The Wealthy VIP travelers of Vietnam

Vietnamese VIP travelers tend to choose outbound tours

July 1, 2011  about News, Travel

LookAtVietnam - VIP tourists are always ready to pay high to enjoy
high quality services. In recent years, they tend to choose outbound tours,
especially the ones to the Europe and the US.

 

When the name of Sofitel New York hotel appeared on newspaper because it
related to the scandal of the former leader of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
director of a travel firm in HCM City said: “We many times booked hotel rooms
for Vietnamese VIP groups of travelers. The lowest hotel room rate here is 500
dollars per night”.

However, the director said that as for VIP travelers, high prices do not
matter, while the main thing VIP guests want is the high quality of services.
Meanwhile, while using expensive products and services, VIP can show their upper
class.

VIP travelers now prefer going abroad
Managing Director of a travel firm, which specializes in providing high
grade outbound tours, headquartered in district 1 in HCM City, said that the
travel firm once got the order to organize a tour to the US with the expenses of
10,000 dollars per traveler.

The travel firm then arranged a flight with helicopter which allowed
travelers to admire New York from the air for ten minutes. During the trip, the
travelers stayed in a six-star hotel in Washington near the White House.

 

Also according to the director, the travel firm recently organized a tour
for another group of VIP travelers to Japan and the US with the tour fee of
15,000 dollars per traveler. There were also special orders, including the one
on organizing tour for a VIP group of travelers to Ireland. The travelers flew
on an aircraft specifically booked for them.

According to Nhan Hanh Nhon, Director of OSC First Holidays, said VIP
travelers always attach special importance to high grade hotels (the hotels
should be 5-6 star ones) and resorts (where the room rate is about 1500 dollars
per night).

Regarding meals and drinks, VIP travelers usually choose expensive meals
at high grade restaurants which are worth 2000-3000 dollars per table. Besides,
VIP clients always set detailed requirements.

For example, when traveling to Thailand, they want to have meals on the
highest floor of the 88-storey building. If they go to Hong Kong, they would
require having meals on a yacht; and if they go to Egypt, they would require
traveling on a five star cruiser on Nile river.

“When they accept the high tour fees which are double or triple that of
normal tours, they always require high quality services. Besides, the shopping
destinations also should be special with the sale items priced at several
thousands of dollars,” Nhon said.

An executive of Fiditour said that the travel firm once organized a high
grade tour to Dubai in Egypt, with the tour fee of 4000 dollars per traveler. As
the tour fee is much higher than the normal tours to the same destinations, the
travel firms had to satisfy the strictest requirements in the service quality,
from traveling, accommodation, meals to the excursion points.

 

Do Duc Tinh, General Director of Vietnam House, said that Europe now
attracts Vietnamese VIP clients. Some VIP travelers required that after they
arrived in Vienna in Austria at 4 am, they wanted to go the theater to listen to
a classical music performance. As the VIP clients accepted to pay high, the
foreign partner of the Vietnamese travel firm still could arrange tickets for
the performance, even though the tickets for the concerts were sold one year in
advance.
Domestic tours: few tours, few products

According to big travel firms in HCM City, VIP clients can be divided into
two groups – the rich travelers who travel with their own money, and the
travelers, who are officers or executives feasted by businesses.
In general, the number of travelers of the former group is lower than the
latter group and they spend less money.
VIP travelers always demand special tours with special tourism products.
Therefore, a lot of specific products have been designed to serve the clients.

For example, travelers can go on L’Amant yacht on Saigon-Chau Doc route
with 4-star service. Every traveler has to pay 1100 dollars for the tour and has
to book in advance.
According to Pham Ha, Director of Luxury Travel Vietnam, the requirements
set by VIP clients are diversified. Some like traveling on kayak on Ha Long Bay,
others like trekking in Sa Pa, while many want to relax at expensive resorts
like Evason Hideaway Nha Trang or Evason Hideaway Con Dao (Con Dao Island).
Source: SGTT

6 Chinese warhships cross seas

6 Chinese warships cross seas between Okinawa and Miyako islands

June 26, 2011 about Uncategorized

Six Chinese warships passed through the high seas between Okinawa and Miyako
islands Wednesday afternoon into the East China Sea.

For illustration purposes only

A Kyodo News helicopter spotted the warships, including two missile destroyers
and three frigates, which are part of the 11 Chinese warships that crossed into
the Pacific Ocean from the East China Sea through the same waters in stages on
June 8 and 9.
The six appeared headed for China in a convoy after completing military
exercises in the West Pacific.
It appeared that the remaining five warships are to sail through the same waters
sometime later, although the Kyodo chopper could not spot them.
When the helicopter approached the warships, a few crewmen showed up on the deck
of all six vessels, and some took photos of it with their cameras.
Four of the six warships belched out black smoke as they increased their speed
when the chopper approached them.
The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers Kurama and Chokai were also
spotted tracking the Chinese vessels, while an MSDF P-3C reconnaissance aircraft
was also monitoring the activities of the Chinese vessels.

Source: Tuoi tre/Kyodo News

Khmer Rough trial set

Cambodia set for key Khmer Rouge trial

• From correspondents in Phnom Penh
• From: AFP
• June 25, 2011 1:38PM

Former Khmer Rouge second in command, Nuon Chea, sits at his rural home along the Thai-Cambodia border in this 2005 photo. Picture: AP

FOUR top leaders of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime are to go on trial for genocide at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court in a case described as the world's most complex in decades.

The trial, seen as vital to healing the traumatised nation's deep scars, has been long awaited by survivors of a regime that wiped out nearly a quarter of the population during its reign of terror in the late 1970s.
It follows the conviction of a Khmer Rouge prison chief last year in the court's first ever case.
The elderly defendants - "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and one-time social affairs minister Ieng Thirith - are to appear at an initial hearing on Monday.
They face a string of charges including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes over the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork, torture or execution during the regime's 1975-79 rule.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

Related Coverage

• World tribunals 'not a panacea' The Australian, 12 Jun 2011
• Why pick deluded Chomsky for prize? The Daily Telegraph, 5 Jun 2011
• Duch: I was only following orders Herald Sun, 28 Mar 2011
• Khmer Rouge jailer's appeal begins NEWS.com.au, 27 Mar 2011
• Royal connections The Australian, 21 Mar 2011

