Customer service strategy more important in emerging markets

By Barney Beal, News Director

01 Dec 2009 | SearchCRM.com

Hoping to turn to emerging markets to turn around your business in the recession? Better make sure you have a sound customer service strategy in place.

Customers in emerging markets can be more sensitive to customer service than their counterparts in mature markets, according to the results of a recent survey by Accenture.

The survey, conducted over the summer, found that 87% of consumers in emerging markets switched providers in at least one industry sector because of poor service in the past year. That's 18% more than the global average. And, the survey suggests, they're not hesitant to tell others about their experiences -- 69% tell their acquaintances about bad experiences and 25% use social media to spread the word. In emerging markets, 40% of consumers said they use blogs and other online media to tell others about their negative experiences.

What’s more, customers in emerging markets seem to have more bad experiences to share. Among respondents in emerging markets, 68% said companies "sometimes, rarely or never" met their expectations, compared with 56% in mature markets.

For the survey, emerging markets included India, Brazil, China and South Africa. Mature markets included Australia, Canada, France, the U.K., Germany, Belgium and the United States. The online survey was completed by more than 5,000 consumers.

Customer service technology is playing a bigger role in emerging markets than it does in established markets.

"The emerging markets are saying technology is improving service, and they're more apt to report on that service and tell others how they perceive companies," said Chris Allen, managing director, Accenture CRM Service Transformation practice. "Established markets tend to point to tech as not being as influential in improving customer service."

It's therefore important for companies entering emerging markets to provide multiple channels for customers and to track satisfaction or dissatisfaction, Allen said.

The survey results also found that:

• 52% of emerging market consumers use the Internet to search for help vs. 44% of mature market consumers.
• 49% of emerging market consumers surf corporate websites vs. 40% of mature market consumers.
• 35% of emerging market consumers engage in online chats vs. 15% of mature market consumers.
• 14% of emerging market consumers use text messaging to seek assistance vs. 3% of mature market consumers.

Customer service an issue for all

Of course, it's not just emerging markets where customer service is an issue -- and creating customer churn. In many ways, customers are simply harder to satisfy.

"Generally, there's a perception that service is getting better and companies are improving, yet most customers are reporting they're less pleased with service providers," Allen said. "There's this perception that service is better but they're drawing the short end of the stick."

Need proof that today's consumers all over the world are a fickle lot? In an open-ended survey question asking respondents to list companies that deliver excellent customer service and those that deliver substandard, 50% of the top responses appeared on both lists.

In fact, despite the recession, customer service remained the No. 1 reason consumers cited for switching vendors.

Truly engaging and satisfying customers requires differentiation, according to Allen.

"There is no one-size-fits-all service model," he said. "It's really impossible to do that. The next generation of services is going to be more around creating differentiated customer experience and tailored customer experience based on customer preferences."

Still, emerging markets do offer growth opportunities. Nearly two-thirds of respondents in emerging markets expressed an interest in trying goods and services produced in other countries, roughly the same number who said they did not care where a product was produced.

"Certainly, companies need to realize that channels are more important in emerging markets as far as interacting with those customers and tracking their satisfaction," Allen said. "In general, though, the differentiated service expectation is every bit as high a priority. Using technology to deliver those experiences is really the opportunity."

Vietnam - News and Regulations

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT - Forecast FDI for 2010

Forecasts for foreign direct investment funds in Vietnam next year have raised questions for policy-makers.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment's Foreign Investment Agency (PIA) last week announced its prediction for 2010's newly registered and expanded foreign direct investment (FDI) fund at $22-25 billion, a 10 percent rise against this year's projected result.

Meanwhile, the disbursed FDI capital next year was forecast to see similar 10 percent growth from $10 billion probably achieved this year.

The FIA's announcement was made after consulting cities and provinces nation-wide of how much they could expect for FDI capital in 2010.

"The forecasts may suit Vietnam's projected economic growth next year and ability to absorb the FDI funds, as well with a bit slow pick-up in 2010 of the global economic prospects that act as a decisive driver for the global FDI flows," said a PIA source.

Since its accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Vietnam's newly registered and expanded FDI amounts gradually increased, from $12 billion in 2006, $21.3 billion in 2007 to significantly $71.7 billion in 2008. During the same time, the disbursed fund reportedly rose from $4.6 billion in 2006, $8 billion in 2007 and $11.5 billion in 2008.

However, the global financial turbulence resulting in a sharp decline in global FDI flows suspended Vietnam's such impressive FDI growth. FIA reported the country's newly registered and expanded fund at $19.7 billion during January-November, while the disbursed sum was approximately $9 billion for 11 months.

Local governments, which have witnessed stunted FDI growth due to global economic crisis this year, were cautious about charting 2010's FDI map.

According to the FIA, HCM City, the country's current leading FDI hotspot, drafted its disbursed FDI capital from $1.3 billion this year down to $1.1 billion in 2010 while Dong Nai, the nation's fourth best FDI performer, forecast a 4 percent decline in disbursed FDI capital next year against this year's figure of around $850 million. Hai Phong city in the north anticipated a sharp 40 percent drop in the disbursed fund next year.

In an opposite direction, Hanoi, which is now in the third place in the FDI locality list, expected a light increase in disbursed FDI from $500 million this year to $527 million in 2010.

Meanwhile, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Binh Duong, presently in the second and fifth places in the FDI list, were both optimistic when predicting 2010's disbursed FDI fund to rise 25 percent and 70 percent against this year.

"We still have foundations to be optimistic for Vietnam's FDI fund to pick up next year though the percentage growth will be not as large as the last three years. This is because a lot of foreign investors remain confident in investing in Vietnam due to the country's stable political situation, surging economic growth, competitive labour costs and growing domestic market size," said the PIA official.

Piaggio, the world's fourth largest producer of scooters and motorcycles, expected to quickly expand its existing manufacturing facility in Vietnam next year when it recently decided to relocate the group's Asia-Pacific headquarters from Singapore to Vietnam.

Piaggio CEO Roberto Collanino said: "Significant success of Piaggio's facility in Vietnam just after six months of operations reaffirms our strategic decision to invest in Vietnam and make it the group's regional headquarters."

