Italy to request 5th installment of EU recovery fund

STORY: Italy to request 5th installment of EU recovery fund SHOOTING TIME: Dec. 20, 2023 DATELINE: Dec. 21, 2023 LENGTH: 00:00:58 LOCATION: Rome CATEGORY: ECONOMY SHOTLIST: 1. various of street views in Rome 2. various of gas stations STORYLINE: Italy said on Tuesday it is on course to formally request the fifth installment of the European Union (EU)'s post-COVID recovery fund from the European Commission by the end of this year. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement that the government is progressing towards fulfilling 52 new targets required to qualify for the fifth tranche of the fund, amounting to 10.5 billion euros (11.5 billion U.S. dollars). Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan hinges on the country meeting specific criteria to qualify for disbursements from the European Union. Through its Next Generation EU program, the bloc initially aimed to allocate a total of 191.5 billion euros in grants and loans to Italy by 2026. All grants and loans are tied to speci

Vietnam's FDI plunges 38.8 pct in Q1

STORY: Vietnam's FDI plunges 38.8 pct in Q1 DATELINE: March 30, 2023 LENGTH: 00:01:32 LOCATION: Hanoi CATEGORY: ECONOMY SHOTLIST: 1. various of Ho Chi Minh City 2. various of foreign-invested factories in Vietnam STORYLINE: Vietnam attracted 5.45 billion U.S. dollars worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) as of March 20 this year, down 38.8 percent year on year, the General Statistics Office said on Wednesday. Vietnam received 4.32 billion U.S. dollars in actual inflows of FDI in the period, down 2.2 percent year on year, the data showed. Singapore remained the top source of new FDI pledges into the country with 1.35 billion U.S. dollars. FDI pledges, which indicate the size of future FDI disbursements, reached 3.02 billion U.S. dollars, down 5.9 percent from a year earlier, the statistics office said in a statement. Of the pledges, 77.6 percent would go to manufacturing and processing, while 12 percent would be invested in real estate development, it added. FDI has been a key driver of Vietnam's ec