In Vietnam's largest casino - News VietNamNet

VietNamNet Bridge - One of the biggest gamblers ever at the Do Son Casino, Hai Phong City, is Ngo Xuan Phuong, a Vietnamese Japanese, who is believed as a transnational drug trafficker.

Do Son Casino, in the northern port city of Hai Phong.

Right in front of the gate, we saw three layers of protection checkpoints. A billboard noted to not welcome players less than 18 years old; guests cannot bring in cameras and bags.

Following Mr. Tien Chi Kien, special assistant to the General Manager of the Do Son Casino, we took the elevator to the third floor through multiple layers of strict control.

Working at the Do Son Casino since its establishment, Kien knew about this casino more clearly than anyone else. Kien said like other casinos, cash is not used here. Money must be converted into chips, with the par value from $5 to $1,000.

In the lobby of hundreds of square meters of Do Son Casino, there are dozens of gambling tables, with four main games: Baccarat, Black jack, Roulette and Big-small.

Kien said European customers prefer playing Roulette, while most Japanese, Korean, Chinese and overseas Vietnamese like playing Black Jack or Baccarat. "Just lucky or not, no such thing as cheating here," Kien confirmed.

There are three Baccarat tables at the middle of the room, with different bets, ranging from $20 to $15,000. An employee explained that Baccarat has two betting doors for the player and the banker. In each game, the dealer will collect 5% of the amount of the winner, as service charge.

Running betting tables were young Vietnamese dealers. Their skills can be recognized through the way they deal cards and collect the money.

"Dealers are absolutely not permitted to commit a fraud. If a deal is suspicious by gamblers, he will be immediately replaced," Kien said.

In addition to the camera system to monitor all the tables, each shift has two supervisors, who usually come from Hong Kong and Macau. If there is any problem or complaint, they will handle.

Kien said the casino also has VIP rooms reserved for the guests who play big games.

Mr. Tran Phuong An, First Deputy General Director of the Hai Phong International Tourism Joint Venture Co., Ltd., said visitors to Do Son Casino just for entertainment know when to stop. However, those who are addicted to gamble are very easy to "die."

Over 10 years with the Do Son Casino, Mr. Kien has witnessed many "big bosses" losing all their money here.

Kien said one of the “thirstiest” gamblers is Ngo Xuan Phuong, a Vietnamese Japanese, who is believed to be a transnational drug trafficker.

Phuong used to be a VIP guest of the Do Son Casino 10 years ago. He only played Big-small; each game was never less than $5,000. He lost VND4-5 billion at this casino. This amount was huge ten years ago. Another example isTran Manh H., the boss of a popular taxi firm in Hai Phong city. H went bankrupt by gambling.

An said his company cooperated with nearly 200 domestic and international tour operators to seek clients. On average, each year the casino welcomes about 12,000-15,000 visitors.

He also said that since 2007, after Mr. Nguyen Dieu Do, a customs officer was shot dead at Do Son Casino. The company has tightened management to prevent Vietnamese gamblers. In fact, Do went to the casino that day with an overseas Vietnamese.

According to an investigation, Do usually appeared at Do Son Casino as a gambler and lender. He was killed by four gamblers and lenders at the casino on November 28, 2007. The killers claimed that he owed them tens of thousands of dollars and denied to pay back so they decided to take his life.

Based on the actual operation of the casino, Kien said that some regulations on casinos are inappropriate, such as the ban of Vietnamese to the casino.

"In some cases, Vietnamese businessmen took their foreign partners to the Do Son Casino but only the partners could enter. This may affect the reputation of Vietnamese businessmen," he commented.

Meanwhile, Tran Phuong An proposed to open more casinos in Vietnam but under a specific plan and to have more open mechanism for casinos.
Compiled by Nam Nguyen
from 24h

Japan-Vietnam cooperation for the benefit of Asia

Japan-Vietnam cooperation for the benefit of Asia

Posted: 04 Jul 2012 04:06 AM PDT

LookAtVietnam – Japan wishes to cooperate with Vietnam for the sake of peace, stability and development in the region.

