Vietnam still keeps cautious with GMC | Look At Vietnam

Vietnam still keeps cautious with GMC

May 6, 2012

LookAtVietnam – Vietnam cannot close its eyes to the genetically modified
organism (GMO), described as a revolution in the biotechnology.

There are three different groups of countries in the world which keep different
viewpoints about GMO. The first group includes the countries that advocate GMO,
including the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, China, India and Australia.
The second group comprises of the countries which do not support the new
technology, mostly European countries. And the third group still keeps the
wait-and-see attitude.
In Vietnam, according to Dr Le Huy Ham, Head of the Agriculture Genetics
Institute, only since 2007, did the state set up the directional plan to
research and apply GMO. In the last few years, the development of genetically
modified crops (GMC) in a trial basis has been allowed for some kinds of plants,
such as cotton, corn, papaya and some forestry trees.
As for corn GMC alone, Thai Monsanto Company with three varieties MON89034,
NK603 and MON89034 x NK60, Vietnamese Syngenta with BT11 and GA21 got the
license from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for growing in a
trial basis.
In July 2007, the Prime Minister signed the decision on approving the overall
plan to strengthen the bio-safety management capability over GMOs and the goods
originating from GMOs. The project focuses on building the legal framework on
the policies on bio-safety management policies and heightening the awareness of
the community about bio-safety.
Keeping cautious not a useless thing
Vietnamese agriculture experts believe that Vietnam needs to follow a reasonable
roadmap in approaching GMC. In the first step, it needs to collect information
and analyze the two-sided impacts of GMC, in order to reach a consensus in the
society abut the use of GMC.
Secondly, Vietnam needs to allocate higher budget to upgrade the material
facilities and improve the labor force for basic research works to create GMC in
Vietnam.
Thirdly, Vietnam should think of growing in a large scale some kinds of GMCs
including cotton, forestry trees, ornamental trees, strictly following the
biosafety rules.
Dr Nguyen Hong Minh, Director of the Center for High Quality Vegetable Variety
Research and Development, has warned that the expenses for GMC seeds are much
more expensive than normal seeds, while the expenses would be increasingly high,
once farmers depend on supply companies. Meanwhile, farmers would not be able to
resume the old ways of cultivation after they apply GMO, because the biological
environment has changed with quite different conditions.
Minh has pointed out that if the farm produce prices are the same for both GMCs
and normal products, farmers would choose GMCs. “In the first 5-10 years,
farmers would not be busy, while they can have higher yield and have to spend
less time on dealing with insects. However, they would be enjoy the good time
for a short period,” Minh said.
“The risk they would face is very high, once farmers depend on multi-national
variety supply companies which have the power to define the prices,” he added.
International experts have warned that GMC variety supply companies have
registered the varieties to confirm their ownership, which means that they would
have the power to control the organisms in the globe with their cross-fertilize.
Especially, the companies may create the varieties with infertility gene, which
means that they can be used to grow one time.
Ham has also confirmed that the current GMCs can be grown for two or three
crops, and after that, they would provide low yield. While Vietnam still cannot
master the GMO technology, it would be really a high risk if it grows GMCs in a
large scale.
Hai Duong

Adventurous Silicon Valley software guru killed in Brazil

Adventurous Silicon Valley software guru killed in Brazil
Michael Kanaley, 41, was a principal architect at TIBCO Software in... ( Courtesy of Ken Manning )

Michael Kanaley rode his motorcycle in thunderstorms, backpacked through Pakistan and told his Palo Alto software company that he was moving to Brazil. He persuaded his boss to let him keep his job and jet to Silicon Valley for monthly meetings.

It was the perfect lifestyle for an adventurous spirit — until somebody shot the 41-year-old father of two in the face, killing him in a resort town near his adopted home of Rio de Janeiro.

Now, friends here are mourning the tragic death of Kanaley, a principal architect at Palo Alto's Tibco Software.

"Every one of us wants to live their life that way, but we often let fear overtake us," said longtime friend Larry Neumann, a marketing executive at Solace Systems in Mountain View. "Not Mike."

His brother, Jim Kanaley, of Salt Lake City, told the Mercury News that his younger brother was driving on the morning of Jan. 5 from a hotel in the town of Buzios to see an attorney; he was looking to buy a new place in the wake of a breakup with his longtime girlfriend.

According to news reports from Brazil, Kanaley was headed back Rio de Janeiro when he was shot in the face. His rental car was discovered torched down the road. His wallet and computer were stolen.

Jim Kanaley said he's since been communicating with local police and FBI agents in Brazil to figure out who would have killed such a "talented Internet geek." He added his brother, who moved to Rio in 2004, was worth "millions,"
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including the properties he owned, earning power and stock.

