Diva Mỹ Tâm and singer Trọng Tấn will perform songs espousing the beauty of the Hàn River in Đà Nẵng and the Volga of Russia in the opening performance of the Đà Nẵng International Fireworks Festival on June 1.

The general director of the festival, Đỗ Thanh Hải, made the announcement at a press conference in Đà Nẵng yesterday, confirming the art performance will spark the one-month long festival with an amazing water space stage.

He said top Vietnamese singers such as Hồng Nhung, Tùng Dương, Uyên Linh, Phương Vy and Thảo Trang and European artists will also perform.

Hải said the fireworks festival will be promoted by art performances and street carnivals every weekend during the festival between June 2 and July 7.

The festival’s organisers will also host the final round of National Flashmob Contest at Đà Nẵng Sun World Wonders on June 29.

Meanwhile, the Sunshine Dance Festival will be held Sun World’s Bà Nà Hills from May 31 through September 30. More than 200 dancers and artists will offer two performances each day during the period.

The fireworks festival – the 10th edition since 2008 – will feature teams from Russia, Brazil, Belgium, Finland, England, China, Italy and Việt Nam lighting up the Hàn River from June 1 to July 7.

This year’s event, titled ‘Stories by the Rivers’, will see teams describing the beauty and culture of typical rivers in their countries during the month-long festival.

Việt Nam and Russia will perform during the curtain-raiser on June 1, while Brazil and Belgium will take the stage on June 8.

Three-time champions Italy and Finland will play the third night on June 15, while England and China will perform on June 22.

The top two teams will be selected for the final on July 6.

Last year, Italy’s Martarello clinched the title for the third time after winning in 2011 and 2012.

According to the organisers, the fireworks festival drew more than 1.5 million tourists last year.

A recent report ranks Ho Chi Minh City 41st among world’s 50 fastest growing coworking markets in the world.

Every 47.5 days, a new coworking space opens in Vietnam’s southern metropolis, according to the 2019 Global Coworking Growth Study recently published by CoworkingResources, a global information hub for modern workspaces.

The report is based on research that tracked all coworking space openings for 10 months, from June 2018 to April 2019. It ranks major cities around the world based on the number of days between new space openings.

London topped the list, with a coworking space springing up in the U.K. capital every five days, followed by New York (7.5 days), Toronto in Canada (13 days), Austin (15 days) and Denver (16.8 days), both in the U.S.

The top 10 was dominated by seven American cities, reflecting the wide popularity of the coworking space concept in almost every city in the U.S.

The report says Vietnam came in 31st among top 50 global economies with the highest growth in per capita coworking space numbers.

Luxembourg, Singapore and Ireland were the top three countries, with the first chalking up 8.5 new spaces annually for every 1,000,000 inhabitants, almost double the following two.

Vietnam has seen the coworking space market expand in recent years. Major local operators like Toong, UP, Circo and Dreamplex are all expanding at an accelerated rate, and the number of smaller operators with just one venue is also increasing.

As of April last year, there were 23 coworking operators in Vietnam managing a total of 34 spaces, according to real estate consultants CBRE.

Nguyen Hong Hai, CEO of office rental service Pax Sky, said coworking spaces are now popular because the supply of office space in HCMC’s central districts fails to meet demand of the rising number of entrepreneurs choosing to base themselves in the city.

Hai told VnExpress that grade A office space in the city costs $50-60 per square meter plus taxes a month, and grade B office space, $22-30.

But occupancy rates of over 95 percent mean customers have to wait for a long time to find a good place, he said.

There is still a lot of untapped potential in the coworking industry in HCMC because of its very vibrant entrepreneurship scene, he added.

The event is to be hosted by the Vietnam National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio alongside the European Union National Institutes for Culture.

The festival will see films from 10 European countries shown, including from Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Israel, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and Belgium, in addition to Vietnamese works.

Audiences will have the chance to learn more about a wide variety of different countries, people, and cultures through featured-documentary films.

The event is to showcase a number of films which have won prizes at prestigious international film festivals, and is expected to be a great success that brings excitement to watching audiences.

The Vietnamese Government supports and creates the best possible conditions for Belgian businesses and investors, including those from the Flanders region, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has affirmed.

He told visiting Minister-President of the Flanders region Geert Bourgeois in Hà Nội yesterday that Vietnamese businesses wanted to work with Belgian partners, and the Vietnamese Government has encouraged local people and enterprises to enhance co-operation with firms from the EU, including Belgium.

The fact 80 Flanders businesses are accompanying Minister-President Geert Bourgeois during his visit to Việt Nam shows their confidence in the country’s development, he said.

Việt Nam attaches importance to economic ties with the EU, and Belgium and the Flanders region in particular, the leader stressed.

He said that Việt Nam highly valued Belgium’s role in the EU and the country’s co-operation and support for Việt Nam, particularly in education, training, economy and trade.

Việt Nam’s signing of a free trade agreement with the EU aimed to promote collaboration between the two sides, he said, expressing his belief that Belgium would encourage other EU member countries to soon approve the deal.

The PM told his guest that Việt Nam and Belgium are expected to sign a co-operation programme in agriculture, fishery, husbandry and floriculture, among other fields.

For his part, Minister-President Geert Bourgeois highlighted the long-standing relations between Việt Nam and Belgium as well as the Flanders region, saying working sessions between his delegation and Vietnamese ministries and agencies over the past days reaped fruitful outcomes.

The Minister-President noted his support for the approval of the EU-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement and said that the pact would create momentum for economic and trade links between Việt Nam and EU countries.

— VNS

On May 20th 2019, Mr. Nguyen Van Tung, Chairman of Hai Phong City People’s Committee received Ambassador Paul Jansen and the delegation during their visit in Hai Phong.

At the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Van Tung revealed that Belgian businesses have invested heavily in Hai Phong and contributed positively to the socio-economic development of the city. He hoped that DEEP C 3 Industrial Park will be finished quickly to meet the investment demand in Hai Phong.

Thanking the warm welcome from the leaders of Hai Phong city, Ambassador Jansen highly appreciated the city’s support and hoped that Hai Phong will continue creating favorable conditions for more Belgian enterprises to invest and operate, especially at DEEP C Industrial Park (with Rent-A-Port Belgium and Hai Phong City People’s Committee as the main shareholders).

From DeepC side, they also very glad to welcome the Belgian Ambassador in their company:

We value our guests by making every effort to ensure they always feel welcome during their time with us. Sticking to that, we are delighted to receive Belgian Ambassador Paul Jansen to DEEP C in his visit to Haiphong. Apart from giving him a glimpse of our roadmap to eco-industrial park, we are lucky enough to join his meeting with Haiphong Authority where he suggested the City to continue their devoted support towards Belgian enterprises, especially DEEP C Industrial Zones. On Haiphong’s side, the City will offer DEEP C more favorable conditions while seeking for the Ambassador’s help in actively introducing DEEP C to Belgian investors. DEEP C would like to extend our sincere thanks to both the Ambassador and Haiphong city for their countless support. We hope that the Ambassador had a great experience with us, as much as we enjoyed having him in DEEP C.