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

The genocide charges relate specifically to the killings of Vietnamese people and ethnic Cham Muslims.
All four deny the accusations against them and the trial, the tribunal's second, will likely take years.
"It's the most important trial that will ever be heard in this court," international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley told AFP.
"There hasn't been a case as large and complex as this since Nuremberg," he said, referring to the landmark Nazi trials after World War II.
The initial hearing is scheduled to take place over four days and will focus on expert and witness lists and preliminary legal objections.
Full testimony from the elderly accused, who have been held in detention since their 2007 arrests, is not expected until August at the earliest.
It is the culmination of years of preparation by the war crimes tribunal, which was established in 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the United Nations.
In a trial that lasted just over a year, the court sentenced former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, to 30 years in jail last July for overseeing the deaths of about 15,000 people. The case is now under appeal.
The second trial is more significant and complex because it involves high-ranking regime leaders who reject the charges, as well as many more victims and crime sites all over the country.
"These leaders are not pleading guilty. They will be defiant and they will refuse to cooperate," said Anne Heindel, a legal adviser to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities.
Their health is another key issue. The defendants, aged 79 to 85, suffer from varying ailments and it is unclear if all will live to see a verdict.
Even so many survivors hope the proceedings will finally shed light on a "very dark period", said Theary Seng, founder of the Cambodian Centre for Justice and Reconciliation who lost her parents under the regime.
"The main question is why? Why did Cambodians kill each other?" she said.
Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the communist regime emptied Cambodia's cities, and abolished money and schools in a bid to create an agrarian utopia before they were ousted from the capital by Vietnamese forces.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/cambodia-set-for-key-khmer-rouge-trial/story-e6frfkyi-1226081826695#ixzz1QH5XV7NK

Chinese continue to intimidate Vietnam

Chinese newspapers distort truth, intimidate Vietnam

June 23, 2011 about News, Politics

The editorial published in Global Times on June 11 used threatening words such
as: “Vietnam seems completely ignorant of the reactions that China can offer”;
“If using war to resolve territorial disputes Vietnam will lose

LookAtVietnam - The Chinese newspaper Global Times published an editorial
titled “Tougher action towards China cannot benefit Vietnam” to which the
Vietnamese Dai Doan Ket Newspaper has replied appropriately “China’s newspaper
distorting the truth and intimidating the Vietnamese People”.

Position of Vietnamese vessel Binh Minh 02 during the incident on May 26 when Chinese ships cut its survey cable

Two of three Chinese ocean surveillance vessels violate Vietnam’s water
teritorry and cut off a survey cable of vessel Binh Minh 02 on May 26.
After experiencing 20 very turbulent years, Vietnam and China had normalized
their relations with a basic pledge, “Close the past and go forward into the
future”. They aimed to build a relationship under the slogan: “friendly
neighbors, comprehensive cooperation, long-term stability, future-oriented”.
In addition, the two nations recently agreed to set up comprehensive strategic
partner cooperation.
This was a valued and treasured achievement that was created with much effort
and a concerted will by both sides and remains firmly respected and endorsed by
Vietnam.
Unfortunately, many newspapers in China have continuously issued hostile
articles, distorting Vietnam’s image and Vietnam-China relations. The articles
have increased in number after Chinese vessels cut off cables of a Vietnamese
oil exploration vessel in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone two weeks ago. An
exploration cable of the PetroVietnam vessel, Binh Minh 2 (Sunrise 2) was cut by
Chinese ocean surveillance ships on May 26. Two weeks later, a Chinese fishing
boat rammed the survey cables of the PetroVietnam vessel, Viking II that was
operating in Vietnam’s EEZ.
Amongst all the Chinese newspapers, the Global Times has raised the biggest
voice over China’s actions in Vietnam’s EEZ.
The paper issued an editorial titled “Tougher action towards China cannot
benefit Vietnam”, which clearly distorts the actual truth and Vietnam’s reaction
to the violations.
The editorial ridiculously blames Vietnam for threatening China. It was not a
Vietnamese vessel that attacked a Chinese vessel but contrarily it was the other
way round. A Vietnamese vessel was clearly threatened by a Chinese ship. Chinese
vessels not only threaten but also provoke, which is unacceptable to any country
as defined under international law and procedure. This certainly does not call
for a large number of print and online newspaper articles that have repeatedly
used grudging and accusative wordings to deeply offend the dignity of the
Vietnamese people.
Such rhetoric does not make a nation proud nor does it portray the decorum of a
civilized country, in particular of two socialist countries that are close
neighbors.
The editorial published in Global Times on June 11 used threatening words such
as: “Vietnam seems completely ignorant of the reactions that China can offer”;
“If using war to resolve territorial disputes Vietnam will lose”… (Although I do
not want to, I am compelled to remind about events in the 1970s when China
attacked the Hoang Sa archipelagoes (Paracel Islands) and launched a war on the
Northern borders of Vietnam and the 1988 event when China attacked some islands
in Truong Sa archipelagoes (Spartly islands). This reminder is aimed at exposing
those who not only threaten but also wage war against the Vietnam-China
relationship.
The provocative actions of the Chinese ocean surveillance ships and articles
like the Global Times editorial, disturb and hurt Vietnamese people’s sentiments
towards China, though not towards all the Chinese people in general. What the
Global Times says is far from the truth: “Chinese people’s feelings towards
Vietnam that were accumulated day by day have reduced to ashes while reading
Vietnam’s reactions through the media”.
The emphasis on big country and small country was very marked by the author.
Realistically the world has powerful and not so powerful countries based on
geographic, economic and population strata. However all countries are equal when
it come to international relations. This notion has been continuously repeated
by Chinese leaders.
China’s present attitude contradicts the policy of respecting smaller countries
as the article states.
In addition, this conduct displays an encroaching attitude by a big country and
raises concerns in the public besides affecting China’s image of a peacefully
growing economy.
The editorial also incorrectly assumed that legal reaction from Vietnam was the
result of domestic pressure, stimulating internal sentiments, attracting
attention from the international community…, reflecting nationalism and causing
contradictions between the two countries.
The problem between the two countries began when Chinese vessels in the East Sea
broke international law. All Vietnamese felt betrayed as all with a conscience
in the world would as well.
International law in today’s modern world does not permit any country to behave
in an encroaching manner with another country and expect it to remain silent.
How would Global Times react if foreign vessels attacked Chinese ships and cut
their cables in the Chinese EEZ recognized by international law? Certainly not
in the area of so-called nine-stage line recognized by China itself and
thousands of miles away from the Chinese coast!
History knows that China was also invaded and the Chinese people know dishonor
at the hands of foreigners. Surely then they must understand the discontentment
of the Vietnamese people.
The editorial said that Hanoi took a back step after successfully determining
the boundaries in the Tonkin gulf. These allegations are only worth dismissing.
Does Beijing want now to change the word Ha Noi?
It is most regrettable that what took 20 long years for the two countries to
overcome and build by way of renewed cooperative relations is now being pushed
aside by regrettable action by China.
At the end of the article, the author writes “Please reconsider the history”.
Exactly! Please review the thousand-year history of your neighbors and follow
decorum and a moral code of conduct towards neighbors who value peace and good
friendly relations with all countries.
Every Vietnamese citizen has a deeply embedded desire to behave in accordance
with moral standards towards good friendly countries. Surely this too must be
the wish of the Chinese people as well!
Source: SGGP/Dai Doan Ket

Da Lat: Young man carries 80kg tumor for ten years | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

Da Lat: Young man carries 80kg tumor for ten years | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update: "Da Lat: Young man carries 80kg tumor for ten years

Da Lat: Young man carries 80kg tumor for ten years

June 21, 2011 about Community, News

LookAtVietnam - Nguyen Duy Hai, 31, in the resort city of Da Lat in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong has been carrying a tumor weighing 80kg on his right leg for 10 years. The tumor still keeps developing.