Photo: VOV

This was confirmed by Takahiro Yokomichi, the Speaker of House of Representatives of Japan, while receiving Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Tokyo on July 3.

Yokomichi praised Vietnam’s socio-economic development and political stability as a contribution to promoting peace, stability and development in Asia.

He thanked the Vietnamese Government and people for their timely assistance to Japan during its tsunami and earthquake in March 2011.

For his part, Phuc expressed his hope that the Japanese Diet will support the two governments’ efforts to implement the industrial cooperation strategy between the two countries from now until 2020, including big projects on developing the rare earth industry in Vietnam.

On the same day, Phuc met with Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yukio Edano who declared that Japan will help Vietnam complete infrastructure construction in line with its industrial development strategy.

He added that the Japanese business community tends to invest more overseas, particularly in Vietnam.

Japan wants to further cooperate with Vietnam in environmental protection and climate change adaptation, Edano said.

Phuc urged Japan to assist Vietnam’s support industry, help build industrial parks in Haiphong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau and encourage its businesses, especially small-and medium-sized enterprises, to invest in Vietnam, particularly in the form of public-private partnership (PPP).

Phuc said that with two-way trade turnover surpassing US$21 billion in 2011, the two sides will continue to promote bilateral cooperation for mutual benefits.

VietNamNet/VOV online

Tourism sector targets Japanese visitors

April 15, 2012

The country has targeted to welcome 1 million Japanese tourists by 2015 as Japan has always been among the top five markets for Viet Nam’s tourism sector for recent years.
Viet Nam ranked the third most attractive destination to Japanese tourirsts in the ASEAN region with nearly 482,000 Japanese coming to the country last year, up 8.9 per cent from the previous year, although it was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami in March last year.
The first two months of the year saw nearly 110,000 Japanese visiting Viet Nam, up 16.9 per cent year-on-year.
Viet Nam has significant advantages to attract Japanese tourists including stable political security, 15 days visa to be exempt from Japanese guests travelling to Viet Nam, near distance between Viet Nam and Japan (only 5 hour direct flight), many cultural similarities between two countries, good diplomatic relationship and various tourism resources of Viet Nam which meet the Japanese people’s tastes.
However, deputy director of the Viet Travel Channel Company Ho Kim Dung said that it was not easy to be access to Japanese tourist market as Japanese arrivals are high demanding while Viet Nam’s tourism service quality has remained restricted.
The Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) also admitted that there remained difficulties to attract Japanese tourists including limited expense for promoting tourism, no tourism promotion office in Japan, lack of marketing strategies for this market and restricted tourism products quality.
Therefore, the goal of attracting 1 million Japanese tourists by 2015 is deemed as ambitious but given available air links, efforts of travel firms in both countries and the appeal of Viet Nam as a favourite destination of Japanese tourists, industry insiders expected that the target would be achievable.
Nguyen Minh Man, director of the Communications Division of Vietravel, which receives roughly 1,000-1,500 Japanese arrivals monthly on average, said that the target would be met if all domestic tourist companies considered the attraction of Japanese visitors a key task from now to 2015 and focused on it to create a comprehensive promotion campaign to attract the visitors.
VNAT has so far drawn up a scheme with various specific activities intended to attract more Japanese visitors, including the inauguration of a representative office in Japan late this year. When the office is in place, marketing and advertising projects on television and in newspapers and direct interactions with customers will be conducted in a more regular basis.
Besides creating website in Japanese language to promote Viet Nam tourism on the base of studying taste characteristics of Japanese market, VNAT will also establish the group of Viet Nam-Japan tourism development and step up training the Japanese tour guides as well as the human resources to improve customer service quality.
An expansion of direct flights between the two countries is also considered a measure to attract more Japanese tourists to Viet Nam.
VNS

NO Return to Vietnam Japanese?