The World Investment Prospects Survey 2009-2011 released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ranks Vietnam in the top 15 most FDI friendly countries in the world. According to the UK Trade & Investment report, Tomorrow's Markets, which examines global business attitudes to opportunities within the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China, and other newer emerging markets, Vietnam is seen as the most attractive emerging market beyond the BRICs.intellasia

FOREX -- BANKING - Foreign currency reserve of Vietnam estimated at $16b

After SBV increased the basic rates of the dong and adjusted forex rate, specialists of Standard Chartered Bank on November 26 reported that SBV re-allowed the dong to continue depreciating against US dollar.

The adjustment helps stabilise people's belief in the value of dong in future by easing the worries on the depreciation of dong. Accordingly, investors prefer reserving the dong to US dollar, which will cause the pressure on liquidity of domestic US dollar reserve.

Tai Hui, head of Asia region research division of Standard Chartered cited the figures from SBV and assessed that Vietnam's foreign currency reserve in October was equal to the 12-week import value. According to calculation of Standard Chartered, the figure is about $16 billion, falling from June (2009)'s $20.3 billion as reported by International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The fall came from a reduction in inward remittance and FDI that is predicted to decline by 20 percent to $5.8 billion in 2009, the expert explained. Meanwhile, market regulators are seeking US dollar loans from World Bank, other economies of Asia and Asian Development Bank (ADB) in order to increase the reserve source. At present, Vietnam borrowed $500 million from ADB and has pursued another loan of $1 billion from World Bank.

While the foreign currency market is still controlled closely, we [Standard Chartered] believe that the increasing of FDI and overseas remittance in 2010 will help ease the pressure of international payment of Vietnam, Tai Hui said.

Concerning trade deficit, the expert gave his point of view that the sustainable prices of goods will curb the rising trade deficit of Vietnam. Compared with the first half of 2008 when the average trade gap was recorded at $2.4 billion a month and reached $3.3 billion in March. So the current trade deficit has not been alarming.

According to the foreign bank, prices of most commodities will not increase highly like 2008, including oil and steel prices. This will limit the import of refined oil and steel in the last half of 2009.

The initial operation of Dung Quat oil refinery will contribute to curbing the trade deficit based on rising demand for energy. In history, Vietnam was the country of exporting crude oil and importing refined oil.LD

POWER - Vietnam to have shortfall of 218b kWh of electricity by 2020

With the current socio-economic growth, Vietnam is expected to have shortfall of 112 billion kWh of electricity by 2010 and 218 billion kWh by 2020, according to the trade and industry ministry. Thus, in order to meet energy demand for the economic development, the National Assembly has approved a resolution on investment plan for Lai Chau Hydro-electricity Plant Project and NinhThuan Nuclear Power Plant Project.

Ta Van Huong, director of the trade and industry ministry's energy department, said that the government instructed the trade and industry ministry and relevant ministries, agencies to research, study Lai Chau Hydro-electricity Plant Project and NinhThuan Nuclear Power Plant Project long time ago and list the two projects into the master plan of Vietnam's electricity system development.

Huong said that building Lai Chau Hydro-electricity Plant would meet various favourable conditions because investor, Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN), has much experience in building big hydro-electricity projects in previous time such as Hoa Binh, Yaly, Son La hydro-electricity plants.

"Particularly, almost all steps during development of Son La Hydro-electricity plant such as planning, designing, consulting, operating and so on were taken over by domestic experts. This was a decisive factor so that Son La hydro-electricity plant was completed on time as instructed by the government and was completed two years earlier than the National Assembly's target. Such experience would be applied for Lai Chau hydro-electricity plant," said Huong and believed that building Lai Chau hydro-electricity plant is even better than Son La Hydro-electricity Plant.

However, if the electricity system is supplemented electricity from the existing thermo-electricity, hydro-electricity plants only, it is likely that the country would be short of energy for socio-economic development.

Thus, according to the National Assembly's representatives the resolution on investing into building NinhThuan Nuclear Power plant by this time is absolutely correct.

Many representatives said that when deciding to build this plant, the National Assembly consider energy sources in the far future, conforming to the country's socio-economic development programme. Chair of the National Assembly's Committee for Science-Technology and Environment Dang Vu Minh said that in short term, hydro-electricity and thermo-electricity still continues to play a major role in supply of electricity however in the far future, nuclear power will play a crucial role in Vietnam's electricity system because the production cost for one kWh of nuclear power is not only stable but also is more competitive than thermo-electricity plants when Vietnam has to import coal to serve thermo-electricity plants.

Regarding safety issue, Le Van Hong, vice director of Vietnam's Atomic Energy Institute, said that in order to ensure safety construction and operation for a nuclear power plant, International Atomic Energy Agency set three phases with 19 strict criteria. In addition to construction sites, technologies, capacity, experience of plant operation of experts, engineers, workers play a crucial role. "That the National Assembly approved the development of Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Project, according to IAEA's standards, proves that we have completed that first phase. In order to start the second phase, by early December, eight experienced experts in building nuclear power plants of IAEA will visit Vietnam to cooperate with the trade and industry ministry and the science and technology ministry to recheck the whole infrastructure to serve the plant development. If we follow the standards that IAEA set, there would not be many difficulties, challenges for safe construction, operation

of the first nuclear power plant," said Hong.

Regarding the construction site, Hong said that IAEA also put forward strict criteria and anticipate possible situations such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami, and others.

"Selecting Ninh Thuan as the construction site for the nuclear power plant is based on the criteria IAEA set. In addition, we have asked for help from IAEA and learn experience from other countries with the same conditions to Vietnam such as Japan, Korea, and China in building nuclear power plants," Hong added.

Vice general director of EVN, investor of Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Plant Project, Duong Quang Thanh said that in addition to hundreds of experts from Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute, Da Lat Nuclear Power Institute, EVN now has some 50 highly-qualified engineers in applying nuclear power in the economic sector.

