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HANOI — Vietnam’s homegrown carmaker VinFast will deliver its first cars on June 17, the company said on Friday as it showcased a factory in one of Asia’s fastest growing economies.

VinFast said it will supply a domestic market that is rapidly expanding, thanks to a mushrooming middle class with a growing appetite for cars — though it will face stiff competition from well-established players like Toyota and Ford.

The carmaker is a subsidiary of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate, Vingroup, which is owned by the country’s richest man, a press-shy billionaire who started his career selling dried noodles in Ukraine. 

It is seeking to tap into national pride with vehicles that include sedan and SUV models, along with e-scooters and even electric buses.

“In less than 72 hours, the first Vietnamese branded cars will officially be driven on the streets of Vietnam,” said Vingroup director general Nguyen Viet Quanghe.

Quang — speaking at the sprawling factory in Haiphong where rows of red, white and grey cars were being assembled — said the company has received orders for 10,000 cars and “tens of thousands” of e-scooters. 

Vietnam’s Prime Minister said he hoped the vehicles would help Vietnam become a household name — alongside auto-making heavyweights Japan and Germany.

“Vietnamese are able to do what the world can,” Nguyen Xuan Phuc said.

Vietnam’s fast-growing economy has largely been buoyed by cheaply manufactured goods like sneakers, T-shirts and computer processors.

GDP growth hit 7.1 per cent last year, and the World Bank says annual growth is expected to reach 6.6 per cent later this year.

The country has said it hopes to move into value-added and high-tech manufacturing like more developed neighbours like South Korea and Japan.

Vietnam currently assembles foreign-branded cars for a growing domestic market: auto sales are up 22 per cent year-on-year over the past five months, according to Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

The cradle-to-grave Vingroup empire includes housing, resorts, farms, schools, hospitals, shopping malls and smartphones.

CEO Vuong is worth an estimated $7.7 billion, according to Forbes.

NEW YORK — Oil prices rose again on Friday in reaction to geopolitical tension, building on the previous day’s surge sparked by blasts on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

The US government blamed Iran for explosions on the tankers, and there were growing fears that Tehran could close the Strait of Hormuz, a major choke point for world oil shipments.

Despite a potentially disastrous stand-off between the two foes, oil traders were “not getting carried away”, said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.

Prices jumped by more than 4 per cent at one stage on Thursday as reports of the attacks in the Gulf of Oman flashed onto traders’ screens, and added around 1 per cent on Friday.

‘Not risen too much’ 

“Oil prices may have spiked following the attacks, but they have not risen too much considering the risk that an escalation poses,” Erlam said.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday that tepid growth in demand for oil along with ample supplies from non-OPEC countries will complicate efforts by the cartel and its allies to boost prices.

In its monthly report, the agency cut its forecast for demand growth this year for the second month straight -- and trimmed its second quarter forecast as well.

“Global slowdown fears and trade war risks have intensified which has led to the latest downward revision from IEA,” Erlam told AFP.

Markets in the red 

Global stock markets, meanwhile, fell on geopolitical fears, uncertainty over the China-US trade row and the gloomy outlook for the global economy, especially following negative economic data out of China.

In Asia, the Hong Kong stock market was again on the back foot, losing 0.7 per cent, after the city was rocked this week by violent protests against government plans for a law that would allow extraditions to China and which observers warn could erode its attraction for businesses.

Wall Street sagged back into the red, brushing off positive news on the economy, but clung to slender gains for the week. European stocks were lower at the closet.

Trading floors have been the scene of unease for weeks since US President Donald Trump’s shock decision to hit China with higher tariffs despite expectations the two sides were close to a deal to end their long-running stand-off.

The uneasiness over the past week has seen the price of gold hit a 15-month high of around $1,360 per ounce as traders look for safer assets to shelter from the uncertainty on world markets.

Eyes are now on the G-20 summit in Japan later this month where Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to meet to discuss the trade frictions. But Trump has threatened tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese goods if Xi fails to show.

Markets are taking some comfort from the view the Federal Reserve is prepared to cut interest rates soon as the economy stutters and the trade war rumbles along. But it is highly unlikely to happen at next week’s policy meeting.