Hai’s mother, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Cho Con, 61, told VietNamNet that Hai was very healthy and normal at birth. However, when he was four, the lower part of his right leg began to develop extra growth, causing difficulties in walking.
The tumor weighed around 28kg when Hai was 17. The tumor was very painful and Hai could not walk.
His family took him to the Lam Dong General Hospital for treatment, but doctors failed to identify the cause. His family asked doctors to cut off the excess growth.
However, the remaining part of Hai’s right leg began to develop into a tumor that kept growing larger and larger, until it covered the entire bottom portion of his body. At its largest, the tumor is 1.17m long, weighing over 80kg.
Hai now relies on his 61-year-old mother for all his daily activities, including personal hygiene.
He hopes doctors can remove the tumor.
Thu Hang

World's oldest person dies 119

World’s oldest person dies at 119 in Vietnam

June 21, 2011 about Community, News

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s oldest woman and probably the world’s oldest on Saturday died at the age of 119 in the southern province of Long An.

Tran Thi Viet. (Photo: Nguoi Lao Dong)

Tran Thi Viet, died at 4:30, confirmed Tran Tan Nho, head of the Tuyen Binh Tay commune government in Long An.
Memorial services start Monday.


Last year, the Vietnam Records Books (Vietkings) announced it has necessary papers to prove Viet as the oldest documented person in the world to replace Eunice Sanborn of Texas who was just 114 or 113 years old then.


Sanborn died in February this year at her home in Jacksonville, Texas at the age of either 115 or 114. Sanborn’s exact age is in dispute. The Guinness Book of World Records, which gave her the title, said she was 114, however her family insisted that the U.S. Census erred and that she was in fact 115.


Meanwhile, Vietnam’s Viet, a local from Vinh Hung District in the Mekong Delta has been honored as a “Vietnamese Heroic Mother,” a title reserved for women who lost their children or husband during the war.
Viet’s husband, her seven children and a grandson all died in the war. Viet herself used to be imprisoned and tortured by the enemy.


VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre

A Vietnamese with a dream of Jew’s harp

June 23, 2011  about Uncategorized

LookAtVietnam - Nguyen Duc Minh, the first Vietnamese artist to win the International Jew’s Harp Competition in Amsterdam in 2006, will perform in Paris from June 27 to July 23.

Minh’s Jew’s harp performance will be used as background music in a circus show titled in the circus show Lang Toi (My Village).
It cost Nguyen Duc Minh, who is now the only Vietnamese member of the International Society of Jew’s Harp, a long hard journey to bring the Vietnamese Jew’s harp to audiences worldwide.
Born in 1980 in Muong Lay Town in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien, Minh was first acquainted with the Jew’s harp when he was very small.
When he was 4, his family left for Ha Tay Province (now part of Hanoi). At 5, Minh started to learn to play the bamboo flute at the Hanoi Conservatory of Music.
Still, for over 10 years studying the bamboo flute, the fascinated sound of the Jew’s harp from childhood kept haunting him.
Then in 2000, the 20-year-old man took up the Jew’s harp, which was rarely known among Vietnamese audiences at the time.
The turning point of his life came when he met German musician Clements Voight who introduced him to Vietnamese-French Professor Tran Quang Hai, a phonologic and traditional music expert at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France.
Under the guidance of professor Hai, Minh won the highest prize at the 2006 International Jew’s Harp Competition in Amsterdam which he considered a stepping stone for him to bring the Jew’s harp to Vietnamese as well as international audiences.
After the competition, he was invited to perform on many stages worldwide.
Still, every rose has thorns.
His musical dream faced difficulties in 2007.
“I realized I could not just play the Jew’s harp and call on people to protect Vietnam’s musical heritage,” he said. “2007 was a year of crisis in my life, I could only perform once on one stage, and hardly got a second invitation. I only got five shows that year and earned only VND 3million.”
The artist had to shoot photos for weddings and local newspapers to earn extra money.
After 6 months, he realized it was not the life he expected.
Then, he saw the light at the end of the tunnel: the circus troupe Lang Toi.
Nhat Ly, the troupe’s manager, approached Minh and asked to use Minh’s music as background music for his show.
“Every member of this troupe works like there’s no tomorrow,” he said. “As for me, I work because I have no choice but music.”
Besides playing for the circus troupe, Minh plans to work with dancing, hip-hop and beat box groups, since he said without money and audiences, the Jew’s harp would die.
Since then, Minh has appeared in over 100 performances with Lang Toi all over the world.
In April, Minh and dancer Tung Phuong enchanted Hanoi audiences with their Jew’s harp and break dance performance.
He will perform in America next year.
Source: Tuoi Tre

Chinese businessmen scrambling for seafood materials | Vietnam News & Information Portal - Info.VN

Chinese businessmen scrambling for seafood materials | Vietnam News & Information Portal - Info.VN

Chinese businessmen scrambling for seafood materials

Saturday, 18 June 2011 08:53

inShar

While Chinese ships obstruct Vietnamese fishing at sea, Chinese businesses try to collect the seafood caught by Vietnamese fishermen.

Since seafood gets depleted and fishing has been interrupted, seafood processing companies have to compete fiercely with each other to buy seafood. Meanwhile, Chinese businessmen have triggered an unhealthy competition to scramble for seafood from Vietnamese companies.

Putting pressure both at sea and ashore

According to Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), many Vietnamese fishermen, due to the Chinese recent actions at the East Sea, dare not go out to the sea. The ships, which still go fishing these days, regularly meet Chinese businessmen who try to collect seafood right at sea. Meanwhile, on land, Chinese businessmen try to scramble with Vietnamese companies for purchasing seafood.

Nguyen Diem, Director of the Da Nang-based Procimex, said that in order to compete with Chinese businessmen, domestic enterprises have to raise the prices, at which they purchase seafood from fishermen. However, the company still cannot collect enough materials.

Pham Xuan Nam from Dai Thuan Company in Khanh Hoa province, also complains that the volume of seafood Nam can collect is just enough for 30 percent of the designed processing capacity. According to Nam, the Chinese seafood collectors have “occupied the land of Vietnamese enterprises” for a long time, while Vietnamese fishermen, seafood companies and government agencies have not made any reactions, or just have made gentle reactions.

“They (Chinese businessmen) come to purchase goods, place orders and then carry goods to China as if they are Chinese territory,” Nam said.

Vietnamese businessmen incur risks

Seafood companies complain that when purchasing seafood materials from fishermen, they have to issue invoices and pay taxes. Meanwhile, Chinese businessmen, who purchase goods directly from fishermen at sea or ashore, do not have to bear any kinds of tax. Therefore, they just need to set up the purchase prices at a little higher than the prices set by domestic companies, they would be able to buy as much as possible.

Experts have pointed out that in the trade across the border (there are two ways of trade between Vietnam and China, either through the border gates, or through the official channel), the payment can be made in both--Chinese yuan or Vietnam dong; therefore, it is very difficult to reckon up the trade values exactly.

