Billions dollar worth of jewelries exported to Switzerland | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

Billions dollar worth of jewelries exported to Switzerland | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update: "VietNamNet Bridge –

Billions dollar worth of high-grade jewelries have been exported in the last

two years from Vietnam to Switzerland,

where the jewelries are smelted to get gold.

The Financial

Times has reported that there has been a growing tendency over the past two

years that Vietnamese businessmen have been trying to export high-grade gold

jewelry to Switzerland

as a trick to “dodge” the current laws which prohibits bullion gold exports.

In Switzerland,

the jewelries are smelted and then cast into bullion gold. Vietnamese

businessmen want to export jewelry to Switzerland

because the country in the north of Europe is

famous for the smelting industry which can turn all gold-made products into

gold bullions with international standards.

Statistics

showed that before 2008, Vietnam

only exported a small amount of gold of 3.2 tons of jewelry to Switzerland,

earning 71 million francs or 77.5 million dollars. However, things have changed

in the last two years, as Vietnam

has become a big source of imported gold products for Switzerland.

Most of the jewelry from Vietnam

has come to the furnaces of big manufacturers such as Argor-Heraeus, Metalor,

MKS Finance and Valcambi.

The newspaper

has quoted Cameron Alexander, a senior analyst of GFMS precious metals

consultancy as saying that in Vietnam, enterprises are not allowed to export

high grade bullion gold. The ban has prompted Vietnamese enterprises to process

bullion gold into jewelry with high title of gold and export the jewelryfor

dollars. The problem is that Vietnam

prohibits businessmen from exporting bullion gold, but does not prohibit them

from exporting jewelry. This is a big loophole of the laws and many businessmen

have exploited it.

In 2010

alone, Vietnam exported

nearly 61 tons of precious metals to Switzerland, mostly under the mode

of gold-made products, reaping 2.6 billion francs, or 2.8 billion dollars,

according to the Swiss Federal Customs Administration. The figures were 54 tons

and 1.9 billion francs in 2009 (the figures do not include the exports of

bullion gold). Especially, the exports to Switzerland

increased sharply a few times when the gold prices in Vietnam were

lower than the prices in the world market.

Local

newspaper VnExpress has quoted a representative from an enterprise which is a

member of the Vietnam Gold Business Association, as saying that “Vietnamese enterprises

have to take a roundabout to export gold, when the domestic prices are much

lower than the world’s prices”. The executive said that in 2009 and 2010,

enterprises must be granted quotas to be able to export bullion gold.

Meanwhile, quotas were granted a few times and with limited export volumes.

Therefore, enterprises decided to export jewelry because it was much easier to

export jewelry, while the exports were not imposed tax. And the enterprises

turned bullion gold into jewelry to export.

The

executive has revealed that Swiss importers pay for the jewelry the same prices

as they pay for bullion gold. “As such, exporters could not earn money for the

processing into jewelry. However, they still could earn fat profit, when the

domestic prices were lower than the world’s prices,” he said.

“The strict

control over the gold exports has forced enterprises to play such a trick,” he

added.

In Vietnam,

bullion gold is considered “monetary gold”, therefore, the government has

decided that bullion gold imports and exports must be strictly controlled and

have quotas.

He also

said that he knew a gold company which exported 7-8 tons of jewelry at once in

2009-2010, and that he thinks the statistics released by the Swiss agency can

truly reflect the real exports.

In fact,

Vietnamese management agencies have realized that enterprises played tricks to

circumvent the laws. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance decided to impose the

tax rate of 10 percent, starting from January 1, 2011, on material gold and

high grade jewelry instead of the zero tax rate that was previously applied.

According to the General Department of Customs, in 2010, Vietnam imported 1.1

billion dollars worth of precious stones, precious metals and products, an

increase of 124.7 percent over the last year. Meanwhile, Vietnam exported 2.82

billion dollars worth of products, up by 3.4 percent. Meanwhile in 2009, the

export turnover of the products was 2.73 billion dollars, while the import

turnover was modest at 492.1 million dollars.

Source:

VnExpress

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Vietnam meets targets, finishes second at 25th SEA Games

Vietnam meets targets, finishes second at 25th SEA Games

Vietnam finished second in overall SEA Games rankings as the curtains came down on the 25th edition of the sporting event in Laos’s Vientiane on Friday.

