Check out the latest news in Vietnam today:

Business

-- Vietnam has welcomed 12.6 million international tourist arrivals this year, far exceeding its whole-year target of eight million arrivals, up 3.4-fold higher than the year-ago figure, yet equivalent to 70 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019, according to statistics released on Friday by the General Statistics Office.

-- The state budget revenue of Ho Chi Minh City reached VND446.545 trillion (US$18.4 billion) or 95.07 percent of the projection as of December 29, equal to 94.69 percent against the same period last year, an official of the municipal Department of Finance told a meeting on Friday.

-- A certain number of goods and services subject to a 10-percent value-added tax (VAT) rate will enjoy a two-percent reduction in the VAT between January 1 and June 30, 2024, according to the Vietnamese government’s recently-issued decree.

Society

-- Travel businesses and agencies have proposed that the authorities in Kien Giang Province, southern Vietnam tighten control over unlicensed tours and unfair competition in order to develop tourism in its islands like Phu Quoc, Nam Du, and Hon Son in a more sustainable way.

-- Vietnamese university student Le Viet Hoang has been sentenced to an 11-month jail term for stealing more than S$41,000 (US$31,041) worth of items, including laptops and iPads, from Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) and Apple offices earlier in 2023. He was convicted of two charges of theft and another two charges of housebreaking, The Strait Times reported on Friday.

-- Police in Phu Yen Province, central Vietnam announced on Friday that they had pressed charges against two local residents, including one woman and one man, for allegedly producing and trafficking fake engine oil, and seized nearly 16,000 liters of counterfeit engine oil.

-- Multiple major gateways in Hanoi were heavily congested on Friday afternoon as a huge number of people rushed to leave the Vietnamese capital for their hometowns to enjoy the New Year holiday.

World News

-- Crude futures lost over 10 percent in 2023 in a tumultuous year of trading marked by geopolitical turmoil and concerns about the oil output levels of major producers around the world, Reuters reported.

-- The U.S. military's secretive X-37B robot spaceplane blasted off from Florida on Thursday night on its seventh mission, the first launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket capable of delivering it to a higher orbit than ever before, according to Reuters.

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