FXstreet.com (Córdoba) – High-yield currencies moved considerably during the American session, as initially reached fresh highs against the Dollar but then turned lower, to new monthly lows to then bounced sharply back to the upside erasing losses. The Kiwi is outperforming the Loonie and the Aussie on Friday.

Commodity currencies are moving in line with Wall Street main stock indexes. The Dow Jones bottomed earlier at 11,140, the lowest level since early December but then jumped more than 300 points and currently is rising 97 points or 0.86%.

AUD/USD bottomed at 1.0375, fresh 4-month lows but then rebounded sharply to test daily highs at 1.0525. Currently it is struggling to close the week above 1.0500.

NZD/USD reached the lowest level on Asian hours at 0.8275 but currently is testing levels on top of 0.8420.

USD/CAD is trading at 0.9780/85, just a few pips below the price it had at the beginning of the day after peaking at 0.9852, the strongest level since June 29.

Market sentiment improved after reports suggested that the ECB was willing to buy Italian bond and following a press conference where Italian Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, announced a G-7 meeting of Finance ministers and also said that the budget will be balanced by 2013.

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Overnight Headlines

• US Dollar Gains vs Euro, Pound on Safety Demand as Stocks Decline
• New Zealand Dollar Outperforms on Rising Payouts for Dairy Farmers
• UK House Prices Surge in February, Overall Trend Still Disappointing

Critical Levels

CCY	SUPPORT	RESISTANCE
EURUSD	1.3574	1.3745
GBPUSD	1.6165	1.6328

The Euro and the British Pound declined, falling as much as 0.3 and 0.2 percent respectively against the US Dollar as stocks sold off in overnight trade, boosting safety-seeking demand for the benchmark currency. We remain short EURUSD.

Asia Session: What Happened

CCY	GMT	EVENT	ACT	EXP	PREV
JPY	15:00	Cabinet Office Monthly Economic Report	-	-	-
NZD	21:30	Performance Services Index (JAN)	50.8	-	52.1 (R-)
GBP	0:01	Rightmove House Prices (MoM) (FEB)	3.1%	-	0.3%
GBP	0:01	Rightmove House Prices (YoY) (FEB)	0.3%	-	0.4%
NZD	2:00	Credit Card Spending (MoM) (JAN)	3.8%	-	-1.7% (R-)
NZD	2:00	Credit Card Spending (YoY) (JAN)	5.6%	-	2.1% (R+)
JPY	4:30	All Industry Activity Index (MoM) (DEC)	-0.2%	-	-0.2% (R-)

The New Zealand Dollar outperformed in overnight trade, overlooking mixed economic data and a selloff across Asian stock exchanges, amid speculation that Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd – the world’s largest dairy exporter – may raise its payout to farmers after milk powder prices hit a 31-month high. Higher payouts promise to boost hiring and spending in New Zealand’s top export industry, adding fuel to the sluggish economic recovery. The currency rose 0.5 percent on average against its major counterparts.

The New ZealandPerformance of Services Index slid to 50.8 in January, showing the non-manufacturing sector expanded at the slowest pace in 15 months. Meanwhile, Credit Card Spending soared 5.6 percent from the preceding year, showing the fastest annual growth rate since May 2008. The MSCI Asia Pacific regional benchmark index fell as downward pressure from last week’s Chinese RRR increase was compounded by spreading tensions in the Middle East, with uprisings spreading to Libya, Bahrain and Iran.

UK House Prices surged in February, rising 3.1 percent from the previous month according to report from Righmove Plc, an online listing of for-sale properties. The increase is the largest in four months. Looking past month-to-month volatility however, the trend in house prices remains troubling. Indeed, the same report showed prices added just 0.3 percent from a year before, putting the annualized growth rate at the slowest in 16 months.

