Potential risk of online transaction in Vietnam and its consequences | ANT Consulting

 The 4.0 Industrial Revolution has developed significantly, which results in the transformation and breakthrough of all areas of the globe. Besides, the Internet and social network has got more popular and become an indispensable part of modern life. Online business, therefore, is formed and conducted the most frequently on social networking platforms. In the process of doing online business on this platform, many potential risks arise and depending on the situation, the people taking part in the transaction might need to involve the business consultant or risk management consultant to assist proving advice or consultancy service to address the matters.

First and foremost, it is very difficult and complicated to determine the identity of the subjects partaking in the social networking platforms in general and conducting business activities on these platforms in particular. Unlike e-commerce platforms which register operation with authorities, which require the sellers to verify their information before doing business, the social network environment allows anyone to participate in without revealing their true identities exposed. User will have an account that may or may not provide their true information after only a few basic registration procedures. As a result, many people have taken advantage of this feature of social networks to commit illegal acts in business activities. There are instances in Vietnam for fraud to appropriate property on a social network which the offender using an account on a popular social network with a fake name, using other people’s photos as his avatar. Next, he bought a fake ID card and used it to set up some bank accounts to start committing fraud. Although he did not have products for sale, but he still posted ads with pictures of selling products at cheap prices on his social network account. If customers wanted to buy, he asked them to transfer money first and promised to send the products to them by post soon after. However, when receiving the money from the customer, he did not send the goods and temporarily locked his account. Beside fraudulent activities, seller’s information is not checked or confirmed, allowing unscrupulous people to readily impersonate others for profit. It is not unusual for prominent business professionals or influencers to be faked on social networking platforms. This action jeopardizes the honor and reputation of those who are exploited while also affecting a large number of legitimate business people. Thus, the fact that social networks do not require business entities to verify their identities, despite helping conduct business procedures quickly and conveniently, causes many problems mentioned before, directly affecting the right to conduct business, benefit customers and stakeholders.

Secondly, no authorities have the possibility to guarantee absolutely the quality of items traded on social networks. The goods listed for sale are extremely diverse in quantity, type and design. Each business subject can sell hundreds of products per day and there are many business subjects on one social networking platform. Therefore, governmental agencies are unable to oversee and manage the origin and quality of each product and service. Many of goods for sales are prohibited or barred from trading. At the same time, sellers can sell fake goods, counterfeit, provide poor-quality ones or sell unknown-origin ones to customers in order to maximize profits. The most serious consequence of trading in unqualified goods is affecting the health of customers.

Thirdly, although Vietnamlaw imposes taxs on business subjects, it is difficult to collect taxes from organizations and individuals conducting business on social networks. That reduces state revenue and creates an unfavorable competitive climate for other sorts of enterprises. The reason is that business on social networks is based on technology, and it is easy to modify and delete information online, so it creates difficulties in identifying and verifying the number of business people and capturing transactions. This situation can be characterized as unfair competition, which is upsetting and unstable for the economy.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

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Why employee background check is important? | ANT Consulting

 It has been increasingly important for employer to understand about the employee through employee background check to reduce potential hiring risks.

The risk of wrong hiring could be accessing the wrong talent, exposure to criminal activities, legal issues, reputation matters that impact the business, workforce or customers.

It is understandable that if applicants are dishonest in how they obtained a job, they may be dishonest once they have the job. This could not be found out during the interview.

Hence, it is important to consider investment in background screening service to minimize the risks associated with workplace violence, lost customers, negligent hiring lawsuits, identity theft and fraud, embezzlement, data breaches, and high turnover.

The pre-employment screening by verification and validation of the information and documents provided by the potential candidates could cover the following matters.

Government-issued identification document. The candidate will provide one or more identification (ID) documents i.e. a photo ID card or passport. The employee background screening firm is asked to verify that the ID document provided by the candidate is valid.

Criminal record check. This information cannot be provided by the candidate. This record check will likely be obtained directly from Provincial Department of Justice, and possibly other local or national law enforcement organizations. With the authorization of the application, such criminal record could be obtain by background check company.

