Vietnam news in brief - March 30

Tuyen Quang hosts 3rd International Balloon Festival next month

A hot air balloon at the 2nd International Hot Air Balloon Festival. Photo: hanoimoi newspaper

From April 27 to May 2, Tuyen Quang City in the northern province of the same name will host the 3rd International Hot Air Balloon Festival with 22 hot air balloons flown by pilots from the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, China, Thailand and Vietnam. Visitors can experience the International Hot Air Balloon Festival combined with performances by DJs and music bands, as well as exchange activities between students and pilots of international hot air balloons from April 28 to 30.

Foreign visitors to Vietnam up 72% in Jan-Mar

Foreign arrivals to Vietnam reached 4.6 million in the first quarter, up 72% from the same period last year and 3.2% from 2019, the General Statistics Office reported. In March, foreign arrivals rose 4.4% to reach nearly 1.6 million, up 78.6 percent compared to the same period last year. South Korea remained the largest source market for visitors to Vietnam in the first three months of the year, with more than 1.2 million arrivals, up 150% from the same period last year. China ranked second with nearly 890,000 arrivals, an increase of 6.4 times year-on-year.

Vietnam's total import-export turnover reaches US$178 billion in Q1

In the first quarter of 2024, Vietnam's total imported and exported goods turnover was estimated at more than US$178 billion, up 15.5% compared to the same period in 2023. Export turnover reached $93 billion, up 17% year-on-year, while import turnover was nearly $85 billion, up 13.9% from 2023. There were 16 commodity groups with export sales exceeding $1 billion, accounting for 82.1% of total export revenue. The US was the largest destination market for Vietnam's exports, followed by China, the EU, South Korea, and Japan.

Vietnam's average per capita income up 8% in first three months

The average per capita income in the first quarter of this year reached VND5.2 million ($209.5) per month, up nearly 8% from the previous quarter and 10% from the corresponding quarter of last year, according to the General Statistics Office. The agency also reported that the labor and employment situation returned to the normal development trends before the Covid-19 pandemic. The living conditions of the population improved in the first quarter of this year. In the first quarter, the average income of workers was VND7.6 million ($306.3) per month, a rise of VND301,000 ($12.1) compared to the previous quarter and VND549,000 ($22.1) from the same period in 2023.

Vietnam Airlines achieves gross profit in 2023

Vietnam Airlines, the national flag carrier, recorded a gross profit of nearly VND3.9 trillion ($157.2 million) in 2023, marking the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic that it achieved such a profit for the whole fiscal year. The net loss for the whole year of 2023 was over VND5.6 trillion ($225.7 million), down 50% compared to 2022. The company's total revenue reached over VND92.2 trillion ($3.7 billion), an increase of over 30% compared to 2022. This is also the third-highest revenue in the company's history, second only to the 2018-2019 period before the Covid-19 outbreak.