Japanese tourists do not return to Vietnam: report 

March 11, 2012

Japanese tourism industry insiders dismiss the claims made by Vietnamese tourism authorities, saying few Japanese tourists ever return to Vietnam because of poor service and lack of attractions.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism recently estimated 40 percent of Japanese return to Vietnam at least for a second time.
But a spokesperson for leading Japanese tour operator JTB said at the Ho Chi Minh City International Tourism Fair last September that “many Japanese would be surprised with the big number. But that included those coming for business purposes.”
“Vietnam is not a popular destination for Japanese tourists yet.”
Shigemastsu Akifumi of H.I.S Song Han tourism company based in Da Nang said the company received 12,000 tourists from Japan every year but less than 1 percent made a second visit.
“They say there’s nothing interesting,” he said.
Many are angered by the unrespectful and indifferent attitude of staffs at hotels, even at four- and five-star places, and large restaurants, saying they just bring the food and rarely ask or notice if customers need a seasoning or tissues, he said.
“The Vietnamese managers tend to side with their staff even if they make mistakes, and the tourists can only solve their problems after talking to foreign managers.”
His company itself has problems with many restaurants, which promise a proper menu but then serve something else and offer “unacceptable” excuses like they are unable to find the right ingredients or have a new chef, he said.
Hospitality agencies in Vietnam are happy with "receiving a visitor just once” and that is a “dangerously” low bar, he added.

RELATED CONTENT

US doctors report theft on train, local workers suspended Vietnam tourism yet to find the right charm Home away from home? Traveler’s rant a wake-up call

Saori Kozumi, a manager at the HCMC-based Apex company, a leading tour operator for Japanese in Vietnam, said taxi scams, dirty toilets, and airport bureaucracy also discouraged tourists from returning.
The low number of tour guides who can speak Japanese — just 401 – is another problem for Japanese tourists, tour companies said.
They are looking forward to Vietnam setting up a tourism promotion agency in Japan.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism approved such an office more than a decade ago, but nothing has happened so far.
Hoang Thi Diep, deputy head of the administration, said they have been allocated around VND1 billion (US$47,850) for the office in Japan, but it would cost nearly VND4.2 billion.
She said she has sought the assistance of Vietnam Airlines and tourism companies in the two countries.
Laos and Cambodia have tourism offices in Japan though they get fewer Japanese tourists than Vietnam, which ranks 12th among countries visited by Japanese tourists.
Nguyen Quoc Ky, general director of state-owned tourism company Vietravel, said: “It is important to make people return, especially from nearby markets since that will prove the attractiveness and stability of the destination.”
But with Vietnam not managing to prove that yet, Ky said it has lost value as a destination and his Japanese partners keep asking for price cuts.
His company had to reduce prices by 10 percent last year and has been asked for a further 10-15 percent discount this year.
Akifumi said “The return rate is low, so we need to attract new customers by offering painfully low prices.
“The situation is very difficult, but few government officials understand that.”
Under these circumstances, Vietnam’s target of getting one million Japanese tourists by 2015 seems out of reach, the companies said.
The number of visitors from that country increased 8.9 percent last year to more than 481,500, including those coming for business.
Like us on Facebook and scroll down to share your comment

Thanh Nien News 

Miss Vietnam designs ao dai for Japan | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

VietNamNet Bridge – The highlight of the music show tonight on March 31 to support Japanese victims will be the auction of ao dai owned by Vietnamese beauty queens, including two ao dai designed by Miss Vietnam 2010 Ngoc Han.