On the final day of the regional sporting event, Vietnamese shooters hit two more gold medals to add to Vietnam’s total medals tally, but the nation finished three golds adrift of champions Thailand. The final tally for Vietnam was 83 gold, 75 silver and 57 bronze medals. Despite some disappointment in a few events, the Vietnamese athletes successfully achieved the initial goal of winning more than 70 gold medals and being among the top three nations at the event. The shooters grabbed the most medals with 11 gold, 12 silver and eight bronze medals, followed by finswimming with eight gold, eight silver and three bronze medals. Vietnamese athletes earned seven gold medals each in wushu, wrestling, track and field, and judo; six golds each in pencak silat and karatedo; five golds in taewondo; four golds in shuttlecock; three golds in billiards & snooker; and two golds each in petanque, weightlifting and cycling. They won one gold each in muay, table-tennis, swimming, women’s football, springboard diving and archery. Thailand finished on top of the medal table with 86 gold, 83 silver and 97 bronze medals while Indonesia, the hosts of the next 26th SEA Games, came in third with 43 gold, 53 silver and 74 bronze medals. Malaysia was fourth with 40 gold, 40 silver and 59 bronze medals, ahead of the Philippines with 38 gold, 35 silver and 51 bronze medals. Singapore at sixth had 33 gold, 30 silver and 35 bronze medals while hosts Laos finished seventh with 33 golds, 25 silvers and 52 bronzes. Myanmar, Cambodia and Brunei were in the eighth, ninth and 10th spots with 12, three and one gold medal respectively. East Timor finished at the bottom with just three bronze medals. Source: Thanh Nien, SGGP

Vietnam grabs gold medal in Chess event

Vietnam on November 1 overwhelmed India in the semi-finals and China in the finals to win a gold medal in the Team Blitz Chess event.

After a win and a draw in the final round, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Le Quang Liem, Hoang Thi Bao Cham and Pham Le Thao Nguyen outclassed their Chinese opponents Ni Hua, Zhou Jianchao, Ju Wenjun and Huang Qian to secure the first place.

Both Iran and India won the bronze medal.

Chess is one of the sporting events of the ongoing third Asian Indoor Games (AIG III). Chess competitions began in the north-eastern province of Quang Ninh on October 31 and will last until November 7. About 110 players from 18 countries and territories are competing in rapid and blitz-chess team and individual events.

VietNamNet/VOV

Martial artist grabs another gold at beach games

Martial artist Le Thi Phi Nga won a gold medal for Vietnam at the first Asian Beach Games’ pencak silat event on Oct. 22 in Bali, Indonesia.Nga defeated Malaysian Rima Jordana Haji Adnan in the women’s tanding (combat) class A final to stand on the highest podium.Nga’s gold was the second for Vietnam; the first went to body-builder Nguyen Van Lam, who won in the men’s 65kg category on Oct. 20.Also on Oct. 22, Vu Thi Thao added a silver medal to Vietnam’s collection after her tunggal (individual performance) event. Thao performed well but not enough to win judges’ hearts, earnings 752 points.Vietnam earned silver on Oct. 22 in men’s ganda (double performance) event. The host pair took the gold.In beach volleyball, Vietnamese duo Tran Ngoc Cao Son and Nguyen Minh Thien grabbed a berth in the 16 th and final round of the men’s category.Later, Vietnamese team Nguyen Trong Quoc and Nguyen Thanh Vinh beat Abbas and Khan from Pakistan 21-15, 25-23 to enter the next round.After four days, Vietnam were in third place overall with two golds, five silvers and two bronzes.Host Indonesia was on top with 15 golds, five silvers and 10 bronze medals. They left runner-up Thailand in the dust with only four gold, six silver and four bronze medals.
(Source: VNA)

