News from Southeast Asia directly to your inbox every weekday.
The Mekong Memo is proudly presented by:
Horton International is your premier partner for executive search in Southeast Asia. Whether you're a small startup or a global corporation, our reliable and effective recruiting solutions are tailored to meet your unique needs. With extensive experience and offices across the region, we excel at overcoming recruitment challenges and securing top talent for your organization.
Click here to learn how Horton can make your life easier.
The Memo is published weekdays - Cambodia (every Monday), Myanmar (Tuesday), Laos (Wednesday), Vietnam (Thursday) and Thailand (Friday). The Thailand edition is free in its entirety; the others usually abbreviated for non-paid subscribers.
Please go to https://www.mekongmemo.com/account to select country editions you would like to receive without affecting your overall subscription status.
SK Group Pitches a Data Center
SK Group, which has $3.5 billion invested in Vietnam already, delivered a big pitch during National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man's stop in Seoul. Chairman Chey Tae Won put forward a proposal for a large AI data center and floated a "Hanoi Forum" for AI, semiconductors and energy. Deputy PM Ho Quoc Dung also took time for a tour of SK Telecom's Haein GPU Center, where more than 1,000 Nvidia Blackwell B200 chips are powering Seoul's sovereign AI push. Samsung and LG Innotek were also courted. Two-way trade was $89.5 billion last year, and both governments are keen to see $100 billion this year and $150 billion by 2030.
Read more: Vietnam Insiders (trade), Vietnam Insiders (ODA), VnEconomy (possible sites), VnEconomy (Korean investors)
China Now Takes a Quarter of Seafood Exports
Seafood exports were $8 billion in the first eight months of 2026, and that’s an increase of about 12 percent from last year. The buyer mix is changing a little though, and now China and Hong Kong are taking more than a quarter of the total. Those markets were responsible for about about three-fifths of the sector's growth, and it was helped by demand for shrimp, pangasius, and crabs. Sales to the US stayed flat at $1.24 billion, and the EU total also dropped a bit to $749.9 million.
Read more: VnEconomy
Hanoi Asks Paris for EUR235.6M Satellite Loan
To Lam is going from Moscow to Paris, where Hanoi is asking the French government for a EUR235.6 million loan so that it can buy the VNREDsat-2 earth observation satellite. The deal with Airbus has been in limbo for the best part of a decade because of financing hurdles. Macron's most recent (2025) state visit resulted in 15 agreements that were worth about EUR9 billion, and now the France-Vietnam Business Council is looking into the North-South high-speed railway and a resurrected civilian nuclear program. It’s possible that approval of the loan and the un-stalling of the satellite deal after eight years will re-invigorate the relationship.
Read more: Vietnam News (rail and nuclear pitch), Vietnam News (university branch), Tuoi Tre (Paris visit), Vietnam Insiders (trade), Intelligence Online (Airbus financing)
Nissha Unwinds Stent Deal After 105 Days
Japan's Nissha bought 60 percent of USM Healthcare Medical Devices Factory in May to build a Southeast Asian contract manufacturing business for cardiology stents and orthopedic devices but it’s already sold the entire stake back to USM. Nissha says its post-merger review uncovered improper bookkeeping involving circular transactions that predated the purchase and was initiated by USM staff without its knowledge. Outside experts are still looking into the thing, but Nissha is trying to figure out the final financial result of the sale. Caveat emptor.
Read more: App Dealroom
Novaland Sells Assets to Keep Debt Current
Novaland has unloaded four of its assets worth VND11.3 trillion, taking care of almost three-quarters of their VND15.6 trillion disposal plan that’s intended to keep its lights on debt payments current. Five more properties are still for sale; agreements are in place for VND3.9 trillion of them. Standing property inventory stood in excess of 39,000 units during Q2 as buyer interest was down through the month of May. Credit is tighter too; developers sold almost VND4 trillion of bonds in August at an average coupon of 12.2 percent.