HONG KONG — China’s biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding has filed confidentially for a Hong Kong listing that could raise up to $20 billion as early as the third quarter of this year, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

A deal of that size would be the biggest follow-on share sale globally in seven years and give Alibaba funds for technology investment — a priority for China as economic growth slows and a trade spat with the United States intensifies.

Alibaba holds the record for the world’s largest initial public offering with its $25 billion float in New York five years ago.

Then, the company had initially hoped to float in Hong Kong but the tech firm’s management structure clashed with the city’s listing rules. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, the city’s bourse operator, changed its listing rules last year — primarily with the aim of attracting Chinese tech groups.

Alibaba declined to comment on the deal when contacted by Reuters. Japan’s SoftBank Group, which is Alibaba’s largest shareholder with a 28.7 per cent stake, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The person with knowledge of the matter was not authorised to speak with media and so declined to be identified. News of the filing was first reported by Bloomberg.

Investment banks China International Capital Corp. and Credit Suisse Group AG are leading the deal. Both banks declined to comment. No other banks have been formally mandated as yet.

Big deal for Hong Kong 

A listing by Alibaba in Hong Kong will be seen as a victory for the city by its stock-focused market professionals, who mourned the lost trading revenue when the e-commerce group chose to float in New York. 

Trading in Alibaba shares averaged $2.2 billion a day in the first quarter of this year, according to Refinitiv data, compared with average daily turnover on the Hong Kong exchange of $12.9 billion in the same period.

Listing in Hong Kong would also give mainland Chinese investors their first direct access to one of their country’s biggest success stories, via the stock connect trading link between Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Since its US listing, Alibaba’s market value has nearly doubled and is now $423 billion, the largest in Asia-Pacific.

The filing comes amid growing political unrest in Hong Kong this week that raised concerns over the potential impact on the city’s financial market and businesses.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the southern Chinese territory this week over a planned extradition agreement with mainland China.

Logistics real estate developer ESR Cayman on Thursday pulled what would have been the largest Hong Kong listing so far this year, citing “current market conditions”.

So far this year, the benchmark Hang Seng index has gained 5.6 per cent compared with a 22.4 per cent jump in China’s blue-chip CSI 300 and a 14.9 per cent rise in the US S&P 500.

SYDNEY — Uber Technologies said it will use Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, as the first international test site for the group’s planned flying taxi service.

The US ride sharing firm had previously chosen Dubai as the first test site outside the United States for its UberAIR service but reopened its request for proposals last month after launch delays in the Middle Eastern city.

Uber said on Tuesday it will begin test flights of the pilotless aircraft in Melbourne and US cities Dallas and Los Angles in 2020 before commercial operations begin in 2023.

“Australian governments have adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology,” Susan Anderson, regional general ganager for Uber in Australia, New Zealand and North Asia, said in an e-mailed statement.

“This, coupled with Melbourne’s unique demographic and geospatial factors, and culture of innovation and technology, makes Melbourne the perfect third launch city for UberAir.”

The test flights will transport passengers from one of seven Westfield shopping centres in Melbourne to the city’s main international airport. The 19km journey from the central business district to the airport is expected to take 10 minutes by air, compared with the 25 minutes it usually takes by car.

The electric, on-demand air taxis can be ordered by customers through smartphone apps in the same way Uber’s road-based taxi alternatives are hailed.

Uber’s planned air fleet includes electric jet-powered vehicles — part helicopter, part drone and part fixed-wing aircraft — running multiple small rotors capable of both vertical take-off and landing and rapid horizontal flight.

SHANGHAI — China's Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. will need more time to become the world's largest smartphone maker, a goal it originally aimed to achieve in the fourth quarter of this year, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

"We would have become the largest in the fourth quarter [of this year] but now we feel that this process may take longer," said Shao Yang, chief strategy officer of Huawei Consumer Business Group, without elaborating on reasons.

Huawei currently sells 500,000 to 600,000 smartphones a day, he said in a speech at the CES Asia technology show in Shanghai.

The comments come after the United States put Huawei on a blacklist last month that barred it from doing business with US companies on security grounds without government approval, prompting some global tech companies to cut ties with the world's largest telecommunication equipment maker.

The company in January said it could become the world's biggest-selling smartphone vendor this year even without the US market. It was the second-biggest vendor in the first quarter, behind South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., according to research and advisory firm Gartner.