Michael Kanaley leaves behind two daughters, ages 9 and 4, whom he had with Mara Moreira, who was from Brazil and had once worked at Tibco in Palo Alto, too. Jim Kanaley said his brother had never married Moreira; after 10 years together, they had decided to separate. They were in the process of splitting assets and figuring out child custody issues at the time of his death.

"His girls were his world," Jim Kanaley said.

At least three separate memorials have been held for Kanaley. The first was with about 100 friends in San Francisco, where he lived since 1991 after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and being hired by Oracle. Friends remembered him as a track star who loved annual Burning Man trips, dyed his hair crazy colors and frequently changed styles from bearded hippie to closely shaved, played pickup soccer games at Stanford University on lunch breaks, and stood out in a crowd with his trademark baggy red pants and bright Indian shirts.

"There was a rumor that he once skateboarded from San Francisco to work at Tibco," said friend Ken Manning. "I never knew if it was true, but you could believe it."

The next service was held in Rochester, N.Y., where Kanaley was born — the youngest of four children — and where his parents had lived for many years.

The final service was held in Palo Alto at Tibco, where Kanaley was considered a "guru" who had a hand in the design of most of the company's real-time business integration software.

Bill Hughes, Tibco's executive vice president of human resources, said Kanaley's death was a "terrible tragedy. He was not only an invaluable co-worker, but a friend to all of us at Tibco. People here will remember how he livened up the office with his unique style of dreadlocks and brightly colored clothes. Mike was one of Tibco's brightest minds, and he had a gentle soul who made those around him better. He will be greatly missed."

Kanaley went to work for Tibco more than 10 years ago after the company bought a startup he cofounded, inCommon. Neumann said he had a tough time keeping up with his world-traveling friend, someone who wanted to party at off-the-beaten-track-nightclubs in Brazil just because they were located in the most dangerous spots in the country.

"But he wasn't trying hard to be cool," Neumann said. "He had this authenticity about him. He'd spend a half an hour talking to someone's parents at a party. People trying to be cool don't do that."

Friends marveled that Kanaley could be an engineer by day, and a photographer, artist, athlete, outdoorsman and father after work.

"He was a lot in one person," Neumann said. "People tend to gloss this stuff up when people pass on and not remember the bad parts. But I can't think of any bad parts."

Brazil Selling Itself to China as Best Place for Investment

Seeking investments in ports and roads from China, its largest market for agricultural products, Brazil, the world's largest exporter of poultry and second-biggest supplier of soybeans, wants to see the Chinese investing much more in the country.
"The biggest difficulty we have is logistics," said Célio B. Porto, Secretary of Agribusiness for International Relations at Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, in an interview in Singapore. "Our biggest problem in improving our production is lack of capital."
Brazil needs better transportation for a smoother flow of goods to port, Porto said in Singapore. The country supplied products including soybeans, frozen meat and tobacco worth US$ 11 billion to China, accounting for about a fifth of its agricultural exports, he said.
China, which has one-fifth of the world's population and seven percent of the planet's arable land, has been looking to the Philippines and Africa for strategic food supplies. The country is the world's largest buyer of soybeans, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
"The investments China has been making in Asia and Africa represent future production. Brazil's competitiveness comes from having present production," Porto said. "While Africa has a lot of land, it doesn't have the technology or the responsiveness Brazil already has to meet China's needs," he added.
Porto is leading a government delegation to Singapore, Hong Kong and China to expand markets for its products. Last year's exports to Hong Kong were valued at US$ 1.2 billion, and to Singapore, at US$ 298 million, he informed.
Brazil is seeking to benefit from scandals, such as the one in China involving milk and other products tainted with melamine.
"There's an increase in demand for our dairy products where Australia and New Zealand are the biggest exporters for Asia. The same is happening in eggs," Porto said. "This was what happened with Brazilian beef exports when there was 'mad cow disease' in the U.S." in late 2003.
Meanwhile, the global credit crisis and a decline in prices of food grains from records may lower investments in agriculture, causing future food shortages, he said.
"With this fall in prices of agricultural products in the world, the lack of investment in these products will occur first where the cost of production is higher and that is not the case in Brazil," Porto concluded.
Mercopress