Nam from Procimex also said that the value of cross-border trade is very big, while it is not counted on into the national import-export turnover, thus raising the risk about the increase in the trade gap with China.

Sac of VASEP has pointed out that the difficulties in collecting materials, plus the increasingly high input costs have put many enterprises into big difficulties. Since the beginning of the year, 147 companies have “turned their back” to the seafood processing industry and export. This also can explain why Vietnam has lost 14 old markets, though it has found 15 new markets.

“I know many domestic processing companies have to purchase seafood at any costs to process to fulfill orders,” Sac said. “In the current conditions, when the input costs are sky high, but the export prices do not increase, Vietnamese companies are facing a lot of risks”.

“A lot of enterprises have been threatened to go bankrupted,” she stressed.

Diem has proposed government agencies to reconsider resuming the taxation on the fishermen who sell goods to foreign businessmen.

Sac said that Indonesia is now prohibiting the export of seafood materials, and she thinks Vietnam should also consider this measure.

In related news, Saigon tiep thi has reported that Chinese businessmen have also been trying to collect foodstuff in Vietnam, which has pushed the domestic foodstuff prices up.

Source: VEF/ VNN

Businesses cry foul over taxes for foreigners | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

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Businesses cry foul over taxes for foreigners

June 14, 2011 about Business, News

LookAtVietnam - Businesses are arguing current personal income tax rates towards foreigners are unjustified.
In light of current regulations 85 per cent of foreigners’ house rental paid by employers is considered a personal income and foreigners are subject to pay tax on that money.
“We pay our foreign experts a monthly wage of $3,000 and house rental $1,000. They, however, still pay personal income tax (PIT) for the monthly income of $3,850 which is unreasonably high according to the progressive PIT list,” said Alpha To Omega Forwarding Company Limited chief accountant Nguyen Thi Thuy Tinh.
Tinh said relevant competent bodies should help ease financial burdens on businesses through introducing more tax incentives to foreign experts residing and working in Vietnam such as increasing their tax allowances.
A Samsung Vina representative, echoed the need for increases in foreign experts’ tax allowances, voiced some difficulties in handling PIT payments in Vietnam.
“Many our foreign experts currently rent houses in Hanoi’s Trung Hoa-Nhan Chinh new urban area and most cannot show relevant vouchers since the landlords refused to give them to evade tax payments. In these cases, the individuals incur PIT for a lump sum of $4,000 per month but not $3,850 as above stated,” said the representative.
“They can show their house leasing contracts to tax organisations to enjoy the PIT tax reductions and the leasing contracts will help the tax bodies unveil tenants’ tax fraud,” said deputy minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan.
Tinh pointed out another tax imposition that under current laws local and foreign firms when buying cars (worth VND1.6 million or $77,300 maximally) to transport experts and managers to work, the money is dubbed as legitimate expenses to be deducted when defining taxable incomes.
However, if firms do not buy cars but lease them from specialised transport firms, the sum is considered the personal income of the beneficiaries and incurs taxes.
“Imposing PIT on car lease fees in this case is unjustified and puts more pressure on businesses as they have to pay such taxes on behalf of their employees,” Tinh said.
Tuan admitted the regulation was unreasonable. “This is under the scope of authority of the MoF and it will work with its affiliates to seek a remedy,” Tuan said.
Scores of South Korean firms voiced concerns that around 100,000 South Koreans are working in Ho Chi Minh City and another 30,000-40,000 are working in Hanoi. More than half came to Vietnam to source investment opportunities and then stay in the countries less than 183 days. Therefore, imposing PIT on these individuals would not be justified.
“In the above case, foreign expatriates having incomes in Vietnam can pay PIT via relevant income-paying organisations,” Tuan said.
Source: VIR

Execution-Shooting or Poison

Death sentences to be executed by poison

June 14, 2011 about Community, News

LookAtVietnam - The Law on Execution of Criminal Sentences will take effect as of July 1, 2011, under which death sentences will be executed by poison, instead of shooting.
The law was approved by the 12th National Assembly. One of the most notable points in the new law is changing the form of execution of death sentences. Instead of shooting, death-sentence criminals will be executed by poison injection.
This form of death sentence execution is said to be more advantageous than shooting because families of death-sentence criminals can take the bodies.
The new law is also praised to have specific regulations on rewards and punishments for prisoners who perform well or violate regulations at prisons.
The Ministry of Public Security has organized training courses on the implementation of the Law on Execution of Criminal Sentences.

PV

Vietnam men will have less woman in future for wifes

One in ten Vietnamese men will be unable to find wife: officials

June 12, 2011 about Social



Deputy Prime Minister called for stricter oversight of Vietnam’s gender selection practices


Children at a kindergarten in Ho Chi Minh City. Health authorities in Vietnam have warned against serious gender imbalance over the past several years.

When doctors at a private medical service in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 told Tran Thi Thanh Hoang that her unborn child was a boy, she was hit with a feeling of joy.

“I know it’s illegal to inform pregnant mothers about the gender of their babies,” said the 25-year-old employee of an advertisement company. “But I was too eager to know about that.”

Hoang said the doctor conducting the ultrasound scan had a clever way to inform her and avoid being detected by health inspectors.

“He had placed two small cards in a drawer, one reading ‘son’ and another reading ‘daughter.’ The doctor opened the drawer, pointed to the ‘son’ card and quickly closed it without saying a word,” she said.

Such violations, which sometimes inspire parents to abort their unborn daughters, have exacerbated Vietnam’s gender imbalances, officials say.

And the problem is only getting worse.

“The gender ratio has risen to 111 males per 100 females among children under four years old. This is much higher than in 2009, when it was 108.65 males per 100 females,” said Duong Quoc Trong, director of the General Office of Population and Family Planning in a statement issued on June 6.

Trong said the imbalance has gotten worse over the past decades. In some provinces, the ratio is as high as 130 males per 100 females. Provinces with the worst imbalances include Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Bac Ninh and Ha Nam, he added.

Vietnam’s sex ratio at birth (SRB) has been rising steadily for the past few years, from the "average" 105 boys to 100 girls in 1999 to 110:100 in 2006. According to the 2009 Census, sex selection is practiced most in Vietnam’s Red River Delta provinces and among wealthier households.

Health authorities have warned that about ten percent of Vietnamese men, or two million men, will face problems finding a wife in the next 20 to 25 years.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan chaired a meeting on May 30 seeking strategies to curb Vietnam’s gender imbalance.

“Ultrasound scans, cheap abortions and the legality of abortion of first-trimester babies have contributed to the imbalance,” he said.

Nhan said that “the entire political system” should get involved in tackling the gender imbalance, with a particular focus on the ten provinces with the highest gender discrepancies.

He also instructed relevant agencies to enforce the laws banning the disclosure of prenatal gender information and tighten inspections of abortion facilities.

The Health Ministry was told to create an action plan for the ten provinces with the worst problems by the end of this month.

