, you save a lot of time and you can be. You can rest assured that you can start your operation within about six months. Okay, great. Fantastic. Thank you, Hal. Thank you everyone. I. I apologize, we have more questions, but our time has run out. Once again, I want to thank you all the attendance for today's webinar. I hope you found the session very informative. Please contact us for any information that you have. And once again I'd like to thank you our speakers John Hing and how for your presentation today. Thank you everyone and please let us know if any question and we'd be happy to answer to you. The details are in the slide that you can see in front of your screen. Again, have a good day everyone. Thank you, Jack. Thank you everyone. Thank you everyone. Bye bye.