Euro Session: What to Expect

CCY	GMT	EVENT	EXP	PREV	IMPACT
CHF	8:00	Money Supply M3 (YoY) (JAN)	-	6.6%	Low
EUR	8:00	French PMI Manufacturing (FEB P)	55.3	54.9	Low
EUR	8:00	French PMI Services (FEB P)	58.0	57.8	Low
EUR	8:30	German PMI Manufacturing (FEB A)	60.3	60.5	Medium
EUR	8:30	German PMI Services (FEB A)	60.2	60.3	Medium
EUR	9:00	German IFO - Business Climate (FEB)	110.3	110.3	Medium
EUR	9:00	German IFO - Current Assessment (FEB)	113	112.8	Medium
EUR	9:00	German IFO – Expectations (FEB)	107.5	107.8	Medium
EUR	9:00	Euro-Zone PMI Composite (FEB A)	56.9	57.0	Medium
EUR	9:00	Euro-Zone PMI Manufacturing (FEB A)	57.2	57.3	Medium
EUR	9:00	Euro-Zone PMI Services (FEB A)	55.9	55.9	Medium

Risk sentiment is likely to remain a key catalyst for currency markets in European hours as investors continue to fret about mounting tensions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. Stock index futures ticked lower and stocks sold off in Asia after Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, spoke out on state-run television warning of an impending civil war as Tunisian- and Egyptian-style protests were met with a harsh response from security forces. Libya is the world’s 12th-largest oil exporter.

On the data front, Germany’s IFO Survey of business confidence is expected to show sentiment soured a bit, with the closely-watched “Expectations” index down to 107.5 in February having hit a record-high 107.8 in the previous month. Meanwhile, February’s preliminary Euro Zone Purchasing Manager Index figures are set to reveal region-wide economic activity decelerated for the first time since October, driven by a slowdown in manufacturing-sector growth.

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A trade fair organized by Vietnamese manufacturers to showcase their products in Cambodia Several Vietnamese exports hold larger market shares in Cambodia than both Thai and Chinese products, said a local businessman familiar with the Cambodian economy.

Truong Cung Nghia, executive director of Truong Doan Company, said Cambodian customers preferred Vietnamese products to those from Thailand and China. Processed seafood products from Vietnam held an 80 percent market share in Cambodia while agricultural products made up 67 percent of that market, said Nghia, whose company specializes in Cambodian market research. Nghia added Vietnamese businesses supplied 68 percent of Cambodia’s steel demand. Nguyen Xuan Truong, head of Binh Dien Fertilizer Company’s Marketing Department, said Cambodians used similar daily agricultural products. Truong said his company’s brand was popular with Cambodian farmers in rural areas as the company advertized heavily in the countryside. Sales in Cambodia reeled in higher revenues for the company than its domestic sales did, said Truong. However, it was still risky to trade with partners in Cambodia as they paid in cash and rarely used banks, said Nghia. Truong said about 120 Vietnamese businesses and investors were operating in Cambodian markets, contributing to the US$1.7 billion bilateral trade with Vietnam last year. He said the figure would grow to $2 billion this year. Reported by Minh Quang

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The global economic recession has hindered expansion of the export market for local producers. Vietnam’s exports declined 0.1 percent to US$18.64 billion in the first four months of the year, according to the General Statistics Office. Many producers have since decided to shift their focus to the domestic market and expand their market share at home, but are finding it a hard task. “The game seemed to be easy at home but it even takes more effort to win local hearts,” said Lai Kim, chief executive officer of Nhat Tan Garment Company. Kim admits that the company, which started exporting garments in 1992, did not have a strong distribution system here, nor did it run any promotional campaign to build up its local image before its foray into the domestic market. The garment producer is now struggling to build strategies for production, distribution and promotion for local markets. “For exports, we were not much worried about selling the products; we could concentrate on manufacturing as requested,” the CEO said. Ly Ngoc Minh, general director of Minh Long I, said the most difficult problem that the ceramic maker has had to face was to convince local customers to choose its products, as their prices are very high. Minh said the company has invested a lot in design and production to supply international customers with high quality ceramic products, including tea cups and bowls. Foreign customers could easily accept the high prices but locals may not, Minh said. Joey Ngo, deputy general director of Trung Thanh Furniture Corporation, said the domestic market had potential for wood processors as Vietnam’s current furniture spending per capita was very low at $10, compared to $250 in Europe, the firm’s main export market. The corporation has focused on stabilizing and balancing its sales in foreign and domestic markets, Ngo said, but added that its furniture products were still expensive for most consumers in Vietnam. According to Ngo, only 20 percent people in big cities are able to afford its furniture products. Many other businesses say being patient, creative and understanding are important qualities for exporters trying to switch their focus to home. But economist Le Dang Doanh said the domestic market should not be considered the only focus for export-oriented businesses as they still need to boost exports to keep the national economy growing. However, he conceded that due to falling prices and demand on the global market, Vietnamese exporters will find it more difficult to achieve what they did last year. The government predicts export growth will slow to 13 percent this year from the scorching 29.5 percent in 2008 because of the economic downturn in important markets like the US, Europe and Japan. Exports earned Vietnam $62.9 billion last year. Vietnamese exporters should reduce production costs to make their products more competitive while maintaining high quality so that they can retain their overseas markets, Doanh said. High prices and a lack of marketing are making things more difficult for export-oriented firms Reported by Minh Quang