"Together with continuing sending engineers to foreign countries with advanced nuclear power technology to take part in training courses such as Russia, France, Japan and others, in the future we will be absolutely able to hold the ownership in operating Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Plant as well as other plants which would be built later," said Thanh.DT

TOURISM - More international tourists to visit Vietnam in 2010, forecast

There will be more international tourists visiting Vietnam in 2010, Nguyen Van Tuan, head of general Tourism Department spoke at the conference "Draft strategy of Vietnam tourism development till 2020 and vision to 2030" in Hanoi last Friday.

Reportedly, in November, 388,000 tourist arrivals came to Vietnam, jumping 70.2 percent month on month and 38.6 percent against last November. Since the year early, the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam has totalled at 3.4 million arrivals, down 12.3 percent year-on-year.

In his opinion, the country's tourism broadcasting programme held in seven big cities of China and three of Japan started to take effective. Particularly, in November, 64,700 arrivals visited Vietnam from China, 34,600 arrivals from Japan, 30,000 Korean tourists and 24,000 Taiwanese arrived in Vietnam

As per forecast, Vietnam will welcome 400,000 international tourist arrivals, bringing the full year's total figure to 3.8 million arrivals, a year-on-year dip from 2008.

If the domestic and global economies have no sudden movement, the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam in 2010 will surge 10 percent from 2009 to 4.2-4.25 million arrivals.

Apart from 25 billion dong a year invested in developing tourism products and human resources, over 15 billion dong will be added to the national tourism promotion programme in priority markets of Northeastern Asia and Asean.

NUCLEAR POWER - 200tr dong needed for nuclear power plants

The National Assembly yesterday approved a major national project to construct two nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan Province with investment estimated at 200 trillion dong.

The legislators, however, said they would likely revise the invested capital as the plants require the most advanced technologies to ensure safety and economic gain. They suggested using the most modern reactor while the government had planned to use the advanced light water reactor, which has been widely used in Japan, a nation with a strong nuclear power industry.

Ninh Thuan 1 and Ninh Thuan 2 plants are slated for Thuan Nam and Ninh Hai districts in the central province respectively. They are designed to have two turbines each with combined capacity of 4,000 megawatts.

NA deputies added they would choose a starting date for the construction of Ninh Thuan 2 after the government finished a report on preparation. Construction of Ninh Thuan 1 is to begin in 2014 with operations beginning in 2020.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade earlier said the nation would choose only investors with strong technological and financial ability. Uranium providers are also required to ensure long-term material sources.

The NA suggested the government underscore criteria to ensure safety at the nuclear power plants, including preparation, modern technology, human resources training and good operational management. The investors were also warned to pay attention to other factors such as security and climate change while developing the projects.

Vietnam expects to develop seven nuclear power projects in Ninh Thuan Province and the central region by 2030, each consisting of 1,000-megawatt reactors fuelled by about 30 tonnes of 4 percent low-enriched uranium with a combined capacity of 15,000 to 16,000 megawatts. The plan aims to reduce the country's dependence on expensive fossil fuels and meet the rising power demand.

The government earlier approved a goal to generate 15 percent-20 percent of the country's total power output from nuclear power by 2050.SGT

FINANCING- Slowdown in issuing G-bonds

According to the Ministry of Finance's statistics, in 2009, the pressure and demand for raising capital under the method of issuing bonds was large, with total capital-raising demand of about 200 trillion dong, in which the State Treasury has demand of 126 trillion dong, Vietnam Development Bank of 40 trillion dong and Bank for Social Policies of 10 trillion dong.

However, up to the end of October, the total value of the newly issued bonds was estimated at about 20 trillion dong, fulfilling 14 percent of the proposed plan, in which the State Treasury contributed 14.47 trillion dong, equal to 10.3 percent of the plan and VDB of 4.6 trillion dong.

As for the issuing of government guaranteed bonds, the total value of issued G-bonds was about 2.7 trillion dong, in which Vietnam Expressway Corp has raised 617 billion dong and Bank for Social Policies of 2 trillion dong.

Meanwhile, in the first ten months, via the channel of issuing corporate bonds, the state-owned enterprises have raised total capital of 11.3 trillion dong.

RESOURCES - Siam Cement Thailand invests in petroleum projects in Vietnam

Siam Cement Group, one of Thailand's largest industrial groups, has recently decided to carry out the investment in petroleum project in Vietnam. Previously, this group had signed a contract with Qatar Petroleum International Co to set up partnership relation on November 25.

Kan Trakulhoon, Siam Cement's predident said the project had total value of $3.5-4 billion and would be finished in mid-2010.

The two groups of Siam Cement and Qatar Petroleum International agreed to hold 71 percent of the total shares in the petroleum project, meanwhile the National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and Vietnam Chemicals Corp of the rest 29 percent.

At the beginning of this year, Siam Cement announced that the group would cease investing in the above-mentioned project for at least two years because the group worried that the world economic crisis may cause bad effects on its investment capital. Siam Cement had to halt the investment in two other similar projects in Indonesia and Cambodia.cafef

AVIATION - Indochina Airlines still given time to prove financial capability

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) said yesterday the cash strapped Indochina Airlines still has more than one month to take off again and prove its financial capability for continuing services otherwise its traffic right will be withdrawn.

Vo Huy Cuong, director of CAAV's Air Transport Department, said the first operational private airline in Vietnam would lose its traffic right if it was unable to resume domestic service before January I, or more than one year since the carrier launched its maiden flight.

Cuong told the Daily on the phoney yesterday that Indochina Airlines said it planned to resume the HCM City-Hanoi flights on December 15 after several delays because of crippling debts and financial troubles.

Indochina Airlines had to return its only airplane Boeing B737 -800 to the firm Travel Service from the Czech Republic on Tuesday as it had been unable to take off since October 30. Although Indochina Airlines had returned the aircraft to save costs, the contract with the European leasing aircraft company remained valid and the carrier would lease the aircraft when it had completed restructuring, Cuong said.

Indochina Airlines did not answer the Daily's several calls yesterday to comment on the latest development at the carrier.