According to Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Viet Tien, Vietnam is among the countries with the highest abortion rate in the world. The abortion of female babies following ultrasonic scans was identified as the prime contributing factor.

A report presented by the Health Ministry at the May 30 meeting warned that there may be “unexpected socio-political consequences” when this lopsided generation reaches marrying age in 2025.

Many men will find it difficult to marry and this could lead to marriage with foreign bribes, which the report’s authors called “an unsustainable solution.”

Reported by Khanh An

Hackers invade Vietnam

Hundreds of websites in Vietnam hacked

June 9, 2011 about Community, News

LookAtVietnam - Just within
several days of early June, technology and security forums have reckoned
hundreds of “.vn” websites which have been hacked, including the websites of
government agencies and ministries.

Hackers left the messages in the Chinese language or the image
of Chinese flag

Not only
targeting individual websites, the attacks have also aimed at the ministries
and agencies’ websites with the domain name of “.gov.vn” which take slack
security measures. The massive hacking into Vietnamese websites has also been
recognized by domestic and international forums which have counted hundreds of
attack cases.

In many
cases, the hackers left the messages in the Chinese language or even the image
of Chinese flag. On some international technology forums, people wrote that
this could be a behavior of retaliation of Chinese hackers who target
Vietnamese websites, after some Chinese websites were hacked.

Most of the
government agencies’ websites hacked on June 4, were the websites of
departments and divisions under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (MARD) at mard.gov.vn and agroviet.gov.vn, including vinhlong.mard.gov.vn/index.html,
phunu.agroviet.gov.vn/, mne.mard.gov.vn/, tichhop.mard.gov.vn/,
phathanh.mard.gov.vn/, kehoach.agroviet.gov.vn/…

Besides
this, some other gov.vn domain names were also hacked, including chebien.gov.vn,
giongcaytrong.gov.vn, as well as the websites of other private enterprises.

Slack security measures pave the way
for attacks

Security
experts say that the websites hacked recently all apply slack security
measures. Hackers just need to penetrate into a root server, for example
mard.gov.vn, to be able to create impacts on tens of other websites at lower
levels. The attacked “.com.vn” websites were also mostly the websites run by
small private businesses.

The experts
also say that most of the websites are not well equipped with the measures to
protect information security. They do not regularly make the error fixing
updates; therefore, they could be easily hacked. Hackers even can make automatic
scanning into “.vn” and “.go.vn” websites with some software to find out the
systems which have security problems; then they can penetrate the systems
through the security holes.

According
to experts, the above said factors show that the hackers who attacked hundreds
of websites in Vietnam
over the last few days are not really professional and have high
qualifications. However, the experts have advised network administrators and
webmasters to backup data and check the security procedures, as well as update
error fixing versions in order to prevent possible risks.

Vietnamese hackers condemn the
attack to Chinese websites

Regarding
the attack to some Chinese websites on June 2, which has led to the behavior of
taking rehabilitation of hacking Vietnamese websites, some well- known
administrators of security forums in Vietnam have condemned for the behavior of
attacking Chinese websites.

“If it is
true that some Vietnamese hackers have hacked some Chinese websites, this
should be seen as a sudden emotional behavior. This will bring nothing,” conmale, the
administrator of HVA forum commented.

Another
administrator of HVA said that though he does not know who are the people that are
hacking Chinese websites; but he thinks they are still very young and immature.
This has been reflected in the colors and the deface images they used and left
after hacking, plus the inaccurate English.

“The
hacking and retaliation of the Vietnamese and Chinese hackers will not bring
any benefits to any sides. If the attacks continue, the biggest suffers will be
the institutions and private enterprises of the two sides, since the websites
are destroyed continuously,” kientran worte.

“You may
feel satisfied when you can destroy some websites just within some minutes, but
you do not understand that by doing this, you have indirectly made hundreds of
websites in Vietnam
suffer,” he continued.

An expert,
who asked to be anonymous, said that though the number of attacks to Vietnamese
and Chinese websites is high, but they are not too serious because of the
simple way of attacking, which shows the low professional skills of hackers.

Huy Phong

US warns China over the East Sea | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

US warns China over the East Sea

June 7, 2011 about News, Politics

LookAtVietnam - Robert Gates, US defence secretary, on June 4 warned that there were “increasing concerns” about recent Chinese provocations in the East Sea and other disputed waters in Asia.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates (photo: Reuters)

Vietnam and the Philippines have in recent weeks accused China of engaging in aggressive behaviour in the East Sea, escalating a long-running dispute over the waters.

“I fear that without rules of the road and agreed approaches to dealing with these problems that there will be clashes,” Mr Gates told the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-profile Asian defence forum.

But asked whether the Chinese actions undermined Beijing’s mantra that China was pursuing a “peaceful rise”, Mr Gates said: “I don’t think it has risen to that level yet”.

Just over a week ago, Vietnam accused China of a “serious violation” of international law after Chinese coast guard vessels cut the cables of an oil exploration ship of PetroVietnam, the state energy company.

Then, last week, Manila protested to China over the unloading of construction materials by a Chinese vessel on a reef claimed by the Philippines, which raised fears that Beijing might abandon a nine-year old commitment not to start new construction on disputed land features in the East Sea.

While Mr Gates expressed concern about the increase in incidents, his comments appeared to mark a sharp reversal from the tougher approach taken by the US government last year. At the same conference in 2010, Mr Gates called on China to adhere to international law. The following month, Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, angered Beijing during a visit to Vietnam by declaring the South China Sea a national interest of the US.

Last year’s heightened US rhetoric came partly in response to appeals from south-east Asian countries for a stronger US role in the region to balance China. But the resulting tension between Beijing and Washington later raised concerns that the incumbent global naval power and a rising China could get into a conflict in their neighbourhood.

Najib Razak, prime minister of Malaysia, highlighted those concerns on Friday in calling for a security order that would not force countries in the region to choose between two blocs.

Meanwhile, Beijing continues to pledge that it is pursuing a “peaceful rise”. This doctrine includes assurances that China’s increasing economic, political and military clout will not pose a threat to any other country, and that Beijing will not seek the role of a hegemon.

General Liang Guanglie, China’s defence minister and the highest-ranking delegate Beijing has ever sent to the Shangri-La Dialogue, is expected to reiterate this message when he addresses the summit on June 5.

Washington’s softer line on China comes as the two countries are seeking to deepen their military dialogue which the US is reluctant to see disrupted again.

On Friday, the US and Chinese delegations held bilateral talks which both sides described as cordial. Last month, Chen Bingde, the People’s Liberation Army’s Chief of General Staff, paid a week-long visit to the US.

Mr Gates, who was making his final visit to Asia before stepping down as Pentagon chief later this month, told the forum that the US would maintain “robust military engagement” and increase port calls and naval engagements in the region. He also dismissed concerns that pressures on the Pentagon budget, as the US addresses its fiscal deficit, coupled with rising Chinese military budgets meant US influence in the region would wane.

“I will bet you a $100 that five years from now the United States’ influence in this region is as strong if not stronger than it is today,” he said.