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Doctor Jean Meynard (2nd, R), vice chairman of the France-based Vietnam les Enfants de la Dioxine (The Children of Dioxin in Vietnam), visits the family of an Agent Orange victim in Hanoi’s Ba Vi District. The long-drawn out struggle for justice waged by Agent Orange victims continues despite the many setbacks posed by indefensible actions of the courts and successive US administrations.

The architect of Vietnam’s legendary military victories against the far more powerful French and American armies is 98 years old, but the soft-spoken general minces no words as he accuses the government and courts in the US of double standards. In a letter sent to the International People’s Tribunal of Conscience, Vo Nguyen Giap contrasts the courts’ dismissal of the suit filed by Vietnamese victims against US companies that produced the toxic chemical sprayed by American forces during the Vietnam War with the generous compensation given to US soldiers by the companies and the US administration. The wrong and unfair verdict of the US courts is unacceptable legally and morally, Giap says. The international tribunal will hold its hearing on the Agent Orange case in Paris on May 15 and 16. “I strongly believe that the International Peoples’ Tribunal of Conscience will come up with conclusions which will force the US side to be responsible for dealing with heavy and long-lasting consequences of the chemical warfare waged by the US against Vietnam,” Giap says in his letter. A 14-member delegation representing over three million Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange will depose before the tribunal. Late Monday afternoon, five members of the delegation, which includes three experts in the environmental, health and chemical disciplines, left Vietnam for Paris. The others will depart for Paris tomorrow, including three Agent Orange victims: war veterans Ho Ngoc Chu of Quang Ngai Province and Mai Giang Vu of Ho Chi Minh City, and Pham The Minh from Hai Phong City. As witnesses and victims, the delegation will supply the tribunal with specific evidence of the harmful effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam’s natural environment and human health, clarifying legal issues, so that the US side shoulders responsibility for compensation, said Nguyen Van Rinh, chairman of the Vietnam Association for the Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA), at a press briefing in Hanoi Monday. Between 1961 and 1971, the US Army dropped some 80 million liters of the defoliant known as Agent Orange, containing 366 kilograms of the highly toxic dioxin over large areas of southern Vietnam. The tribunal, convened at the initiative of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), will consider the evidence and draw conclusions about the consequences to the environment and ecology of Vietnam and to the health of the Vietnamese people. It will also consider the responsibility of the US administrations during the period for the conduct of chemical warfare in Vietnam under Customary International Laws; as well as the responsibility of the US in remediation of the consequences suffered by the Vietnamese people. Ho Ngoc Chu, one of three Agent Orange victims attending the tribunal, said: “I propose the US government and US chemical producers accept the obvious fact, not cover it; and shoulder responsibility for dealing with consequences of the toxic chemicals on Vietnam's people and environment, including compensating them. There is no reason for the US government ignoring what they did in the past." The Vietnam Fatherland Front, the umbrella organization of all political and social groups in Vietnam, Monday called for the public to support the International Peoples’ Tribunal. The front’s presidium reaffirmed their support for the VAVA lawsuit and individuals representing victims of Agent Orange, and expressed their belief that the tribunal will fairly consider the evidence and draw conclusions. “We continue to affirm that the struggle for justice of Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange/dioxin is the voice of conscience and human rights, not only for local victims but also for the legitimate interests of other victims, including soldiers from the US and many other countries who participated in the Vietnam War,” it said. The presidium also called for governments, international organizations, scientists, lawyers, social activists and people in the US and other countries to speak up for the truth and take concrete actions to support and help Vietnamese victims in their struggle for justice. The legal case In 2004, Vietnamese Agent Orange victims filed a case against 37 US Agent Orange manufacturing firms in the Brooklyn District Court, New York. In March 2005, Judge Jack Weinstein dismissed the suit, ruling that there was no legal basis for the claim and that the US chemical companies were not liable for how the government used Agent Orange during the war. Three judges from the Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan then heard the Appeals case in June 2007 but upheld Weinstein’s ruling. In August 2008, VAVA petitioned the US Supreme Court to hear the case but it refused to do so in March 2009, without citing reasons. AGENT ORANGE CRUSADER STARTS ANOTHER ONLINE PETITION Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society Len Aldis is once again urging the US to bear responsibility for Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange and is looking to get one million signatures on his latest petition. Aldis created and wrote the “Justice for Victims of Agent Orange Petition” to President Obama and Members of Congress on Thursday. It can be found at http://petitiononline.com/Monsanto/petition.html. In the petition, Aldis notes that after the case brought to the US Supreme Court by dioxin victims demanding restitution from the companies was rejected in March, “Over three million Vietnamese and thousands of American servicemen and women, and their children, will continue to suffer from the serious illnesses and disabilities caused by Agent Orange.” Aldis also quotes the statement that Nguyen Duc made in November 2006 to an American journalist. Duc and his late brother Viet, both victims of Agent Orange, were born conjoined in 1981. Aldis, who expressed his frustration in a letter to President Obama immediately following the refusal on March 2, on Thursday urged the US president and Congress to heed Duc’s words despite the Supreme Court decision, and accept responsibility for and the moral obligations to the victims of Agent Orange. Reported by Bao Anh