Do Anh Tuan, commercial director of the air carrier, had told the Daily one week earlier that the carrier had to pay $24,000 a day in fees related to the aircraft although the aircraft had sat idly at Tan Son Nhat Airport. He said that Indochina Airlines would soon launch a new version of the website www.indochinaairlines.vn to receive online air ticket bookings, but this website was inaccessible yesterday because of maintenance reasons.

CAAV is now waiting for Indochina Airlines' official written report on financial capability and its plan for take-off again before taking appropriate actions towards the carrier.

"Everything is still in the hands of Indochina Airlines;' Cuong said. "The airline is still allowed to continue flights if it proves capability and submit such reports before January 1, 2010 otherwise we will propose the transport minister to get its traffic right back."

Asked about the opportunity for new airlines to join Vietnam's aviation market, Cuong said the overall market was growing as the double-digit domestic growth could offset the decline in the number of international passengers.

Cuong demonstrated that Jetstar Pacific Airlines posted average growth of 30 percent in passenger number while the national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines was preparing new aircraft for more domestic and international flights.

Cuong said Viet}et Aviation Joint Stock Co. (Viet jet Air) was taking active steps to make its maiden service possible in May 2010. This is five months behind the deadline for the valid period of two years for a license granted to a new airline as per aviation regulations.INTELLASIA

POWER - Hoa Phat Energy Co starts generating electricity

Hoa Phat Energy Joint Stock Co, one of the ten members of Hoa Phat Group plans to officially generate electricity in mid-December.

At present, the contractors of providing coke coal for the project under Hoa Phat Energy Joint Stock Co has concentrated on finishing the first phase of instalment and put into trial operation of the Boiler No 1. It's expected that the work will be completed in the next ten days. After that, the Chinese contractor will check for the last time to put into operation the plant's 15MW turbine.

Hoa Phat Energy Joint Stock Co officially started the project of coke coal and thermo power plant in Q1 of 2008. The total investment capital for the two phases of the project was 2.1 trillion dong with total designed capacity of 700,000 tonnes of finished coke coal per year.

The main purpose of this project was to supply energy for another member company of Hoa Phat Group of Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Co.DTCHK

TELECOM - SK Telecom transfers its capital contribution in S-Fone for SPT

The South Korea-based SK Telecom Group has lately agreed to transfer the group's capital contribution share in S-fone telecommunication centre project, under the BCC contract, for Saigon Post and Telecommunication Services Joint Stock Co (SPT).

The S-fone Telecommunication Centre project has total investment capital of $543 million, in which SK Telecom has contributed $218 million and the rest from SPT. From 2005 up to now, the project's partners have carried out negotiation sessions for many times about the new cooperation models for S-fone project. However, the involving parties have not reached the final decisions for benefits and responsibilities until now.cafef

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Vietnam - News and Regulations

Personal income tax exemption “FOREVER”for International NGOs in Vietnam (INGO) expatriates

According to Committee for Foreign NGO Affairs (Comingo) the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has decided to grant the exemption of personal income tax (PIT) to foreigners employed and working at Representative and Project offices of INGOs in Vietnam.

This exemption shall be considered on the following conditions:

- As from 1st of January 2009, all income (salaries, allowance subsidies and other benefits) paid to foreign employees of INGOs must be proven as stemming from sources outside Vietnam and not from project/programme budget.

- INGO foreign employees deemed eligible to PIT exemption include expatriates and Vietnamese individuals with a foreign passport.

- Terms of exemption shall be defined in an agreement which is duration - based, and agreed mutually by the individual INGOs and the Government of Vietnam of the Committee for Foreign NGO Affairs upon the Government's authorization.

The Ministry of Finance of Vietnam shall provide necessary instructions accordingly and INGOs will be notified in due course.

For the time being, if you have any question, do not hesitate to contact the People's Aid Coordination Committee (telephone: 04-38436936(ext:206), fax: 04-38452007) or email: info@paccom.org.vn

INSURANCE - Insurance companies cooperate with banks

Only after short time of cooperation between insurance companies and banks, banks now have become a potential distribution channel of insurance products. Insurance companies are continuously developing bancassurance and expect that this will be the key product in the next two-three years.

Insurance companies are also trying to turn clients of banks into clients of insurance companies.

After signing a cooperation deal with ABBANK on selling insurance products to key staff of corporate clients who are depositing money in the bank, Prevoir Vietnam has signed another cooperation contract on insuring secured consumer borrowers at Asian Commercial Bank (ACB). Accordingly, in case consumer borrowers unfortunately meet risks in the scope of insurance, Prevoir Vietnam will help them to pay the remaining debts to ACB. Currently, over 12,000 clients of ACB have used lending and deposit products insured by Prevoir Vietnam. A representative from Prevoir Vietnam said that in the near future, the company would continue cooperating with banks to develop independent insurance products.

On November 17, AIA Vietnam and VietBank also signed a cooperation agreement in order to supply and manage life insurance products for clients. The two sides will cooperate together in distributing life insurance products to the existing and potential clients of VietBank.

From 2009, Prudential Vietnam has considered cooperating with banks as a development strategy of the company. Currently, Prudential has developed bancassurance products in HCM City, Hanoi through branches of partner banks. At present, Prudential is cooperating with four banks, ABBank, Standard Chartered, Agribank and Vietcombank in order to distribute retail sale insurance products through branches of those banks. Prudential now continues working with many potential partner banks in order to strike new cooperation deals.

Taking most advantage of clients in the banking system of Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (Bidv), Bidv Insurance Co (BIC) has launched insurance products for Visa credit card holders of Vietnam-Russia Joint Venture Bank (VRB). Pham Quang Tung, director of BIC, said that the company would continue developing more bancassurance products in order to satisfy demand for finance and health package products of clients. BIC is also expanding its cooperation with other banks to take most advantage of potential from different banks in developing products and taking care of clients.

Talking about the trend of cooperating between insurance businesses and banks, a representative from Prudential said that with the development of banks, the bancassurance model in Vietnam will develop as in other Asian countries.DTCHK

BANKING - VietinBank targets $1b inward remittance in 2009

Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) is launching online VietinBank eRemit remittance transfer product, creating facilities for transferring money from the US to Vietnam via Internet.