Employment history. The candidate will provide the name and location for his or her previous employers for a number of years. The background screening firm is asked to verify that the candidate actually worked for the previous employers listed.

Education history. The candidate will provide a copy of the highest degree or certificate of completion issued by the educational institution i.e. university, industrial training academy. The background check service company is asked to verify that the degree, certificate was actually issued by the institution to the candidate. The candidate may be asked to provide official transcripts from the educational institution in lieu of, or in addition to, the copy of a degree, certification in order to assist in the verification process.

Professional accreditation. If a candidate claims to have a professional accreditation or certificate, the candidate should also provide a copy of this to verify.

Managerial position. This information, a search of government records cannot be provided by the candidate. This record check will be obtained directly from Business Registration Office by employee background check service.

If a person passes a background check, it does not mean such hiring would not encounter issues in the future but it is important to have as much information about applicants being verified to warn the risks if found before making hiring decisions to reduce the potential risks to the employer and its workforce, customers.

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Risk Management: A Vital Element When Doing Business | ANT Consulting

 Risk management is a vital element when doing business but so far, not many enterprises concern about it.

According to a recent survey with 522 companies, there are only 43 companies, accounting for about 8%, have the independent risk management department in their business. More noteworthy, the majority of these 43 companies operating in the banking and financial sector, which has nothing new to risk management. In fact, not all banks have independent and effective risk management departments. The negative problems related to the banking system in recent times somewhat showed the picture about the risk management of this sector.

Risk is understood as any events and situations that could harmful to the ability to achieve the business objectives of the enterprise. Risk management is organized in a formal way and is conducted continuously to identify, control and report the risks that may affect the achievement of the business objectives of the enterprise.

So why businesses are not interested in risk management? Part of this problem stems from the awareness of the leaders. In order to build and operate the risk management system in the enterprise, it needs the commitment of the senior leaders. If senior leaders do not aware of this problem, the administration process will be difficult to achieve the desired effectiveness.

Recently, there are many theories and systems of risk management but small and medium enterprises should be cautious when apply because system and theory are just general and they should be adjusted when applying to each business.

In order to form the culture of risk management, the leaders must along with the employees to implement it regularly and for each project. In theory, the risk management process is carried out in 5 steps: identify risk; evaluate its impact; determine the likelihood; action and measures; monitoring and evaluation.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

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How to conduct research in Vietnam from official media source? | ANT Lawyers

 The media is an effective source for us to search necessary information for learning, business activities or for daily life. However, with the development of the Internet, communication has a stronger influence and is the leading tool that we often use to find information. Besides the benefits that the media brings, the media might be abused to pose many risks for users. Therefore, how to find official information in the media source is a topic of concern for many people, whom wish to search i.e. reputation of business partners, record of business owners, shareholders, key officers or management personnel, public information of company or individual, actual business operation of company, government policies, regulatory matters…

It is increasingly important to check sources of information, especially on the internet and using social media. Any individual joining a media network, social network can post any contents and share information, even if the information may be false. In fact, images and videos can also be plagiarized, mislabeled, or fabricated to convey information. Meanwhile, when users do not have time to learn and verify the source of false information and the fact that this information is not censored, it can spread quickly in the mass media.

Therefore, to avoid accessing or searching for fake news, users should not rely on all the information on social networks. Accordingly, users should check trusted news websites or government websites. In addition, users can check the author, title or name of the agency or organization that wrote or published information and articles. Users will then have an initial assessment of whether they are eligible to post and can trust what they have posted.

Further, before sharing a post on social network platforms, users should check if it is reliable and authentic information. However, on social network, it is not easy for users to authenticate information within a short period of time. The best way is that users should get direct information from contacting an agency or expert in this field or refer to reports and content of a reputable news site.

In addition, users should rely on organizations that specialize in field in which the user is looking for information. For examples, if the a person is having health problems and wish to consult the instructions or recommendations on where to go for medical treatment, the user should call a medical facility for guidance and advice from experts or visit the website of the Ministry of Health for the most official and reliable information. Or a foreigners whom wish to find government policy or information for travel and entry for immigration during Covid-19 pandemic time, he/she can contact or visit the website of the relevant Vietnam Immigration Department.

