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Trump Resort Replaces More Than 3,500 Graves
Bulldozers have cleared the cemetery in Hung Yen province where more than 3,500 ancestral graves once stood, making way for Trump International Vietnam, a $1.5 billion golf and villa complex spread over 2,446 acres beside the Red River. More than 4,000 (presumably living) families were also relocated with (accorinding to residents) “scant” compensation. The Trump Organization is expected to collect licensing fees and, eventually, revenue from running the club under a 50-year agreement. President To Lam's government, the finance ministry, and the Hung Yen People's Committee all supported the project, and the ministries of defense and public security are working with local authorities to support foreigners who will be able to buy into two "eco-residential" zones designed for 35,000 residents.
Read more: Asia Times
LG Innotek Puts $1B Into Hai Phong Substrates
Hai Phong has approved LG Innotek's $1 billion semiconductor package substrate plant, the first high-tech project to be given the go-ahead inside the city's Free Trade Zone. The 32-hectare facility in Nam Dinh Vu Industrial Park should break ground in Q3, start trial runs next year, and hit mass production in ‘28. It will make package substrates, the layer that connects a chip to its circuit board, which is a segment that currently has almost no domestic capacity. LG Innotek knows the city well, having arrived in 2016 with a $550 million camera-module plant in Trang Due Industrial Park. It now runs three factories there worth more than $2 billion between them.
Read more: VnEconomy
11.9% in H2 Needed For Double-Digit Year
GDP was up 8.18% in the first half of 2026, with the second quarter clocking 8.39%, the fastest Q2 in a decade and a half, but that’s still going to leave Hanoi short of its annual goal. Resolution 168/NQ-CP now needs 11.9% growth in the second half to close the year above 10%. Prime Minister Le Minh Hung told a cabinet teleconference that the first half showed "relatively positive progress," despite external challenges (mostly related to the Iran conflict). No sector-by-sector breakdown of the 11.9% target has been shared yet, so as of now, the number seems a bit more like political math than an economic plan.
Read more: VnEconomy (growth target), VnEconomy (PM Hung)
Hanoi Builds a Chip Buyer's Club, Foreigners Not Invited
The Ministry of Science and Technology has put together a procurement list for 16 categories of specialized semiconductors, including for AI, IoT, cybersecurity, and telecoms, guaranteeing state buyers for whatever domestic designers produce. Ho Chi Minh City also came up with a draft subsidy of up to $570,000 per chip design project, for training, R&D, pilot production and equipment, but only for companies that are established under Vietnamese law, headquartered and taxed in the city. Multinationals and foreign-invested companies need not apply, even though the city's $21 billion chip sector runs on barely 7,000 engineers. G-Group signed on with Hanoi's HUST and Russia's MERI to chase secure chip technology, microelectronics and nanoelectronics, restarting a research relationship that dates back to the 1970s.
Read more: VnEconomy (procurement list), Tuoitre (subsidy rules), VnExpress (Hanoi plan)
EFTA Closes Nine-Year Trade Talks
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland wrapped up talks in Reykjavik, clearing the way for a free trade deal for the EUR 4.8 billion ($5.5 billion) in bilateral trade the two sides did last year. Footwear, apparel and mechanical machinery shipments to the bloc have grown by more than 10 percent yearly for the past decade, and the pact promises to cut or scrap remaining tariffs in a market Hanoi's exporters have found difficult to crack at scale. Electrical machinery, fish and pharmaceuticals are the products heading the other way. Ratification in five parliaments still stands between the text and any lower duty bill.
Read more: VnEconomy
PNJ's Gem Lab Chief Stamped Smuggled Diamonds Legit
Dang Ngoc Thao, 52, ran PNJ-LAB, the certification arm of the country's largest listed jeweler, and police say he removed GIA laser inscriptions from smuggled stones and etched his own lab's numbers in their place before issuing new certificates. The diamonds came from India by way of Hong Kong, and were carried over the border on 141 runs since 2024 by a ring that moved more than 28,000 stones and generated an estimated VND280 billion ($10.7 million) in revenue. Raids at 20 locations last month resulted in the seizure of 1,100 diamonds. PNJ-LAB is currently barred from trading any diamonds it certifies.
Read more: VnExpress
Lobster Exports Fill China's Tariff Gap
China bought in $506 million worth of lobster in the first five months of 2026. Imports peaked at $154 million in February, up 150% year-on-year, then settled into a steady $78 million to $87 million a month. Canadian, American, and Australian suppliers, hurt by tariffs and slow production recovery in 2025, gave up ground that exporters in Vietnam were positioned to take. Short shipping times by land and air keep lobsters fresher, and small and medium blue lobsters are priced well for Chinese buyers. China is the largest buyer by far, absorbing the bulk of a roughly $80 million monthly run rate that shows no sign of slowing.
Read more: VnExpress
Police Cuff Seven Behind HiAnime's Piracy Empire
Police arrested seven people behind HiAnime, the piracy service that once upon a time outdrew Disney+ and Crunchyroll with several hundred million monthly visitors, before shutting it down in June. The group ran more than 100 sites hosting more than 26,000 pirated anime films under a rotating cast of domains, from Zoro.to to Aniwatch to HiAnime.to, bringing in $12+ million in ad revenue between 2020 and April 2026. Four suspects are in custody and three are under house arrest, on copyright and money laundering charges.
Read more: BleepingComputer (ACE confirmation), BBC (crackdown)
HCMC Digs 41 Meters for Metro Line 2
Crews have begun sinking a 1.2-meter-thick, 534-meter diaphragm wall at Pham Van Bach Station, the first underground stop on Metro Line 2 and one being built 41 meters deep over half a year. The station will also be the launch site for tunnel boring machines and will be the gateway to Tan Son Nhat airport, the last underground stop before the line goes elevated. City Hall has carved out five transit development zones of 940 hectares along the 11-kilometer route.
Read more: VnExpress (line cost), VnExpress (TOD zones), VnEconomy (property impact)
Decree 252 Grounds Tax Debtors at the Border
If you’ve owed the taxman VND50 million (~$2,000) as an individual or VND500 million (nearly $20,000) as a company’s legal representative for more than 120 days, Decree 252 might keep you from leaving the country. Tax authorities are required to give 30 days' notice by email, registered phone, or the tax portal before making the exit-ban request with immigration, but firms that have abandoned their registered addresses have no minimum limit at all. The new rule replaces Decree 49 from February 2025. Foreign nationals departing with unpaid tax bills are explicitly covered, as well as overseas Vietnamese and emigrating citizens.
Read more: VnEconomy
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.
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