Analysts estimate the recent US sanctions could push Huawei's smartphone shipments down as much as a quarter this year and cause its handsets to disappear from overseas markets.

BEIJING — China's exports unexpectedly returned to growth in May despite higher US tariffs, but imports fell in a further sign of weak domestic demand that could prompt Beijing to step up stimulus measures. 

Some analysts suspected Chinese exporters may have rushed out US-bound shipments to avoid new tariffs on $300 billion of goods that US President Donald Trump is threatening to impose in a rapidly escalating trade dispute.

While better than expected, Monday's export data is unlikely to ease fears that a longer and larger US-China trade war may no longer be avoidable, pushing the global economy towards recession.

China's May exports rose 1.1 per cent from a year earlier, blowing past analysts' expectations, customs data showed.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected May shipments from the world's largest exporter to have fallen 3.8 per cent from a year earlier, after a contraction of 2.7 per cent in April.

While China is not as dependent on exports as in the past, they still account for nearly a fifth of its gross domestic product.

Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing escalated sharply last month after the Trump administration accused China of having "reneged" on promises to make structural changes to its economic practices.

Trump on May 10 slapped higher tariffs of up to 25 per cent on $200 billion of Chinese goods and then took steps to levy duties on all remaining $300 billion Chinese imports. Beijing retaliated with tariff hikes on US goods.

Trump has said he expects to hold a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a G-20 leaders' summit late this month, but analysts such as Capital Economics believe the chances of a lasting trade deal are receding after both sides toughened up their rhetoric. 

Damage from the trade war along with a broader softening in global demand will make 2019 the worst year for trade since the financial crisis a decade ago, with only 0.2 per cent growth, according to economists at ING. 

Imports weak 

China's imports dropped 8.5 per cent in May, leaving the country with a trade surplus of $41.65 billion for the month.

Analysts had forecast imports would fall 3.8 per cent from a year earlier, reversing an expansion of 4 per cent in April, which some had suspected was related to changes in company purchasing patterns ahead of a cut in the value-added tax.

The faltering imports trend don't augur well for the economy, given it suggests that domestic consumption is not able to take up the slack left by weakness in external demand.

FUKUOKA, Japan — Group of 20 (G-20) finance leaders said on Sunday that trade and geopolitical tensions have “intensified”, raising risks to improving global growth, but they stopped short of calling for a resolution of a deepening US-China trade conflict.

After rocky negotiations that nearly aborted the issuance of a communiqué, finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in southern Japan affirmed language issued in Buenos Aires last December that offered tepid support for a rules-based multilateral trading system. 

“Global growth appears to be stabilising, and is generally projected to pick up moderately later this year and into 2020,” the G-20 finance leaders said in a communiqué issued as the meetings in Fukuoka closed. 

“However, growth remains low and risks remain tilted to the downside. Most importantly, trade and geopolitical tensions have intensified. We will continue to address these risks, and stand ready to take further action,” the communiqué said. 

It also said that G-20 finance leaders had agreed to compile common rules by 2020 to close loopholes used by global tech giants such as Facebook and Google to reduce their corporate taxes. 

The communiqué contained pledges to increase debt transparency on the part of both borrowers and creditors and to make infrastructure development more sustainable, an initiative launched in the wake of complaints that China’s massive Belt and Road infrastructure drive was saddling poor countries with debt they can’t repay. 

But the final language excluded a proposed clause to “recognise the pressing need to resolve trade tensions” from a previous draft that was debated on Saturday. 

The deletion, which G-20 sources said came at the insistence of the United States, shows a desire by Washington to avoid encumbrances as it increases tariffs on Chinese goods. The statement also contains no admissions that the deepening US-China trade conflict was hurting global growth. 

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said she “emphasised that the first priority should be to resolve the current trade tensions” while working to modernise international trading rules. 

The IMF warned earlier this week that while growth was still expected to improve this year and next, the US-China tariff war could lop 0.5 per cent from global GDP output in 2020, about the size of G-20 member South Africa’s economy.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday he did not see any impact on US growth from the trade conflict, and that the government would take steps to protect consumers from higher tariffs.

Mnuchin met People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang on Sunday in the first meeting of high-level US officials in a month. In a Tweet, Mnuchin called the meeting “constructive” and “a candid discussion on trade issues”, but offered no other details. 