One problem today is that fake channels are trying to design the interface to have a similar look like official websites and insert characters that if not alerted users can easily confuse. Therefore, users should carefully check the website address from which they get information.

In conclusion, it is important for media users to watch out for official and stay away from fake news when searching for information. In addition to being vigilant and looking for official sources to get information, users can contact information search consulting company in Vietnam for effective solutions.

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The Wave of New Technology Companies Wants to Choose Vietnam as The Destination | ANT Consulting

 After the wave of technology companies pouring capital into Vietnam 10 years ago, there seems to be a wave of new technology companies wanting to choose Vietnam as their destination.

Last weekend, LG (Korea) went to Dong Nai to seek investment opportunities in items related to digital transformation and building smart cities in this province. According to representatives of LG, the Group is cooperating with a number of major corporations in the world to produce and supply 4.0 technology to deploy large smart city projects for some countries around the world.

Dong Nai is implementing a smart city project, so LG Group wants to participate in some categories, such as smart industrial parks, smart transportation, smart health care, smart factories, smart logistics… Funding to implement a smart city is about 15,000 – 20,000 billion VND.

Even as LG, after making its mark with the production complex of electronics, home electronics in Hai Phong (including 3 factories LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Innotek), at the end of last year, also set the ambition to make Da Nang become the Group’s information technology research and development (R&D) center in Vietnam. And now, although the information is not very specific, there is also a new investment direction.

The fact that Vietnam is promoting digital transformation has also attracted special attention from Taiwanese businesses. According to PwC’s research has just been published, the importance of Vietnam for Taiwanese businesses has increased from 18% in 2018 to 24% by the end of 2020 and ranked 4th, after the US, Japan and China.

According to Taiwanese PwC, the fact that the Vietnamese Government is actively focusing on promoting digital transformation will almost be a free ‘preferential’ policy for all foreign businesses to invest in Vietnam. Because, the impact of digital transformation not only helps reduce production costs, but also promotes efficiency and business performance here.

About 2 weeks ago, the leaders of Bac Giang province had a meeting to discuss with departments and branches to push up the clearance progress of Quang Chau Industrial Park (Viet Yen, Bac Giang). This industrial park has a total area of 426 hectares, but currently only 336 hectares have been cleared ground, the remaining 90 hectares have not.

Under the direction of the Vice Chairman of Bac Giang Provincial People’s Committee, the People’s Committee of Viet Yen district must focus highly on the work of site clearance for the remaining area, ensure early handover to the investor, even consider this is the top priority task.

It is easy to understand why Bac Giang province is so impatient. Provincial leaders want to soon hand over the entire premises of this project so that they can “welcome strategic investors”. The details have not been disclosed, but it is most likely related to the Foxconn Group’s investment expansion project that is about to be deployed in this industrial park. And most likely, this is the project that has been mentioned for a long time – 270 million USD, producing smart TV for a famous brand.

Meanwhile, Luxshare Group, after investing in building a factory in Van Trung Industrial Park, is also implementing another project in this industrial park, with an investment of 190 million USD. According to Luxshare-ICT Van Trung General Director, this new factory specializes in manufacturing all kinds of wireless headsets (bluetooth), smartwatches and bluetooth speakers.

In addition to the factories in Bac Giang, Luxshare is also in the process of expanding its investment in a factory in Nghe An. Meanwhile, Wistron Group has invested 273 million USD project in Ha Nam, while Pegatron Group has invested 2 projects 500 million USD in Hai Phong.

Looking at this angle, it seems that there is a next wave of investment in the high-tech sector pouring into Vietnam. In a report titled “Rising Star: The Role of Vietnam in Transforming Supply Chains in Asia”, according to Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Vietnam is still an interesting option for manufacturing operations and those looking to diversify supply chains in Asia.

According to the EIU, high-tech manufacturers will continue to receive incentives for many years to come and that is an advantage, so that along with other advantages, for example joining many trade agreements, Vietnam will become “a very convenient alternative name for a part of Chinese production”.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

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