According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), this year's inward remittance could reach $6.8 billion, marking a satisfactory figure against the forecast figure of $5.8-6 billion in early this year but still lower than the figure of $7.2 billion of last year.

In the common downturn tendency, the remittance revenue of many banks also fell. However, some banks including VietinBank still set a higher target of remittance compared to previous year.

VietinBank's head of Remittance Service Department said that this year, VietinBank plans to reach $1 billion of remittance, accounting for some 15 percent of the market share. In comparison with last year's figure of $900 million, the bank accounted for 12 percent market share.

During the first nine months this year, VietinBank's remittance revenue achieved $700 million. Traditionally, the volume of inward remittance often increases by the end of the year because overseas Vietnamese send money to their relatives in Vietnam for Tet festival (Lunar New Year). Therefore, the bank's remittance target of $1 billion is very feasible.

VietinBank is confident with this target because it has many advantages such as wide network, plentiful foreign currency sources, and many foreign partner banks to set up a direct money transference channel to Vietnam. At the same time, VietinBank has also strived to offer suitable products with each market such as money delivery service via mobile phone in Korean market and online eRemit money delivery service in the US market.

Particularly, the VietinBank's online eRemit service could bring many conveniences for customers. With this service, customers can access website http://vietinbank.vn at home to deliver money to receivers in Vietnam in anytime and at anywhere without going to the bank.

The VietinBank's online eRemit service includes two main products namely Direct Deposit applying for receivers having ATM account at VietinBank and Cash Pickup applying for receivers without account at VietinBank.

At present, VietinBank has 800 branches and transaction sites nationwide. This will be very convenient for receivers. As for customers with ATM accounts, receivers can receive money during 24h/24h and seven days/week at any ATM machine of VietinBank.

VietinBank's remittance service department said that with transaction worth $3,000 (the regulated limit for one delivery) the fee will be only $10 for each transaction. Customers are allowed to deliver a total amount of $15,000 a month and not exceed 10 times a month.

The registration procedures to use VietinBank eRemit service are very simple. Depositors just access VietinBank's website, select using online VietinBank eRemit remittance delivery service and finish simple proceedings.

Currently, VietinBank's eRemit service is carrying out for money delivery from the US to Vietnam. VietinBank is studying to develop this service to other markets such as Canada, Australia and Germany in the near future.

Along with online remittance delivery product, VietinBank is now launching other services like WellsFargo Express Send from the US to Vietnam. The product has come on account of the cooperation between VietinBank and the US-based WellsFargo Bank with the fee of only $8 per transaction. Customer living in the US can send money up to $300 per day and they are able to receive money within that date. WellsFargo Bank has over 3,000 transaction sites throughout the US so WellsFargo Express Send service is very convenient.

In order to meet money delivery demands of customers in the US, VietinBank is building online cooperation with many big banks in 20 countries and territories such as Germany, France, the UK, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Australia, Middle East areas, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia.

VietinBank is an official and prestigious agent of Western Union global express money delivery service with some 10 percent remittance revenue of VietinBank.DT

RENEWABLE ENERGY - Energy security challenge-wind power and difficult start

The world now has over 80 nations and territories using wind power energy. Vietnam has only the five-turbine wind power project of Renewable Energy Joint Stock Co (REVN) in Tuy Phong Dist, Binh Thuan province.

According to World Bank, many provinces nationwide receive resources to generate wind power plants. From southern Binh Thuan to Ninh Thuan's Thuan Bac Dist (bordering Khanh Hoa province's Cam Ranh) are ideal locations to install wind power turbines. In these areas, the wind speed reaches over seven metres per second (m/s) and there are 60-100 metre high sand hills compared sea surface.

To date, Binh Thuan provincial People's Committee has approved nine investors to carry out 12 wind power plants in the province. After one investor asked for withdrawal, the province has remaining 10 projects with total registered capacity of 1,511 MW, using about 13,000 hectares of land. Currently, the investors have built 11 wind measurement pillars.

Five turbines of REVN's project put 7.5MW to the national grid. The number will be 13 turbines in 2010 and 20 turbines in 2015 with a total capacity of 120 MW. Some other projects include the 50 MW wind power project of Renewable Energy Asia JSC in Bac Binh Dist of Binh Thuan province, another 200 MW plant of Saigon-Binh Thuan Electricity Plant Investment and Development JSC, and one 50MW plant of Thuan Binh Co in Tuy Phong Dist.

Director of Binh Thuan provincial Department of Industry and Trade, Tran Van Nhut said that the government gave special priorities for wind power field by issuing many preferential policies for investors. An official from the province's Energy Service assessed, the operation starting of five turbines of REVN"s wind power plant abolished the doubt on the success of wind power projects in Vietnam and initially built up the experiences in technology, installation skill and management for following projects.

The big difficulty in developing wind power is the equipment supply. All turbines of REVN in Tuy Phong Dist must be imported from Germany and cost much because Vietnam could not produce the technical equipments requiring high accuracy. Total expense of REVN for purchasing the five turbines is over 817 billion dong (according to the market prices of 2008). Even REVN had to purchase the over-500 tonne cranes to install the turbines.

Another project investor in Tuy Phong said that the investment cost for wind power is very high compared with that for hydropower, thermo-power and gas power. While the hydropower investment is $1,300 per KW, the investment for wind power is $2,000 per KW. Therefore, the price of 1 kWh of wind power will be no less than $cent 10 per KWh (about 2,000 dong per kWh). Also, wind power investors had to hire experts of equipment suppliers to install and transfer generating and repairing techniques.

Tran Van Nhut worried, there are many wind power projects asking for Binh Thuan governance's approval but the human resource training here has no progress. An investor said that wind power is a totally new field so banks still are hesitant in lending. The tardiness of wind power project is partially for capital shortage.

Wind power projects of Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan province now are mainly located in black sand areas (titanium) so the majority of projects must be controlled closely while waiting for the titanium reserve exploration and mining.

While Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment does not yet finish the titanium survey in two provinces, local governances will be disallowed to license new wind power projects, according to prime minister's order.VNS

TRANSPORTATION/RAILWAY - Jica funds Ben Thanh centre railway-station project

HCM City People's Committee has recently approved the plan of using non-refundable capital source of Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) to build feasible study for Ben Thanh centre railway station project.

The Ben Thanh centre railway station is under the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien inner-city railway route project.

PMU of urban railway project is responsible for determining the content and work scope of advisory services and responsibility regulations of consultant, in close coordination with consulting units of Jica to complete the feasible study report on the project to submit to the authorities for approval.

Ben Thanh centre railway station is a complex function, serving to connect the urban railway lines with multiple modes of passenger transportation, especially buses, combined with the urban services and diversified commerce in the city.DT

TELECOMMUNICATION - Ministry says difficult to manage pre-paid subscribers

The Ministry of Information and Communications yesterday re-affirmed its failure in managing pre-paid subscribers despite issuing a regulation requiring personal information declaration last year, as about half of the country's pre-paid subscribers have supplied false information.

Minister of Information arid Communications Le Doan Hop said at the question and answer session of the 12th National Assembly meeting in Hanoi yesterday that the management of pre-paid subscribers was facing difficulties in spite of the regulation.

According to Hop, Vietnam has 119 million phone numbers, with about four million post-paid mobile subscribers and 16 million landline users. The rest are pre-paid subscribers. Meanwhile, at least 30 percent of the pre-paid accounts are virtual users.

"To manage pre-paid subscribers, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affair must complete e-identify cards and e-passport numbers. With these digital numbers, the ministries can manage pre-paid subscribers;' Hop suggested.

At the question and answer session, Le Nhu Tien, a deputy from Quang Ninh, raised the question on how to reduce the unhealthy competition and prevent a monopoly among telcos.

Hop said his ministry deeply understood that too many telecom providers could lead to a waste of digital resources. However, if there were few companies, it could result in monopoly.

According to Hop, Vietnam has seven telecom providers but the country's telecom industry is still in the early stages of development.

Hop admitted to' unhealthy competition among the telcos like unlawful promotions and undercutting.

"To choke off the phenomenon, we are drafting a regulation to punish any telcos who are found to engage in unhealthy competition;' Hop said.

In answering another NA deputy, Hop said Vietnam had 42,000 BTS, a modest number compared to other countries. Viettel has 16,000 BTS, MobiFone has 11,000andVinaphone 10,000. The rest are divided among the other telcos.

Hop forecast that the number of BTS would rapidly increase because Vietnam was building a.3G network.

According to Hop, his ministry this year has examined 25,000 BTS and found only 117 violations, such as poor construction quality and building without a license.SGTD

Telecommunication - Huawei Group provides equipment for 3G network of EVN Telecom

China-based Huawei Group and Electricity of Vietnam (EVN)'s Telecommunication Co (EVN Telecom) recently signed a contract whereby Huawei Group has pledged to supply equipments and solutions for 3G network building project of EVN Telecom.

Accordingly, Huawei Group will focus its human resource and equipments for timely fulfilment of the project so that EVN Telecom is able to provide 3G mobile information services with the best quality.dt

Where Your Customers Are: How Facebook, Twitter and Others Break Down by Age

Facebook, the largest social media network, recently reached 300 million users worldwide — roughly the population of the United States. So do your homework before you approach your customers online. Here's how users on the top social media sites broke down by age in August 2009.

http://www.bnet.com/2403-13237_23-366331.html?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

Eight Ways to Ruin Your Social-Media Strategy

by Catharine P. Taylor

So you’ve set up a company fan page on Facebook and you’re letting your employees fire off messages to the world via Twitter — or you’re at least thinking about it. Well, congratulations! You’re part of the social-media revolution, which can offer unparalleled access to word-of-mouth buzz among those you most want to reach: your customers, current and future.

Hold on, though. While social media might sound simple, there are as many ways to screw up in this new world as in the old. More, in fact, because technology and online norms are both new and rapidly evolving, often in ways that are particularly challenging to deal with in a corporate setting. Here are eight mistakes to avoid as you make your way in the buzzing cauldron of grass-roots chat.

Mistake 1: Pretend you can do without it.

You may have already run into the Graying Skeptics, executives who can’t understand why they should devote employee time and company resources to social media, and who dismiss Facebook and Twitter as fads that amount to little more than a waste of time and money.

Well, social media is here to stay, and the rocketing growth of some outlets makes it foolish to ignore them. Facebook, the largest, recently reached 300 million users worldwide — roughly the population of the United States. And the largest demographic is the 35 to 49 set that most businesses are eager to reach. So listen to Sebastian Gard of social marketing firm Context Optional when he says bluntly: “You’re going to have a social-media strategy whether you do it or not. It’s not up to you.”

"You’re going to have a social-media strategy whether you do it or not. It’s not up to you," says Sebastian Gard of social marketing firm Context Optional.

Mistake 2: Play down the costs.

Sure, Twitter accounts, Facebook fan pages and YouTube channels don’t cost a thing. But don’t think for a second that you can do your social-media effort on the cheap. Getting the most out of these tools requires time, attention and skill — none of which are free.

Over time, however, social media does save you some money, since you can use these outlets for efforts you might otherwise contract out to PR firms, ad agencies or market researchers. Don’t expect to replace them all. Instead, think of social media as a necessary and powerful complement to your existing outreach.

Mistake 3: Act like you own the conversation

Social media is a conversation, and conversations — more so than ads — require tact. “It all begins with listening,” says Paul Chaney, an Internet marketing director who bills himself as The Social Media Handyman. Just as you wouldn’t walk into a cocktail party and start bragging about yourself, Chaney says, you shouldn’t “just jump into the conversation” in social-media channels, either.

So if your customers are talking about your stores online, don’t just start blasting them with canned sale promotions — unless, of course, you want to lose customers. Instead, get a feel for the vibe of the conversation, then ease your way into it, for instance, by answering general user questions, even if they don’t pertain directly to your company or its brands. Let your social-media mavens become resources for these customer micro-communities. Once your folks have earned some trust, they’ll have the leeway to advance your business goals.