Miss Vietnam 2010 Ngoc Han

Ngoc Han has designed two ao dai featuring Vietnamese and Japanese characteristics for the auction in VietNamNet’s show entitled “Be Strong, Japan!”
“Japan is now experiencing a difficult time after earthquakes and tsunamis. But with their resilience, Japanese have been calmly faced difficulties, even in the worst cases. To show my respect for their resilience, I designed an ao dai with a Japanese collar, with cherry blossoms as patterns. I hope Japan will quickly recover!” Ngoc Han said.
The concert will take place on March 31, with the participation of three beauty queens and famous singers at the Hanoi Theatre, 42 Trang Tien.
The show is based on song writer Duong Thu’s idea to raise funds for the victims of earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan on March 11.
The show will feature Miss Vietnam World Ngo Phuong, Miss Vietnam Ngoc Han, Miss Sports Tran Thi Quynh, supermodels Ha Vy, Hong Que in addition to famous singers like Meritorious Artist Viet Hoan, Trong Tan, Tan Minh, Khanh Linh, Quang Ha, Ngoc Anh, Hoang Hai Minh Chuyen, My Dung, etc.
Singers will perform songs by well-known songwriters like Trinh Cong Son, Hoang Viet, Phan Huynh Dieu, Phu Quang, Tran Tien, Le Minh Son, Ho Hoai Anh and others.
The latest fashion collections by designers Duc Hung from Hanoi, Viet Hung from HCM City and evening gowns by brand name designer Miss Khue will be introduced in the show.
The three beauty queens – Phuong Lan, Ngoc Han and Tran Thi Quynh – will auction their ao dai (Vietnamese gown) to raise funds for Japanese victims.
Tickets are available at the Hanoi Theatre, 42 Trang Tien.
In related news, another show entitled “Japan – the Sharing” organized by VietNamNet Newspaper, the Hanoi Young Artist Association and Dong Do Company in Hanoi on March 30 raised more than 300 million ($35,000) for Japan.
The money and the revenues from the “Be Strong, Japan!” show will be sent to the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam.

To support Japanese victims, readers can donate cash to VietNamNet Newspaper, No. 4 Lang Ha Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi or transfer money to VietNamNet Newspaper’s account as follows:

Account code: 0011002643148

Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, 198 Tran Quang Khai, Hanoi

SWIFT code: BFTVVNVX

Ngoc Han’s ao dai:

“Japan – The Sharing” show in photos:

Actor Xuan Bac, his wife Hong Nhung and comedian Tu Long in “Teaching Wife” play.

Chi Trung, Ngoc Huyen and Thanh Trung in a comedy entitled “Motorbike Racing”.

Van Dung, Quang Thang and Cong Ly in another comedy.

Singers Ngoc Anh

Singer My Dung

Singer Dinh Manh Ninh

Comedian Van Dung puts cash into the donation box for Japan.

Actor Xuan Bac also donates cash.

Artists checks the donation box.

Show host Thao Van and VietNamNet Deputy Editor Pham Anh Tuan announce the total donation.

Manh Dung-Huong Giang

Vietnam’s first nuclear power plants to be protected by 15m dike

VietNamNet Bridge – The two nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan province will be able to resist quakes of 7-8 Richter scales and will be protected by dikes which can prevent tsunamis of up to 15 meters.

Dr. Tran Van Luyen from the nuclear power plant project preparation board in Ninh Thuan province said that the strongest quake in Vietnam occurred in the northwestern region – 6.1 Richter scale.
Luyen said that the two nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan will be designed to resist quakes 15-30 percent stronger than the strongest-ever quake in Vietnam so far. For tsunamis, the highest wave recorded in Ninh Thuan was 8 meters but the dike designed for the two plants will be 15 meters.
Dr. Nguyen Nhi Dien, director of the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute, said that the reactor in Da Lat can sustain quakes of 6-7 Richter scales and can automatically shutdown in emergencies.
After the nuclear crisis in Japan, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute have asked the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute and the Hanoi Nuclear Science and Technology Institute to perform environmentally radioactive observation at their two national stations.
According to Dien, the reactor in Da Lat is for research so its capacity is low, only 500KW thermo, while the reactor No.1 in Fukushima is 1,500MW. The third reactor, which exploded recently, is over 2,000MW.
“We should not be so worried because the safety of the Da Lat reactor and Fukushima reactor is different,” Dien said.
He confirmed that environmental observation was performed weekly and monthly. After the crisis in Japan, it is performed every few hours.
Dien said that after the nuclear crisis in Japan, the top priority in building nuclear power plants in Vietnam is choosing the right technology. There are nearly 450 reactors in the world, which use different technologies, and Vietnam needs to choose the best of them.
On March 17, the Ministry of Science and Technology organized an urgent meeting to discuss issues related to Vietnam’s first nuclear power projects.
On March 16, National Assembly Chair Tran Dinh Dan said that the NA approved the nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan and at this moment there is no change to that plan.
PV

