Briefs

VietJet will offer 300,000 promotional tickets priced at zero dollars from today through Friday to celebrate the coming year-end travel and shopping season.
The discounted airfares will be available at www.vietjetair.com for all routes between Vietnam and Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar, and for travel from December 1, 2016, and December 31, 2017.
“The Southeast Asian destinations are attractive to global travellers thanks to their diverse cultures, unique scenery and impressive cuisines,” the airline said. 
It noted that the area is also famous for being tourism-friendly, especially with affordable costs and abundant air-fare promotions. – Viet Nam News

SCIC set to auction
9 per cent of Vinamilk
Vietnam’s sovereign fund State Capital Investment Corporation will auction a 9-per-cent stake comprising 130.63 million shares in Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk) at the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange on December 2.
SCIC deputy director-general Hoang Nguyen Hoc revealed this at a roadshow held at the exchange to introduce the company and its stock.
The SCIC holds the Vietnamese government’s 45-per-cent stake in Vinamilk, one of the most highly rated stocks, and foreign investors have for long been interested in it because of its strong prospects and expansion plans. 
Vinamilk is a giant brand with high value, Hoc said.
With the company’s market value of US$9 billion, the 9-per-cent offering would be one of the largest in Asia this year, he said.
But the minimum price has yet to be determined.
The SCIC has organised roadshows in Singapore, Hong Kong and London, he said. – Viet Nam News

Singapore draws largest share
of IPO funds in SE Asia
The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has topped its Southeast Asian peers in attracting new listings so far this year, led by three large REIT (real estate investment trust) listings.
The market is likely to stay healthy next year with more property-sector deals expected, analysts say.
About 2.3 billion Singapore dollars of initial-public-offering (IPO) proceeds had been raised across 16 deals on the SGX this year as of Monday, nearly a fourfold increase from the S$512.4 million raised from 13 deals last year, Deloitte revealed in its annual IPO review.
This put Singapore in the No 1 spot for IPOs in Southeast Asia this year. Indonesia mustered 14 deals raising about S$1.1 billion in total, Malaysia hosted 10 IPOs with S$285 million in proceeds, while Thailand saw 22 deals worth S$1.7 billion (Bt42.3 billion).
All of Southeast Asia has recorded 101 deals so far this year, raising S$6.2 billion in the process. Last year, the region raised S$5.9 billion from 154 deals. – The Straits Times

Indonesian villages to lead 
tourism development 
Indonesia’s government will pin its hopes on boosting the number of foreign visitors by empowering villages to develop ecotourism and their respective unique cultural heritage.
Teaming up with the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Trans-|migration Ministry, the Tourism Ministry is expected to make use of the 89 trillion rupiah (Bt234 billion) of so-called village funds next year to be directed towards the improvement of tourism infrastructure.
The Villages Ministry’s director-general for development and empowerment of villages, Ahmad Erani Yustika, says the “Tourism Village” programme is intended to boost the potential for tourism that is unique to certain areas.
Erani said many villages were unaware of their tourism potential, be it natural or cultural.
“For example, villages with abundant water resources can develop ecotourism destinations,” he said.
The village funds can be used for community entrepreneurship, standardisation of tourism services and infrastructure development.
The funds can also be used to boost the number of amenities, such as hotels and souvenir-production centres, in each village.
Under the programme, every village is entitled to receive 1 billion rupiah annually starting next year for infrastructure development. Village leaders, with the approval of their residents, will have the authority to decide on the type of infrastructure to be built in their areas. |– The Jakarta Post