At the Buenos Aires G-20 summit in December 2018, the United States and China agreed to a five-month trade truce to allow for negotiations to end their intensifying trade war. But those talks hit an impasse last month, prompting both sides to impose higher tariffs on each other’s goods as the conflict nears the end of its first year. 

Trump-Xi summit 

The widening fallout from the US-China trade war has tested the resolve of the group to show a united front as investors worry if policy makers can avert a global recession. 

The bickering over trade language has dashed hopes of Japan, which chairs this year’s G-20 meetings, to keep trade issues low on the list of agendas at the finance leaders’ meeting. 

Mnuchin said US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would meet at a June 28-29 G-20 summit in Osaka. 

He described the planned meeting as having parallels to the two presidents’ December 1 meeting in Buenos Aires, when Trump was poised to hike tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. 

Trump took that step in May and will be ready to impose similar 25 per cent tariffs on a remaining $300 billion list of Chinese goods around the time of the Osaka summit. 

At the Buenos Aires meeting, the G-20 leaders described international trade and investment as “important engines of growth, productivity, innovation, job creation and development. We recognise the contribution that the multilateral trading system has made to that end”. 

The leaders in that communiqué called for reform of the World Trade Organisation rules that were falling short of objectives with “room for improvement”, pledging to review progress at the Japan summit. 

FUKUOKA, Japan — Top G-20 finance officials agreed on Saturday there was an urgent need to find a global system to tax Internet giants like Google and Facebook but clashed on the best way to do it.

The G-20 has tasked the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to fix an international tax system that has seen some Internet heavyweights take advantage of low-tax jurisdictions in places like Ireland and pay next to nothing in other countries where they make huge profits.

OECD chief Angel Gurria presented G-20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs meeting over the weekend in the western Japanese city of Fukuoka with a “roadmap”, already signed off by 129 countries, in a bid to clinch a long-term solution by 2020.

“We have to hurry up,” stressed French finance Minister Bruno Le Maire during a panel discussion of top policymakers before the G-20 meeting officially opened.

Le Maire called for a more ambitious timeframe to forge a global consensus, saying: “the right schedule is to find a compromise by the end of this year.”

British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said taxing Internet giants fairly was a response to something that is “perceived by our population to be a gross injustice in our tax system”.

Ministers are weighing a new tax policy based on the amount of business a company does in a country, not where it is headquartered.

But there are rival proposals in the mix, including a wider US-led approach that could affect European and Asian multinationals in other sectors than technology.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took a blunt view of policies in Britain and France, which have already introduced their own taxes on digital players, given a lack of global consensus.

“I would say the US has significant concerns with the two current taxes that are being proposed by France and the UK but let me give them some good credit for proposing them in the sense [that] they have created an urgency to deal with this issue,” said Mnuchin. 

“Although I don’t like them, I do appreciate the impetus for these issues,” added the top US finance official.

“We are not looking to rewrite the entire tax code, but we do need to look at the balance between what may be the issue in digital and perhaps how this new environment affects non-digital companies as well,” he said.

While there were gaps on the exact make-up of the reform, the policymakers agreed there needed to be a global approach to taxing the big Internet firms. 

Gurria said there was a risk of “cacophony” and a “race to the bottom” without an agreed global framework and Mnuchin agreed that “having a fragmented tax approach is not good for any of us”.

‘Very, very significant’ 

The other topic dominating the G-20 finance ministers’ meeting was the impact of spiralling global trade conflicts on an increasingly fragile economic outlook.

But the ministers were given a boost just hours before the meeting started with news that Washington had scrapped threatened tariffs on Mexico after a deal on immigration.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the agreement that we reached. It is very, very significant and we very much appreciate the commitments that Mexico has made,” Mnuchin told reporters.

Trump had threatened to impose a 5 per cent tariff on all Mexican goods from Monday but shelved this plan after the deal was agreed, prompting a sigh of relief from the Japanese central bank governor.

“It is good, not just for the United States and Mexico, but also for the entire global economy,” Haruhiko Kuroda told reporters.

On the burning issue of the trade war between China and the US, the world’s top two economies, Mnuchin said Washington was prepared to continue talks but that any potential deal would be struck by the two leaders later this month.

“We were on the way to a historic deal. If they want to come back to the table and complete the deal on the terms that we were continuing to negotiate, that will be great. If not, as the president said, we’ll move on with tariffs,” said the treasury secretary.