Vietnam new air route to 4 Japanese cities

The corporation began this air route in July 2005, but suspended operations in December 2007 due to low demand.

At present, there are 25 flights a week from HCM City to four Japanese cities, including Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Nagoya.

Vietnam Airlines began operating its air route from Hanoi to Nagoya in November 2009.

Vietnam Airlines has just became a full member of SkyTeam, the world’s second largest airline alliance, making it the only carrier in Southeast Asia to be admitted as a member.

Vietnam Airlines expects to transport 12 million local and foreign passengers this year with 290 flights per day, for revenues of VND32.2 trillion ($1.69 billion) and profits of VND151 billion ($7.9 million) this year.

U.S., Japanese governments investigate origins of museum bones - Inside Bay Area

A collection of human bones stored at UC Berkeley that could be those of Japanese soldiers who committed suicide on Saipan during the American invasion of 1944 is being investigated by U.S. and Japanese authorities, a university official said Wednesday.

The school is "engaged in careful and complicated discussions" to see if there is some way to get better information on the remains, the official said.

That information could solve legal questions over the bones and raise repatriation issues.The bones were donated 35 years ago to the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology by a U.S. Navy physician.

Dr. Max Childress, who was a lieutenant commander in the Navy on Saipan, collected the bones in 1945. He has since died.Issues surrounding the bones and whether their collection violated the Geneva Conventions on war mysteriously sprang to life about a year ago when someone sent letters to the U.S. Department of Defense, the Japanese government and the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo that commemorates Japanese war dead.The letters told of the existence of the remains and offered to give them back, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said."That was an unauthorized communication from a current or former employee of the museum to the shrine and other government agencies," he said.The school then received letters from the shrine saying "at this shrine, we pray to the spirits of the war dead. We therefore have no human The bones, including two skulls, four jaw bones, four ribs, one partial skull and others, were collected in hospitals on the island and other parts of Saipan, Mogulof said. Testing of DNA samples from descendants of those who were on Saipan during the American invasion is one way the university could find more information about them, but the official did not know if that is part of the discussions between the two governments.If the bones eventually are determined to be of those who were in the Japanese military, the university will have a better idea whether it has been in violation of any aspect of the Geneva Conventions, which establishes rules for the treatment of prisoners of war, the sick wounded or dead.Until now, lawyers for the school have said it is impossible to say whether the school has been in violation of the law because it is unknown if the bones are of military personnel or not. Mogulof said that since the bones have so little documentation with them, the school cannot be certain they are indeed those of Japanese soldiers who committed suicide there during the American invasion.

"In normal circumstances, what is written on the catalog card is substantiated by source documents, but we don't have those source documents," Mogulof said. "All we know is that they appear to be of East Asian origin."A U.S. Navy spokesman said there is too little information on the bones at the moment to make a determination of their origin."From our inquiries with Cal, we can't confirm that they are from Saipan or if they are Japanese military personnel," U.S. Navy Lt. Commander John Daniels said.Daniels said the Navy looked into the matter because the bones were donated by a Navy officer. Childress also lived in Vietnam and Indonesia following World War II.A spokesman at the Japanese Embassy in Washington said the Japanese government was aware of the situation, but it has not made any official response.