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Illegally felled trees confiscated by the local park rangers in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai. Illegal loggers in the Central Highlands and nearby provinces are prepared use lethal force to retrieve confiscated logs, but few of the bloody scuffles are investigated by local police.

The loggers have deployed swords, teargas and guns to fight park rangers, putting the latter’s lives in serious danger. “There have been some internal problems among concerned authorities besides a lack of good coordination in protecting the forests,” said Y Rit Bya, chief park ranger of Dak Lak Province. “The problem here means a few officials are abetting illegal loggers for reasons of financial benefit or to avoid affecting some relations [with other officials who also are involved in illegal logging],” Tuoi Tre quoted Bya as saying. In a recent meeting with Dak Lak People’s Committee on enforcing forest protection, Bya requested concerned authorities to be more determined in punishing illegal loggers. The court offices and the police have been too lenient in handling the issue, he said, adding that these offices accept but do nothing with documents forwarded by park rangers requesting criminal investigation into the cases. This means all the efforts of the park rangers in protecting the forests have failed, he said. Tran The Lien, director of the Yok Don National Park in Dak Lak and Dak Nong provinces, said since last November, four cases of Forest Protection Law violations have been forwarded to the police of Buon Don District in Dak Lak Province. However, they have investigated only one of these cases, he said. “It was too little and failed to deter illegal loggers,” said Bui Van Khang, chief park ranger of Buon Don District. Khang also said the district park rangers have also sought police investigations into several cases every year, but none of the cases were solved. The situation is similar in neighboring Cu M’Gar District. “Some serious cases have happened in the district when illegal loggers fought with park rangers or used teargas to threaten forest owners to cut down trees and carry them out of the forest on about seven tractors,” said the district’s chief park ranger Bui Xuan Khu. “But I couldn’t understand the police standing still even after the cases were forwarded to them and reported widely by the media,” he said. District park rangers have recently reported nine serious cases that were not investigated by the police to the provincial office and requested that they are forwarded to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the central government. In Dak Nong Province, there were at least three cases of illegal loggers attacking park rangers in April. Nguyen Ngoc Tai, vice chief park ranger of the province, said many officials have been hospitalized after suffering injuries from the loggers’ attacks with poles and knives. Some individuals tasked with protecting the forests have also colluded with the illegal loggers, he said. In a recent case, local authorities dismissed Nguyen Van Hieu as director of the Dak Ha Forest Enterprise after they found he was involved in illegal logging. Increasing bloodshed Last Thursday a logger shot a ranger in the stomach with a homemade gun in a forest at Ja Wam Village in Dak Lak Province’s Cu M’Gar District. The victim, Nguyen Kim Muu, was brought to Dak Lak General Hospital with bleeding wounds and three bullets in his liver. Duong Van Son, vice director of Buon Ja Wam Investment and Development Company that owns the forest, said Le Van Thuat has been identified as the primary suspect. Earlier, Muu and six rangers had discovered about 10 people transporting wood in the forest on two tractors. The rangers asked them to stop for a check but the strangers resisted with three homemade guns and many knives, and Thuat shot Muu before fleeing with his accomplices, said Son. In another case, park ranger Le Tan Hoang of Ea So Natural Reserve in Dak Lak Province was seriously stabbed on April 25 by poachers after he and three others caught them in the act. The rangers had seized a head and two legs of a deer and arrested two poachers, while four others fled. However, the four returned with some 20 others and attacked the rangers with swords. Three park rangers escaped while Hoang collapsed after suffering five stab wounds, including one to his lung. Earlier, an inspection team of Buon Don District detected 64 illegal logs of more than 21 cubic meters at a garden at Krong Na Commune. Shortly after, hundreds of people crowded the site and challenged the officials with poles and knives. The logs were confiscated hours later, after the district administration mobilized around 100 officials from the police, military and park rangers to the site. On March 5, officials of the Gia Lai Province inspection team were lucky to escape after a truck carrying 14 cubic meters of illegal logs suddenly turned back in an attempt to run them over, even after the officials had managed to shoot the rear wheel of the truck. A week later, inspectors found a truck carrying illegal logs openly on the road, which only stopped after they fired warning shots. Last Saturday, four rangers at the Bu Gia Map National Park in Binh Phuoc Province were attacked while they were sleeping at a station in Phuoc Long District. Ranger Duong Quang Hung suffered a severe injury to his left arm, which was nearly cut off, while others suffered minor injuries. An official at the national park said six local residents are identified as the assailants. They wanted to avenge the park rangers for preventing them from logging and hunting in the protected forest. In Binh Dinh Province, park rangers Phan Van Thanh and Tran Ngoc Hung on April 13 suffered serious injuries after being attacked by 25 loggers. They even stopped the rangers from being hospitalized and continued to attack before a ranger fired warning shots. The rangers had earlier seized illegal logs being carried from Hoai An to Hoai Nhon District. Source: TT, TN