Read more: Vietnam News
Vietnam and Russia Ink Oil Reserve Deal
To Lam and Vladimir Putin have agreed to a framework for building a strategic oil reserve, and its the headline result of Lam's three-day state visit to Moscow. They also opened a laboratory together at the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Center by way of a video link. Lam met Zarubezhneft chief Sergei Kudryashov to talk about their shared four decades of joint oil ventures, including Vietsovpetro, and spoke with AFK Sistema founder Vladimir Yevtushenkov about high-tech investment. Putin dangled visa-free entry for Vietnamese citizens "in the near future" but didn’t go as far as offering any sort of a timetable.
Read more: The Moscow Times (nuclear power), VnEconomy (visit), Voice of Emirates (security)
Grab Drivers Plan a Two-Day Log-Off
A recent story tearing through Vietnam is of the VND19,500 ($0.74) that was left in a local drivers pocket after taking a VND37,000 ($1.41) GrabCar fare. That’s of course, little more than half of what the passenger paid after platform fees, insurance and tax were taken off the top. Grab applies a "flexible app usage fee" to take fees from the drivers that changes with time, location and demand. Drivers say that makes earnings impossible to predict and, as a result, are planning to refuse trips on September 12 and 13 in protest.
Read more: Tuoi Tre
Russian Tourists Fill the Beaches
Russia has become Vietnam’s third-largest source of foreign visitors. The first seven months of 2026 saw 863,500 arrivals. That’s almost four times the figure a year earlier. Vietnam Airlines has added a fourth weekly Hanoi-Moscow flight, Vietjet is opening routes from Da Nang and Nha Trang, and Aeroflot will begin flying from Moscow to Phu Quoc in October. Anex Vietnam also expects to carry 13,000 to 15,000 charter tourists to Phu Quoc.
Read more: Tuoi Tre
2G Airwave Auction
With the country's 2G networks closing on September 15, the Science and Technology Ministry is auctioning off three paired 900MHz blocks so that they can be put to new use. Bidding for each 15-year license starts at VND1.056 trillion ($40.2 million). Operators will be allowed to buy up to two blocks; they’ll need to put down VND55 billion for each. Viettel has already retired its 3G network, while VinaPhone and MobiFone continue to keep 3G going alongside their 4G and 5G offerings.
Read more: Developing Telecoms
Taiwan Runs Its First Trade Deficit
Taiwan ran its first quarterly trade deficit with its southern neighbor in early 2026 as its imports of Vietnamese electrical machinery, appliances and components saw a gain of 173 percent through May. That deficit reverses a decades-old pattern in which Taiwan traditionally sent components south for cheap assembly. Vietnam's share of global AI hardware trade went up from 1.2 percent in 2015 to 12.4 percent in 2025, which HSBC says was the steepest increase by any economy during the decade. Manufacturing and processing were responsible for $17.91 billion in foreign investment in the first half of 2026, almost two-thirds of all new and expanded capital.
Read more: Vietnam Insiders
Bamboo Airways Ex-Chair Barred Over Tax Debt
The tax authority of Gia Lai has asked immigration police to stop Nguyen Ngoc Trong (more commonly known as “Sam”), from leaving the country until Bamboo Airways ponies up VND44.06 billion ($1.7 million) in back taxes. Sam is listed as the airline’s beneficial owner and held two stints as chairman. The investor group he represented gave the carrier back to former owner FLC Group last year after admitting that its financial and management problems were beyond their ability to handle. He stepped down as chairman in November but remained on the board. Bamboo Airways currently flies a single aircraft and has stopped regular domestic service. The ban is expected to be lifted once the debt is settled.
Read more: VnExpress
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.
If you value the Mekong Memo, please consider buying (or gifting!) a paid subscription, sharing it on social media or forwarding this email to someone who might enjoy it. Please also “like” this newsletter by clicking the ❤️ below (or sometimes above, depending on the platform), which helps us get visibility on the Substack network.