Ascendant middle class gravitates toward high-performance models

HANOI/OSAKA — Air conditioner manufacturers around the world are locking horns in Vietnam, whose market has become the second largest in Southeast Asia as rapid economic growth supports a burgeoning middle class.
Vietnam’s market for the cooling systems ranked as Asia’s eighth largest in 2011, excluding Japan and China, with about 660,000 units sold. But the country surpassed Thailand in 2015, and sales of 1.98 million units in 2016 lifted the nation into third behind India and Indonesia.

Elephant tusks are available in many places, from souvenir shops and jewelry shops to tourist sites. But the sales there are very small compared with transactions via online markets.
Các học sinh ở Trường dân tộc nội trú tại Sa Pa đang chuyền nước sạch do chính quyền phân phát với số lượng hết sức khiêm tốn. Ảnh: Bá Hiếu



China has vowed to stop importing solid waste by 2020, while Vietnam is still fumbling for solutions to control scrap imports.