Source: FT

US warns China over the East Sea | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

US warns China over the East Sea | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update: "US warns China over the East Sea

June 7, 2011 about News, Politics

LookAtVietnam - Robert Gates, US defence secretary, on June 4 warned that there were “increasing concerns” about recent Chinese provocations in the East Sea and other disputed waters in Asia.



US Defence Secretary Robert Gates (photo: Reuters)

Vietnam and the Philippines have in recent weeks accused China of engaging in aggressive behaviour in the East Sea, escalating a long-running dispute over the waters.



“I fear that without rules of the road and agreed approaches to dealing with these problems that there will be clashes,” Mr Gates told the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-profile Asian defence forum.



But asked whether the Chinese actions undermined Beijing’s mantra that China was pursuing a “peaceful rise”, Mr Gates said: “I don’t think it has risen to that level yet”.



Just over a week ago, Vietnam accused China of a “serious violation” of international law after Chinese coast guard vessels cut the cables of an oil exploration ship of PetroVietnam, the state energy company.



Then, last week, Manila protested to China over the unloading of construction materials by a Chinese vessel on a reef claimed by the Philippines, which raised fears that Beijing might abandon a nine-year old commitment not to start new construction on disputed land features in the East Sea.



While Mr Gates expressed concern about the increase in incidents, his comments appeared to mark a sharp reversal from the tougher approach taken by the US government last year. At the same conference in 2010, Mr Gates called on China to adhere to international law. The following month, Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, angered Beijing during a visit to Vietnam by declaring the South China Sea a national interest of the US.



Last year’s heightened US rhetoric came partly in response to appeals from south-east Asian countries for a stronger US role in the region to balance China. But the resulting tension between Beijing and Washington later raised concerns that the incumbent global naval power and a rising China could get into a conflict in their neighbourhood.



Najib Razak, prime minister of Malaysia, highlighted those concerns on Friday in calling for a security order that would not force countries in the region to choose between two blocs.



Meanwhile, Beijing continues to pledge that it is pursuing a “peaceful rise”. This doctrine includes assurances that China’s increasing economic, political and military clout will not pose a threat to any other country, and that Beijing will not seek the role of a hegemon.



General Liang Guanglie, China’s defence minister and the highest-ranking delegate Beijing has ever sent to the Shangri-La Dialogue, is expected to reiterate this message when he addresses the summit on June 5.



Washington’s softer line on China comes as the two countries are seeking to deepen their military dialogue which the US is reluctant to see disrupted again.



On Friday, the US and Chinese delegations held bilateral talks which both sides described as cordial. Last month, Chen Bingde, the People’s Liberation Army’s Chief of General Staff, paid a week-long visit to the US.



Mr Gates, who was making his final visit to Asia before stepping down as Pentagon chief later this month, told the forum that the US would maintain “robust military engagement” and increase port calls and naval engagements in the region. He also dismissed concerns that pressures on the Pentagon budget, as the US addresses its fiscal deficit, coupled with rising Chinese military budgets meant US influence in the region would wane.



“I will bet you a $100 that five years from now the United States’ influence in this region is as strong if not stronger than it is today,” he said.



Source: FT

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Mummy over 100 yrs old preserved.

The secret of mummy at Vietnam History Museum

June 8, 2011  about Uncategorized

VietNamNet Bridge – A mummy of over 100 years old is now preserved and displayed at the HCM City-based Vietnam History Museum.

 

The Vietnam History Museum in HCM City.

This mummy was discovered over 17 years ago by Vietnamese archaeologists while excavating a tomb with two coffins in Cui village in Ward 8, District 5 in HCM City.

The tomb was built firmly, using coral powder as quicklime, sand, treacle and active coal. It contained two coffins. One had an intact body of woman of around 60 years old, 1.52m height. The body was rolled in many layers of cloth and covered by a strange solution in red brown color. The other coffin contained a male body, but only some bones and items were left.

 

According to scientists, the female body is kept untouched because her coffin was covered by a layer of paint (like tar), which prevented water to absorb into the body and the solution in the coffin to run out.

Archaeologists found out a piece of silk that notes the biography of the mummy. The mummy is Mrs. Tran Thi Hieu, a patrician under the Nguyen Dynasty. She died at the age of around 60.

The patrician was buried with many objects like rings, a Buddhist necklace and bracelets, many pieces of silk, a pair of shoes made by leather and cloth, etc.

 

The mummy was brought to the HCM City Medical University’s Hospital for research and it was then moved to the Vietnam History Museum for preservation and display.

The mummy is now displayed in a separate room at the museum, with 19 items found in the two coffins, including: seven rings, one silver-made lime box, one betel grinding box, one horn comb in the coffin of the man and two gold bracelets, one Buddhist necklace and one pair of shoes in the woman’s coffin.

Two bottles containing the strange solutions in coffins are also displayed.

 

The mummy is periodically checked and maintained by medical experts.

The Vietnam History Museum is located at No. 2 Nguyen Binh Khiem Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1. The museum is the home to over 30,000 historical items of Vietnam.

PV

Giant mushroom discovered

Giant mushroom discovered in Binh Duong

June 8, 2011 about Community, News

LookAtVietnam - A woman from Lai Thieu town, Thuan An district in the southern province of Binh Duong on June 6, found out a big white mushroom which is over 50cm high.

Ms. Truong Anh Dao said while she was walking with her younger sister in the early morning of June 6, she saw a big white object on the foundation of an old brick kiln.

From a far distance, her younger sister claimed that the object is a palm-leaf conical hat which was left by some woman. But it turned out to be a giant mushroom, which is called ‘nam da lon’ (pig skin mushroom) by local residents.

Dao had to shake the mushroom for a while by both hands to pull it up. She planted the mushroom into a pot.

The mushroom is measured at 50cm in height, 50cm in diameter, 3.5kg in weight. Local people said they have never seen such a big mushroom in their lives. The biggest ones are just several taels in weight.

Last October, Mr. Manh The Binh from the central province of Phu Yen discovered a giant mushroom, which is 35cm high, 16cm in diameter.

According to the World Guinness Book, the world’s biggest mushroom is 45.35kg, discovered by a farmer in Dorset, the UK.