Documentation provided by UC Berkeley show that the bones were picked up by a museum staffer from Childress in San Francisco with the description stating that they were "1 box of assorted skulls and post-cranial bone, the unmarked specimens were collected on Saipan in 1945. The marked bones are from various hospitals Dr. Childress worked in." A letter from a staff member to Childress in 1974 said, "Thank you so much for your donation of the skeletal specimens you obtained on Saipan. The skulls will be very useful in the Physical Anthropology laboratory as teaching specimens."UC Berkeley stopped taking donations of bones 20 years ago, although the bones are still important in teaching, Mogulof said.

Bones at the museum are nothing new. It houses the remains of about 11,000 individuals, Mogulof said, from prehistoric California, Peru, Egypt and other areas.<"The answer to why we accepted the (Saipan) bones can be provided only by people who are dead or no longer work here," he said. "We can't simply box them up and send them some place absent knowledge of somebody or some entity that wants them, is ready to accept them and has a legitimate claim to repatriate them without the substantiating information required to return them and the circumstances as to why they died.

Tourism in crisis: Vietnam tour fees higher, tourists fewer

Vietnam tour in crisis, it is clear that the financial crisis is the main reason for the difficulties of the world’s tourism industry. As for Vietnam’s tourism, there is one more reason for the gloomy tourism season – high tour fees.

Tourists cancel tours
October is the high tourism season in Vietnam, but the numbers of foreign tourists booking tours to Vietnam remains modest. Travel firms all have forecast that the number of foreign travellers will decrease sharply this season.
Nguyen Van Lang from Exotissimo, specialising in inbound tourism, predicted that his company’s clients would decrease by 20-30% over the same period of last year. Tran The Dung from Fiditour said that the number of his company’s clients is forecast to decrease by 15-20%. Meanwhile, Hoang Tuan Lang, Head of the Marketing Division of Continental Hotel, quoted Japanese travel firms which specialise in bringing tourists to Vietnam as saying that the number of Japanese travellers will be 40% lower this year.
The travel firms all say that the financial crisis has led to the lower number of tourists as people now tend to take domestic tours or travel to nearby countries. However, they have also pointed out that the high tour fees offered by Vietnamese travel firms are also turning foreign travellers off.
In the last year, while tours to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have increased by 5-10% only, tours to Vietnam have increased by 15-30%.
A tour from Ho Chi Minh City to Thailand (six days and five nights) offered by Vietnamese travel firms is at $400-410/person. Meanwhile, a similar tour from Bangkok to Vietnam is $550-560/person. As for a tour from Singapore to Thailand, a round-trip ticket is just $37, while airfare to Vietnam is $300.
The return Tokyo-Bangkok-Tokyo airfare is $400-500, while Tokyo-Ho Chi Minh City-Tokyo is $900.
A 3-star hotel room rate in Thailand is $70-80/day, while the rate is $100-100/day in Vietnam.
What does Vietnam’s tourism industry expect?
Vietnam’s tourism industry may not reach the goal of receiving 4.8-5mil travellers this year as only 3.2mil travellers arrived in Vietnam in the first nine months of the year.
Lam Tran Huong, Head of the Hotel Faculty at Viet Giao Tourism Vocational School, has attributed the decreased number of tourists to bad management. He said that in 2006 and 2007, when Vietnam joined the WTO and neighbouring countries faced political crisis, it was easy for the country to attract tourists.
However, Vietnam could not take full advantage of its opportunity because it did not prepare well. Vietnam seriously lacked hotel rooms to welcome foreign tourists. Meanwhile, Vietnam did not do anything to lure foreign investors. It even raised hotel room rates to make tours to Vietnam more expensive. Many hotels reportedly raised room rates by 50% in 2007 over the previous year.
“Tour fees are decided by hotel room rates, meals and transport. Vietnam tour fees will only decrease if the prices of services decrease,” said Vo Anh Tai, Director of Saigontourist.
A lot of hotels have been trying to rescue themselves by cutting hotel room rates by 10% and providing free services. However, the decreases prove to be nothing compared to the sharp increases they made last year.


(Source:Saigon tiep thi)