Brazil beat Vietnam 2-0 in friendly pre-Olympic warm-u[

Brazil, led by AC Milan star Ronaldinho, beat Vietnam 2-0 in a friendly on Friday that served as a pre-Olympic warm-up for the South American giants and meant the world to Vietnamese fans.
Alexandre Pato of AC Milan scored the first goal in the sixth minute before a packed-out crowd that included Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet in Hanoi's 40,000-seat My Dinh stadium.
But his second attempt to score in the 46th minute was warded off by Vietnam's goalkeeper, Brazilian-born Fabio Dos Santos, who became a naturalised Vietnamese citizen in December.
Vietnam nearly equalised just after half-time, when striker Nguyen Viet Thang took a shot which keeper Diego Alves deflected away to safety, and again when Nguyen Minh Duc hit the goal post with a long shot.
In the 81st minute Thiago Neves, voted the best player in the Brazilian league last year, scored Brazil's second goal.
Two minutes later, left-footed Brazilian forward Jo, who recently inked a four-year deal with English Premier League club Manchester City, found the net, but the goal was disqualified as a Vietnamese player got pushed.
Ronaldinho, according to a Vietnamese official translator, said after the match: "Tonight the Vietnamese team had a good match. The weather tonight was nice, and I liked this match very much."
Brazilian coach Carlos Dunga said: "I'm happy with the match although we had little training. We would like to thank Vietnamese fans and the hosts for giving us a warm welcome and good preparation."
Despite the loss, for many Vietnamese fans just having the samba kings on their home turf came close to a religious experience.
"Having the Brazilian players in Vietnam is a once-in-a-lifetime event," enthused Nguyen Bich Lien, 50, from southern Ho Chi Minh City.
"It's a great opportunity to see Ronaldinho, Pato and Anderson," agreed Tran Hung Dung, 28, wearing a yellow Brazil shirt and a Vietnamese conical hat.
"It's unbelievable to see them playing football in Vietnam. The Vietnamese are like the Brazilians in their love for soccer."
Pato said at a post-match press conference: "I'm very surprised about the warm welcome and the enthusiasm from the Vietnamese fans for soccer. I will have a lot of things to tell my friends back home."
The Brazilian Olympic team flew in from another exhibition match in Singapore this week to play Vietnam before travelling on to Beijing where the Olympic tournament begins August 6, with the final on August 23.
Brazil have won the World Cup a record five times -- but they have come up short at the Olympics, finishing with a silver medal in the 1984 and 1988 Games, and bronze in 1996.
Ronaldinho said earlier this week Brazil will blend youth and experience in their bid for Olympic football gold.
"There are many young players who have a lot of experience and I think that will make the difference for us," he said.
"We have let many chances (of gold) slip ... Many good teams have played the Olympics and we have never managed to win it. Now we have the opportunity -- we have a very good team."
Pato said Friday night: "I consider all of our competitors in Beijing equally strong -- but I hope Brazil will win."

Brazilian soccer stars to play in Vietnam

It's been announced that Brazil's Olympic football team, boasting the likes of Ronaldinho and Robinho, will play Vietnam's full national side in a friendly on the first of next month.

The Vietnam Football Federation says the game will be played at Hanoi's My Dinh stadium.

It says details about ticket prices, and line-ups of both teams will be announced later.

The friendly in Vietnam is part of the Brazil Olympic team's preparations for the Beijing Games, which begin on August the 8th.

Developing Vietnam-Brazil comprehensive partnership

official visit to Vietnam on July 9-10 at the invitation of President Nguyen Minh Triet.
This is the first visit to Vietnam by a top Brazilian leader. It marks new developments in friendship and co-operation between the two countries.
The visit takes place at the time when co-operation between Vietnam and Brazil together with other countries in Latin America is developing positively in many fields. The event is a vivid proof concerning the Vietnamese Party and State's open and correct foreign policy. It also reflects Vietnam's continuation of diversifying and multilateralising foreign relations in the spirit that "Vietnam is ready to be a reliable friend and partner of countries in the international communities to strive to peace, independence and development."
Since the establishment of diplomatic ties on May 8, 1989, the friendly and co-operation relations between Vietnam and Brazil have seen positive changes. Brazil was the first country in Latin America to open its Embassy in Hanoi in September 1994. Vietnam opened its consulate general in Sao Paulo in November 1998 and then its Embassy in Brasilia in August 2000.
The two countries have exchanged many visits of different levels. The Vietnam-Brazil Joint Statement issued during an official visit to Brazil by Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh in May 2007 has affirmed the two sides' determination to strengthen their mutual-benefit, equal and all round partnership and committed to supporting each other in their efforts towards national development.
Vietnam and Brazil share close views and support each other's stand toward many international issues at international multilateral forums and organisations. The two countries have signed a number of co-operation agreements in culture, trade, health care, visa exemption and granted the most favoured nation status to each other.
Both sides are also carrying out negotiations for the signing of co-operation agreements in the fields of science-technology, energy, sports and poverty reduction. Trade exchange is increasing rapidly as two-way trade reached US$323 million in 2007, increase of nearly three times as compared to 2005.
The official visit to Vietnam by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will contribute to enhancing solidarity, friendship and co-operation between Vietnam and Brazil. This is an opportunity for senior leaders of the two countries to exchange experience and discuss specific measures to promote multifaceted partnership on the basis of mutual benefit.
It is believed that the visit by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be a success and the Brazilian Government and people will gain more achievements in their national development.
May the friendship and co-operation between Vietnam and Brazil be further expanded to serve both countries' practical interest and to contribute to consolidating peace, stability, co-operation and development in the region and the world.