Duc Tam

Three Gorges lessons for Vietnam | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

Three Gorges lessons for Vietnam

June 4, 2011 about Life in Vietnam

Damming the Mekong would lead to loss of fisheries, reduced agricultural productivity and erosion of river channels and coastline of the Mekong Delta

Visitors look at the shipping locks of the Three Gorges Dam near Yichang, Hubei Province, China. China will move at least four million people in the next decade to protect the ecology of the Three Gorges dam reservoir, Chinese media reported.
By Peter Bosshard (*)
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the world’s largest hydropower project. It has often been touted as a model for dam building around the world. Now the Chinese government has officially acknowledged that the project has serious social, environmental and geological problems. What are the lessons from the Three Gorges experience?
With a capacity of 18,200 megawatts – more than all proposed dams on the lower Mekong’s mainstream combined – the Three Gorges Dam is a masterpiece of engineering indeed. In spite of its daunting complexity, the government completed the project ahead of time in 2008. Its cost has been estimated at between US$27 billion and $88 billion.
The Three Gorges Dam generates two percent of China’s electricity and substitutes at least 30 million tons of coal per year. Yet it was neither the cheapest source of energy nor the best option for replacing coal. While the dam was under construction, the country’s economy actually became more wasteful in its use of energy. According to the Energy Foundation in the US, it would have been “cheaper, cleaner and more productive for China to have invested in energy efficiency” rather than new power plants.
Project impacts
The project’s social and environmental cost may be even more staggering than the financial price tag. The Three Gorges Dam has displaced more than 1.2 million people. Hundreds of local officials diverted compensation money into their own pockets, but protests against such abuses were oppressed. Because it no longer controls the economy and land is scarce, the government was not able to provide jobs and land to the resettlers as promised.
Damming the Three Gorges caused massive impacts on the ecosystem of the Yangtze, Asia’s longest river. The barrage stopped the migration of fish, and diminished the river’s capacity to clean itself. Pollution from dirty industries along the reservoir is causing frequent toxic algae blooms. Commercial fisheries have plummeted, the Yangtze River dolphin has become extinct, and other species are facing the same fate.
Due to dam building and pollution, rivers and lakes around the world have lost more species to extinction than any other major ecosystem.
While the social and environmental problems had been predicted, government officials were not prepared for the dam’s massive geological impacts. The water level in the Three Gorges reservoir fluctuates between 145 and 175 meters every year. This destabilizes the slopes of the Yangtze Valley, and triggers frequent landslides. According to Chinese experts, erosion affects half the reservoir area, and 178 kilometers of riverbanks are at risk of collapsing. More than 300,000 additional people will have to be relocated to stabilize the reservoir banks.
Since most of the Yangtze’s silt load is now deposited in the reservoir, the downstream regions are starved of sediment. As a consequence, up to four square kilometers of coastal wetlands are eroded every year. The Yangtze delta is subsiding, and seawater intrudes up the river, affecting agriculture and drinking water supplies. Because of a lack of nutrients, coastal fisheries have also suffered.
Hydropower projects have often been proposed as a response to global warming, yet the Three Gorges Dam illustrates how the vagaries of climate change create new risks for such projects. In a nutshell, past records can no longer be used to predict a river’s future streamflow. The dam operators planned to fill the Three Gorges reservoir for the first time in 2009, but were not able to do so due to insufficient rains. The current year has brought Central China the worst drought in 50 years, which has again sharply reduced the power generation of the Three Gorges and hundreds of other dams.
Change of course?
Scientists had warned of the Three Gorges Dam’s impacts throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but no one listened to them. On May 18, China’s highest government body for the first time acknowledged the dam’s serious problems. “The project is now greatly benefiting the society in the aspects of flood prevention, power generation, river transportation and water resource utilization,” the government maintained, but it has “caused some urgent problems in terms of environmental protection, the prevention of geological hazards and the welfare of the relocated communities.”
The Three Gorges Project has served as a model of dam building all around the world. The Son La Dam on the Da River has for example been called “Vietnam’s response to the Three Gorges Dam.” After the completion of the mega-dam on Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Power Corporation and its contractors started exporting the technology which they had acquired at the Three Gorges to other countries, including Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Given the project’s global significance, it is important to draw lessons from the experience with the Yangtze dam. First and foremost, the Three Gorges Project shows that damming the mainstream of major rivers is particularly damaging, in that it will interrupt the migration of fish and the transport of sediments throughout a river’s ecosystems. As the World Commission on Dams recommended in its path-breaking report, Dams and Development, a river’s mainstream should not be dammed as long as there are other options.
Secondly, the Three Gorges experience demonstrates that large dams on major rivers are massive interventions into highly complex ecosystems. Their impacts can occur thousands of kilometers away and many years after construction has been completed. It is impossible to predict and mitigate all social and environmental impacts of such projects. As a team of international hydrologists coordinated by The Nature Conservancy found in a study in 2010, downstream impacts in particular are often neglected.
A Strategic Environmental Assessment prepared for the Mekong River Commission predicts that damming the lower Mekong mainstream would cause the loss of riverine and marine fisheries, reduce agricultural productivity in Mekong Delta and Cambodia’s floodplains, and erode the river channels and coastline of the Mekong Delta. All these impacts have been borne out by the Three Gorges Project. The recommendation by the Commission, and now by the Vietnamese government, not to dam the Mekong for the next 10 years reflects the experience of the Yangtze dam.
Finally, the Three Gorges Dam demonstrates that affected communities and other stakeholders should be involved in decision-making regarding large infrastructure projects from the beginning.
China has a strong state and spent tens of billions of dollars on resettlement programs for the Three Gorges Dam. But because the affected people were excluded from decision-making, the program often ignored their needs and desires, and resulted in wide-spread impoverishment and frustration.
The Chinese government recently started a comprehensive effort to pay pensions to the millions of people who were displaced by its dam projects. It would be cheaper and more effective to give affected people a say in decision-making from the beginning. The civil society consultations on the Xayaburi Dam which the Vietnamese government held earlier this year were a step in the right direction.
(*) Peter Bosshard is the Policy Director of US-based environment NGO International Rivers. The opinions expressed are his own.




Three Gorges lessons for Vietnam | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Vietnam deficit keeps climbing

Vietnam trade deficit going no way but up

June 4, 2011 about Business

Shoes and materials are laid on the ground of a factory in the handicraft shoe village of Gie Ha, south of Hanoi.

Vietnam’s trade deficit has just kept ballooning over the years and economists don’t see it stopping any time soon, given the country’s heavy reliance on imported materials and machinery.
The deficit widened to US$1.7 billion in May from $1.49 billion in April, the General Statistics Office said last week. The country is now importing almost all kinds of goods – from vegetables and seafood to equipment and hi-tech devices.
Economist Pham Chi Lan told Thanh Nien that if there is a demand for foreign goods, traders have the right to bring them into the country.
The problem is that manufacturers keep importing a lot of materials and machinery, even amidst an economic slowdown, said Lan, a former adviser to the government.
“These imports are to facilitate production for both domestic and export markets. But it would be risky if more goods are imported despite slow sales and growing inventories.”
Some other economists suspect that local companies have tried to stockpile imported materials over the past months on anticipation that prices would surge later in the year.
They say the trend shows, once again, how heavily dependent Vietnam is on foreign materials. Even trade barriers and tax policies would not be able to narrow the country’s trade gap if it cannot ease its reliance on imported raw materials and machinery, they add.
Nguyen Minh Phong, of Hanoi Socioeconomic Research Institute, said Vietnam continued to buy many products that can be manufactured at home. This is because local producers are not strong enough to fight against the strong flow of foreign goods, he said.
“The recent high interest rates have made them even less competitive. As a result, the market will open wider for imports and the trade deficit will continue to worsen,” he said.