Dunkin’ Donuts did this well when it set up a social-media presence last year on Facebook and elsewhere. “We wanted to have conversations with our consumers, who were already having these conversations themselves,” says David Puner, a communications manager at the Canton, Mass.-based company. “Once we got out there, people found us.” A year later, one million people are fans of the official Dunkin’ Facebook page. The brand has its own YouTube channel, and its Twitter feed, @dunkindonuts — which Puner runs — has more than 35,000 followers.

Mistake 4: Fear empowering your employees

“A client once told me they were nervous about letting customer-service employees speak to the public through Twitter,” says David Griner, social-media strategist for Birmingham, Alabama-based ad agency Luckie & Co. “I asked, 'Would you trust these people to talk to customers on the phone or face to face?' Of course they would. The key is to think of social media more like a call center than a press release.”

The online shoe store Zappos, now part of Amazon, has a reputation for personalized customer service and communication — and social media played a big role. Dozens of employees maintain blogs on the company Web site; hundreds have Twitter accounts. It’s not just Web-only companies that offer such empowerment, Dell, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Southwest Airlines do as well. The common thread: All have corporate cultures that value transparent relationships with customers.

Mistake 5: Assume you have little to learn

Dell, however, joined the social media revolution the hard way. When Jeff Jarvis, a prominent media blogger, did a series of 2005 posts on his horrible customer-service experience with Dell — posts that came to be known as “Dell Hell” — the company suddenly realized how powerful, and damaging, the voice of the consumer could be. Spurred by the public relations disaster, CEO Michael Dell blessed an effort to work his company into its customers’ conversations. According to a case study on Dell in the book “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies,” the listening effort helped Dell figure out, for instance, that it needed to better coordinate technical support and customer service to quickly resolve customer problems.

Mistake 6: Take negative feedback personally

Look, this is the Internet, where there are always going to be trolls and other nasty individuals who delight in saying unpleasant things about your company. Don’t let it bug you. On the other hand, don’t overlook the opportunity to address real concerns head-on.

Comcast began to repair its dismal customer-service reputation several years ago by using Twitter to reach out to complaining customers, offering to troubleshoot problems or sometimes offering refunds. Frank Eliason, the director of digital care, originally manned the account, @comcastcares; it’s now staffed by a small platoon of Comcast employees. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Comcast’s score is inching upward. “It’s still not where we would like to see it, but we are happy it is heading in the right direction,” Eliason says.

Mistake 7: Fret about return on investment

Solid return on investment in social media is tough to measure. You can, however, evaluate your outreach efforts the same way you might a PR or advertising campaign.

You can start by looking at simple tallies such as your number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, or how often people visit your company’s blog. Other metrics, such as the number of blog comments and the number of times consumers shared a link to your content, can show how engaged users are with your brand.

That said, many companies still take the value of social media largely on faith. Context Optional’s Sebastian Gard, who until June was a social-media manager at Microsoft, admits, “The only way I can tell you it’s effective [at Microsoft] is that they continue to do more of it.”

Mistake 8: Underestimate the power of seemingly small efforts

Embracing social media isn’t about achieving specific goals so much as it is establishing a real bond with your customers. Rick Karp, president and “keeper of the karma” for the San Francisco-based Cole Hardware chain, recently announced via Twitter (@colehardware) that the company would exchange a particular water bottle suspected of chemical contamination — no questions asked. Within two weeks, consumers returned about 1,000 of the bottles. “We lost money, but we gained so much [for our brand] by virtue of our doing it,” he says. “I will do a lot to build our brand, regardless of whether it pays off immediately economically or not.”

“We wanted to have conversations with our consumers, who were already having these conversations themselves,” says David Puner, a communications manager at Dunkin' Donuts.

http://www.bnet.com/2403-13237_23-366324.html?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

Social media and CRM -- The marketing perspective

By Allen Bonde

10 Nov 2009 | SearchCRM.com

There’s no denying that social media is a phenomenon. Forrester reports that three out of four Americans use social technology (I guess at least once!), and social networks and blogs are now the 4^th most popular online activity, according to Nielsen. But as someone who has been around the Internet and CRM since the mid-1990s and spent a good part of the early 2000s defining and evangelizing self-service models, I tend to think of social models as an evolution rather than a revolution -- especially in the context of multi-channel marketing and online applications.

With this in mind, I’ve been focusing on the opportunities provided by the convergence of social media and CRM and how a community-centric model can not only drive product innovation and lower support costs (via peer support) but can also reinvigorate your brand and turn your customers into your greatest sales reps.

As you can imagine, making sense of this convergence is no small feat. So while many discussions about the future of CRM and social channels are targeting the big picture and especially the impact on CRM system architecture and customer service delivery, my firm has been looking at the marketing side and how combining online social channels and offline marketing and community-building programs may be both a practical and profitable approach. It’s a think global, act local philosophy, if you will, and it will be the theme I hope to develop across a series of columns on the topic.

So to get started, recognizing that adopting this approach requires a certain level-setting in terms of definitions and core beliefs, I thought I’d devote this article to setting the stage, with subsequent columns looking at the unique characteristics and emerging roles for the leading social channels like Facebook and Twitter, case studies for social media marketing, and how to move from social networking to a true social business (or social CRM) strategy.

Some definitions

In case you have been blissfully unaware of the hype around Web 2.0, CRM 2.0 and even Enterprise 2.0, social media are the blogs, wikis, forums, public social networking sites, microblogging (Twitter), audio or video sharing sites where a community model is in play and user-generated content and connections are the primary currency. I will also refer to both social networking sites and communication/collaboration tools as “channels” in the course of this and other articles and view these channels as the primary tools for social media marketing.

On the enterprise side, social business software (think Jive or Socialtext or OutStart) is the general class of Web 2.0 “packages” geared toward enterprise users (also called Enterprise 2.0). SBS to this point has been used mostly to power private/company communities and public or specialty forums where scale or management or monitoring is critical.