China Fakes Olympics - US Fakes Most Everything

Are you enjoying watching the fake Olympics? By "fake," of course, I'm referring to all the fabrications that have emerged since the opening of the event. Each day, it seems, brings news of yet another fabrication by China. Here's a short list of the fabrications that have been discovered so far:• The weather is fake: Beijing is usually a smog pit with air so polluted that city-dwellers there almost never see the sun. To artificially clean up the air and create the image that Beijing is a clean city (it isn't), Chinese officials ordered the shutting down of virtually all manufacturing plants, coal-fired power plants, and automobiles. They've basically shut down Beijing to create the impression that it's a clean city, and when there's still smog, they just call it, "mist." (Tony Snow couldn't have spun it better, huh?)• The free speech is fake: All the freedom protestors who might have spoken out against China during the Olympics have been arrested and imprisoned, thereby creating the impression that there is no public dissent in China. (Need a kidney, anyone? Organs are suddenly available...)• The opening ceremony was faked: The fireworks displayed during the opening ceremony were faked using pre-programmed computer generated images. Instead of watching live fireworks, viewers around the world were actually watching 3D computer animation.• The Internet access is censored: Reporters from around the world have all had their internet access censored by Chinese authorities, restricting them from accessing websites that might be "dangerous" (like sites on religion or meditation).• The singing was lip-synced by a pretty girl to replace an ugly girl: It turns out the beautiful voice singing the opening song of the ceremony did not belong to the face of the girl who was lip-syncing it. The actual singer, it turns out, was a bit too ugly to represent China, so they faked it and replaced the girl's face with a cuter-looking girl who lip-synced the whole performance. Millie Vanilli, anyone?• Swimmer Michael Phelps' food is fake: Consuming a whopping 12,000 calories a day, Michael Phelps is a junk food junkie powered by empty calories. While you can get away with that when you're 23 and exercising six hours a day, if Phelps continues his ingestion of fake food beyond his peak training years, he'll soon have REAL diabetes and obesity. Fat makes you float, by the way, so it might actually provide real buoyancy to his swimming career...• The ages and passports are faked: The Chinese gymnastics team won gold, helped in part by a tiny gymnast who, according to China's own media, was 13 years old just nine months ago. Amazingly, she is now 16 years old, which just happens to be the minimum age to compete in the Olympics. This astonishing acceleration of aging is, of course, fully denied by Chinese authorities who provided forged passports for the girl to "prove" she was really 16. The IOC apparently has no interest in investigating this apparent fraud.So I hope you're enjoying the fake Olympics. Most of the athletes are real, of course. Their remarkable feats of human artistry, strength, endurance and athleticism are real, but the whole show surrounding it is fake, fake, fake! It's all a fabricated show to keep the world occupied while your money, your health and your future is stolen from you by the criminal institutions of the world (governments, corporations, etc.), many of which are actually sponsoring the Olympics.
Much in America is fabricated, too...
Now, just in case you think China is the only country engaged in fakery, let me remind you that the United States is just as fake, but in different ways. In the U.S.:• The war on terrorism is fake: It was all fabricated to keep the population in a state of fear so they wouldn't notice their freedoms being stolen away.• The mainstream media is fake: The news is largely fabricated or selectively edited to brainwash American consumers into thinking they live in a free country. Corporate press releases are run as "news" and any real news that threatens big advertisers is routinely censored.• The money supply is fake: The U.S. is running on monetary fumes, borrowing trillions from countries like China that actually have REAL money, all while claiming the national debt doesn't matter anymore. (It does.)• The housing bubble was fake: As publicly predicted here nearly two years ago, the housing bubble was fake, creating false wealth that created the impression that the economy was doing well. The whole thing was a charade, of course, and now housing values are plummeting and consumer spending is in a tailspin.• Health care is fake: There's no "health" in health care, and the entire disease industry in the United States is based on keeping people sick, ignorant and bankrupt.• The corporate green movement is fake: Corporations love to act like they're really "green" even as they continue polluting the planet.• Even the breasts are fake! The U.S. is the plastic surgery capital of the world, where moms are now giving their teenage daughters breast augmentation surgery as a high school graduation present.It's quite fitting, then, that American viewers who live in a fabricated American reality can watch the fake Olympics by tuning into a fake television network where they can watch a fake opening ceremony that celebrates competition among fraudulent Olympics participants who compete for the only thing that's still real in this global economy: GOLD! /Mike Adams

Chen wins Olympic weightlifting gold - Yahoo! News

Chen Xiexia got China off to a perfect start in the weightlifting competition Saturday, winning gold in the women's 48-kilogram weight category and setting an Olympic record.
Turkey's Sibel Ozkan won the silver medal, while Chen Wei-Ling of Taiwan finished third.
Chen Xiexia, last year's world champion, dominated Saturday's competition from start to finish, lifting 95 kilograms in the snatch and 117 kilograms in the clean and jerk. She set Olympic records in the latter event and for the total score.
Ozkan was a distant second with a total of 199 kilograms, 3 kilograms ahead of Chen Wei-Ling.
The 2004 Olympic champion, Nurcan Taylan of Turkey, was eliminated after three failed attempts in the snatch.
It was clear already after that event, in which the bar is raised above the head in one continuous motion, that Chen Xiexia was in a class of her own.
Buoyed by chants from the home crowd, the 25-year-old completed her three attempts in the snatch with ease. She was already 7 kilograms ahead of Ozkan after that event.
Chen Wei-Ling had a shot at the silver medal but failed in her final attempt at 115 kilograms, collapsing to the floor as the bar dropped.
Wrapped in a Chinese flag, Chen Xiexia received the gold medal and sang along with the crowd to the Chinese national anthem. It will likely be sung many more times at the gym of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics as China is expected to win at least five gold medals in weightlifting, a sport it has dominated in recent years.

Vietnamese photographer honored at Italian contest

Photographer Duong Quoc Dinh won first prize at the Giuliano Carrara International Photographic Competition in Italy.

Photographer Duong Quoc Dinh and his worksMr. Dinh photographs “Wind’s word,” “Optimism,” and “Peace 1 & 2” triumphed over more than 4,000 other works by 368 authors from 33 countries and was named the best collection in six categories.He received a single lens reflex camera worth 2,500 euros (US$3,900) and a gold medal at a ceremony that took place in Pistoia, Italy. This is the first time that a non-Italian photographer won the title since the contest was first held in 1996.Mr. Dinh was born and grew up in the southern province of Dong Nai, 30km from Ho Chi Minh City. He was introduced to painting when he was five, but now the camera has completely replaced the brush. Mr. Dinh holds 30 medals for nude photos of competitions in the country and abroad. This is a record among Vietnamese photographers.Last year, in the black-and-white category, Mr. Dinh won the highest honor for a set of photos, the Golden Cup of the Photographic Society of Hong Kong, for his collection “Afternoon Dream.” He won a Bronze Cup for “Bath!” and a bronze medal from the Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique for “Word of Wind 2”.