RELATED NEWS

Vietnam H1 trade gap to jump 19 pct: report

The General Statistics Office said exports in May rose to $7.5 billion from April’s $7.44 billion, while imports increased to $9.2 billion from $8.93 billion.
For the first five months of the year, the total trade deficit was $6.59 billion. The lion’s share of this continued to be incurred from trading with China. Typically the shortfall from two-way trade with the neighbor is around $1 billion each month.
The General Statistics Office said the value of imports in the first five months rose 29.5 percent to $41.3 billion, but this was mainly due to price hikes. Prices of imported products surged 24 percent on average from the same period last year, the office noted.
The prices of oil products, for instance, rose by between 32 and 43 percent over last year, according to Petrolimex, Vietnam’s top fuel importer and distributor.
Analysts have said the widening trade deficit is draining Vietnam’s foreign exchange reserves and putting huge pressure on the dong.
ANZ said in a report last week that a 7.5 percent devaluation of the dong in February has increased the already high cost of commodity imports. The situation was complicated by rising global food and oil prices, it said.
“The country’s huge trade deficit and low levels of foreign reserves mean that engineering an appreciation for the dong is not a viable option,” the report said.
Vietnam’s trade deficit is expected to hit $14 billion this year, up from $12.6 billion last year. The government aims to keep the annual trade deficit below 16 percent of the country’s exports in 2011, but the trade ministry has admitted that this might be a tough target to achieve.
The government has introduced a new rule to restrict imports of mobile phones, alcohol and cosmetic products to prevent the inflow of counterfeit and low-quality goods into the country.
Effective June 1, the rule requires importers to bring in these products via one of three sea ports in the country, banning the use of air and land transportation. Traders also have to obtain a letter of authorization notarized by Vietnamese diplomatic representatives in the country of origin before the products can be brought into Vietnam.
Foreign business groups have alleged that the new measures are aimed at restricting trade. Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Nguyen Cam Tu, however, rejected the idea. Mobile phones, alcohol and cosmetic products are expensive and often subject to price manipulation, so it is necessary to monitor closely their origin and quality, he was quoted in a Reuters report as saying.

Vietnam's Floating Marketplace

Video Life on the Mekong Delta


Vietnam's Floating Marketplace

Vietnam's Floating Marketplace

Tourist Agencies Abandon China

2011-06-03

Vietnamese tour groups are boycotting certain packages amid growing anti-China sentiment.

RFA

The location where three Chinese boats were accused of deliberately severing a Vietnamese survey ship's cable.

At least two travel companies in Vietnam are suspending tours to China and refusing Chinese customers as Vietnamese netizens intensified calls to rally over the weekend against Beijing’s territorial incursions in the South China Sea.

The planned rallies come after several recent incidents in which Chinese boats allegedly targeted Vietnamese vessels in disputed waters.
Canaan Tourist posted a notice on its website entitled “Information about the Suspension of Tours to China,” explaining that the move was prompted by China “increasingly invading Vietnam’s sovereignty.

“These incidents do not represent the will of the entire Chinese people, but in order to promote Vietnamese patriotism, Canaan is suspending all tours to China and removing all information about travel to China from our website,” the company said.

“We will restart tours and update information on our website whenever relations between our two countries improve.”

Canaan advised clients who had the need to travel to China to choose another tourist agency.

Company director Nguyen Tuan Kiet said in a phone interview from the company’s office in Ho Chi Minh City that Canaan suspended service to China because it faced alienating customers and losing profits.

“As you know from current news, a Chinese ship invaded Vietnamese waters and a Chinese naval ship fired at a Vietnamese fishing boat. My company’s actions would prove our patriotism,” he said.

Canaan organizes trips for several hundred Vietnamese tourists each year.

‘A political issue’

Meanwhile, another tourist agency which organizes tours within Vietnam for foreigners, said it would no longer be accepting Chinese clients.

Con Dao Explorer, based in Ho Chi Minh City, posted a notice below information on its website about a three-day, two-night tour to Con Dao which read, “Attention: We will not accept tourists who bear Chinese citizenship.”

An assistant named Thuy who answered the phone at the company’s headquarters said the decision to refuse Chinese clients was related to the growing sense of indignation against the Chinese felt in Vietnam.

“Due to the fact that it’s related to politics, my company will not accept tourists who bear Chinese citizenship,” she said.

“If you call this discrimination, you would be wrong. My boss ordered us to do it. This is a political issue in Vietnam, so I cannot explain anything more than that.”

Rallies planned

Anger over Chinese aggression in the South China Sea intensified recently as three Chinese boats were reported to have severed the survey cables of a vessel operated by PetroVietnam a week ago.

A Chinese boat is said to have harassed another survey vessel on Tuesday and a Chinese naval ship on Wednesday reportedly opened fire at Vietnamese fishing boats near the Spratly islands—to which both nations lay claim.

The Vietnamese government Thursday demanded that China stop preventing Vietnamese fishing boats from operating in waters off the Spratlys.

But China has defended the action of the Chinese boats and warned Vietnam against creating “new incidents” in the disputed seas.

Netizens are organizing peaceful rallies planned for Sunday at the Chinese embassy in Hanoi and the consulate in Ho Chi Minh City through social media, including Facebook, text messaging, and blogs.

If held, the rallies would represent the second in a rare expression of public outrage in Vietnam against Chinese belligerence in the South China Sea.

In 2007, hundreds of Vietnamese surrounded the Chinese embassy in Hanoi in support of their country’s claims to the uninhabited but potentially resource-rich Spratly and Paracel islands.

Several claims

Last year, Washington said it was willing to back smaller Asian nations who felt threatened by China as it pressed its sovereignty over the Spratlys and Paracels.

Washington is particularly concerned that China's increasingly assertive maritime ambitions could trigger conflicts in the region that could hurt access to one of the world's busiest commercial sea lanes.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had assured the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that Beijing is committed to implementing an agreed blueprint for managing their overlapping claims to ownership of the islands.

The Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, called DOC by diplomats, was inked in 2002 as a first step towards a binding code of conduct for Beijing and the 10-member ASEAN group, but the agreement has been gathering dust.

The reason: China has objected to a key component of a set of guidelines proposed by ASEAN for implementation of the agreement.

Four ASEAN claimants

China is against a paragraph that allows the four ASEAN claimants in the South China Sea—Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam—to hold informal consultations among themselves prior to an ASEAN-China meeting, officials said.

Beijing insists that the Spratly issue does not concern the four ASEAN claimants collectively, or ASEAN as a group.

ASEAN and China pledged in the DOC to resolve their sovereignty disputes in a peaceful manner, without resorting to the use of force.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam have separate claims over parts of the Spratlys, while China claims all of the Spratlys and adjacent waters as well as other islands further south of China's nine dotted dashes on its official map, which form a U shape reaching down to Indonesia's Natuna Sea.

The Paracel Islands, like the Spratlys further south, are also claimed by both China and Vietnam. In 1976, China invaded and captured the islands from Vietnam.

Reported by Mac Lam for RFA’s Vietnamese service. Translated by Hien Huynh. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.