By a quirk of the calendar, G-20 trade ministers are also meeting the same weekend in Japan but the finance ministers will be tackling the current tensions and their economic consequences.

Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso, host of the meeting, acknowledged that unless Beijing and Washington buried the hatchet, this could “erode market confidence”. 

BRUSSELS — Google's privacy woes are set to increase after campaigners on Tuesday filed complaints to data protection regulators in France, Germany and seven other EU countries over the way it deals with data in online advertising.

The criticism mirrored a complaint filed by privacy-focused web browser Brave in Ireland and Britain which triggered an investigation by the Irish watchdog last month.

At issue is real-time bidding, a server-to-server buying process which uses automated software to match millions of ad requests each second from online publishers with real-time bids from advertisers.

The online ad industry, a money spinner for Google, Facebook and other online platforms and advertisers, is expected to grow to $273 billion this year according to research firm eMarketer.

"The real-time bidding advertising system may be broadcasting the personal data of users to hundreds or thousands of companies. This advertising method clearly breaches the EU's data protection regulation [GDPR]," said Eva Simon, a legal expert at campaigning group Liberties which is coordinating the complaints.

The EU enacted the landmark GDPR a year ago which includes fines up to 4 per cent of a company's global turnover for violations.

Real-time bidding is used Google and many other digital advertising technology companies. It is time for them to #StopSpyingOnUs," Liberties said.

The other seven EU countries where the complaints were filed are Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shares in Google parent Alphabet Inc. closed 6 per cent down on Monday following reports that the US Justice Department may investigate Google for hampering competition.

LONDON — The Swiss franc rallied to its highest levels in nearly two years against the euro on Monday as US President Donald Trump hardened his trade stance to countries beyond China, prompting investors to move into perceived safe-haven currencies.

Trade tensions have grabbed centre stage for investors in recent weeks after Trump increased tariffs on Chinese imports, threatened to raise tariffs on Mexican imports and removed preferential trade treatment for India.

Rising strains on trade have prompted investors to dump risky assets such as equities and flock to low-yielding currencies such as the yen and the franc with the latter flirting close to levels where the Swiss National Bank has traditionally intervened to keep the currency weak.

"While the Swiss franc has appreciated strongly in recent weeks, much of that gains is due to the wave of risk aversion sweeping across markets and we need to see further substantial gains before the central bank has to step in," said Manuel Oliveri, a currency strategist at Credit Agricole in London.

Against the euro, the franc rallied more than 0.5 per cent to 1.1120 francs per euro, its highest level since July 2017, before trimming some gains to stand 0.2 per cent up on the day. 

Monday's gains come on top of a strong surge in May when the franc gained more than 2 per cent versus the euro, its biggest monthly rise in eight months as trade tensions fuelled a global selloff in risky assets.

The Swiss National Bank, which pursues a monetary policy of negative interest rates and currency intervention, has traditionally intervened when the franc has risen to around 1.10 francs per euro but low inflation and trade tensions suggest the franc has to gain far more from current levels.

Latest data indicate price pressures remain well contained with consumer prices rising 0.6 per cent in May from a year-ago.

The franc was not the only low-yielding currency to shine, with the Japanese yen also broadly gaining against a swathe of currencies.

Euro vulnerable

The euro was slightly firmer on the day at $1.1185 but investors remained broadly cautious on the outlook of the single currency as manufacturing data in the eurozone contracted for a fourth month in July.

The weak data comes in a busy week for European Central Bank (ECB) policymakers as officials may announce details of a new round of cheap multi-year loans for banks.

Meanwhile, expectations of a rate cut have also grown in money markets with futures pricing in a 50 per cent chance of a rate cut before the end of the year.

"With a dovish ECB expected, it is challenging to envision strong gains now for the euro," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex.

A senior Chinese official and trade negotiator said on Sunday Washington cannot use pressure to force a trade deal on China and refused to be drawn on whether the leaders of the two countries would meet at the G-20 summit in Japan at the end of the month to bash out an agreement.

The dollar dipped after benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields hit as low as 2.121 per cent on Monday, their lowest since September 2017.

Against a basket of six major currencies, the dollar was slightly negative at 97.71, although it is still up 1.6 per cent for the year.