Finally, social media marketing is the business use of social media for engaging customers, building thought leadership, creating leads and/or driving product innovation. I view social media marketing as a special case of “community marketing,” which actually precedes many social sites and networks and can be applied strictly offline using traditional campaigns and programs – although, as we’ll discuss, the real power comes from combining the power of both offline and online techniques in a measurable, repeatable fashion.

A framework for community marketing

When I was at McKinsey, I remember vividly that the big-wigs used to say: “You don’t sell, you have a discussion.” Put another way, every relationship begins with a discussion. This is a key core belief for both social media and community marketing. In today’s Facebook world, our goal as marketers (and CRM managers) is to use social media and networking to engage in discussions and then to capture feedback that allows us to improve both our products and the brand experience (ah, marketing nirvana!) and generate unusually qualified leads.

Man, this sounds great – doesn’t it? But of course there’s a catch. And that catch is that while many businesses are good at one or more of the activities that make up this type of “community marketing model,” they lack the repeatable processes and coordination among marketing, sales and support or have not yet cracked the code when it comes to being viewed as a trusted advisor or member of the community.

This is where a framework can be helpful. While certainly not completely baked, there is a working version I’ve developed. If you’d like to build your own, I’d suggest starting with two principles.

First, it’s important to recognize that conversations and casual discussions are not the same as engagement. Social sites like Facebook or LinkedIn can be great places to start conversations, and a corporate blog or wiki can build a deeper dialog. But true engagement requires some additional discovery, identification of common interests and even profiling or segmenting into interest groups. Some of this could be done online via discussion forums or rating and reviews, or even the application of social search via a platform such as Baynote. But it’s likely that true engagement will need to include some face-to-face time at a roundtable event or perhaps a focus group – even if these are delivered virtually over the Web.

Second, engagement is wasted if you don’t steer the community to help define your product features or propose support solutions or even “nominate” peers who might benefit from also buying your services or products. This is why feedback and measures are critical, and how they bridge community marketing to product development and sales. In fact, this is where leads naturally flow out of a community marketing program and intersect with the sales cycle at the end rather than the beginning (remember, discuss, don’t sell – at least up front!).

So, what’s next? Picking the right social channels and tools, and staging them at the right place in our CMM model, is both an art and a science. In our next installment, we’ll look at one approach to characterizing the top channels and ways to integrate social models into your current marketing (and CRM) toolbox.

About Allen Bonde

Allen Bonde was recently CMO of eVergance and is a well-known analyst, entrepreneur and management consultant. He has 20 years of experience at McKinsey, Extraprise, the Yankee Group, and GTE (now Verizon); he has written for CIO.com and SearchCRM.com; and he has appeared on CNBC and Fox News. Bonde is the founder and currently managing director of Evoke CRM Partners (www.EvokeCRM.com), a consultancy focused on multi-channel customer strategies and the convergence of social media, self-service and CRM.

Published: Sunday November 8, 2009 MYT 9:32:00 AM
Updated: Sunday November 8, 2009 MYT 11:05:55 AM

Malaysia wins seven Asian travel awards

By CHOI TUCK WO

LONDON: Malaysia swept seven Asian awards at the prestigious World Travel Awards 2009’s regional finals gala ceremony here Saturday.

While Malaysia Airlines bagged Asia’s Leading Airline award, Resorts World Genting scooped Asia’s Leading Family Resort and Asia’s Leading Casino Resort titles.

Tourism Malaysia’s “Malaysia: Truly Asia” tagline was also voted Asia’s Leading Marketing Campaign during the star-studded function at Grosvenor House, a JW Marriot Hotel, in London’s Mayfair.

MAS chairman Tan Sri Dr. Munir Majid (third from left) and MAS regional manager for United Kingdom and Ireland Syed Abdillah Syed Aziz (beside him) with their award. With them are: (From left) MAS air hostesses Lilis Surianty (far left) and Yvonne Kow (second from right) as well as Miss Vietnam Huong Giang (third from right) and Miss China Yu Sheng (far right).

Two other titles – Asia’s Leading City Hotel and Asia’s Leading Design Hotel – went to Hilton Kuala Lumpur while Asia’s Leading Airport Hotel award went to Pan-Pacific Kuala Lumpur International Airport Hotel.

MAS chairman Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid and Genting Malaysia Berhad president and chief operating officer Datuk Lee Choong Yan received their awards from Miss Vietnam/Miss World 2009 contestant Huong Giang.

Dr Majid said the recognition bore testament to the fact that the global industry and travellers recognised the national carrier’s brand of service delivery.

“Our focus has always been on serving customers, with a commitment towards continuous service, improvement and delivery,” he said.

MAS chairman Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid (second from right), MAS regional manager for United Kingdom and Ireland Syed Abdillah Syed Aziz (beside him) with MAS air hostesses Lilis Surianty (far left) and Yvonne Kow (far right) after the awards ceremony in London.

Lee said the awards would further encourage them to consistently provide memorable guest experience through innovative products and services.

“I am also confident these awards will help Malaysia enhance its reputation in the tourism industry and attract more visitors to our resort and the country,” he added.

The Malaysians picked up seven awards in the Asian category while regional awards were also given out to winners in the Australasia and Indian Ocean as well as the Caribbean and South America regions.

In the individual countries’ category, Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur was voted Malaysia’s Leading Hotel; Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia’s Leading Business Hotel); Sheraton Langkawi Resort (Malaysia’s Leading Resort) and Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa in Penang (Malaysia’s Leading Spa Resort).

The event was attended by more than 1,000 senior management and decision-makers from the global travel and tourism industry.

Genting Malaysia Berhad president and chief operating officer Datuk Lee Choong Yan received his award from Miss Vietnam/Miss World 2009 contestant Huong Giang.

Dubbed the “Oscars” of the global travel and tourism industry, the awards are recognised as the highest accolade within the travel industry.

Votes are cast globally in 919 categories by travel professionals from 183,000 travel agencies, tour and transport companies and tourism organisations in over 160 countries.

Tonight (Sunday) the winners of the grand finals will be announced, marking the culmination of a year-long quest to find the very best travel brands in the world.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/8/nation/20091108093434&sec=nation