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Vietnam’s economic growth has probably begun accelerating, with the first quarter likely to be the low point in the country’s downturn, HSBC Holdings Plc said.

The economy expanded 3.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the slowest pace of expansion on record. A round of rate cuts by Vietnam’s central bank, a government stimulus program, a weaker currency and resilient personal consumption expenditure are buoying the growth outlook, Prakriti Sofat, a Singapore-based economist at HSBC, wrote in a note. The economy may grow 4.5 percent for the year, compared with 6.2 percent in 2008, she said. “The worst is behind us,” wrote Sofat. Vietnam is facing a “slowdown, not a recession,” she said. The State Bank of Vietnam has cut its benchmark interest rate to 7 percent from 14 percent in October. The central bank’s moves to date represent a “massive monetary policy easing,” Sofat wrote. The easing is now “working its way through the system,” she said in the note. A government subsidy on loans – part of a stimulus package that Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last month valued at US$8 billion – functions as a de facto further easing of monetary policy, according to HSBC. The loan subsidy program is creating a new “credit boom” in Vietnam, Citigroup Inc. said last month. Exports holding up Exports may be receiving some boost from a 10 percent “nominal depreciation” of the Vietnamese dong against the US dollar over the last year, Sofat wrote. Garment shipments have held up “reasonably well,” in part due to a focus on lower-end products that benefit during a period when shoppers’ incomes are being squeezed, she said in the note. “We’re into summer orders already, and things are holding up,” said Jonathan Pincus, an economist with the Vietnam Program at the Harvard Kennedy School in Ho Chi Minh City, when asked about garment export performance this year. Retail sales of goods and services in the country grew 21.5 percent in the first four months, according to the General Statistics Office in Hanoi. The “astounding” recent growth in retail sales in Vietnam “shows that consumption remains very strong,” HCMC-based fund manager Dragon Capital said in a note dated April 29. “Strong growth and asset price gains (including commodity prices) over the last few years, even after taking into account the recent declines, mean that the average Vietnamese person is much better off,” Sofat wrote. Vietnamese Prime Minister Dung said last month that gross domestic product may increase as much as 5.5 percent for the full year, while the International Monetary Fund foresees 3.3 percent growth. Any positive figure is “an achievement when seen in the regional context,” Sofat wrote. Source: Bloomberg

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A practice session of the Co Bo drumming team in Bac Ninh Province’s Thi Cau Ward Co Bo drumming, once used to serve the kings of the Nguyen Dynasty, is being preserved in a northern village.

Music researchers believed the traditional art of Co Bo drumming, used to serve the last monarchy in Vietnam, died out in the central ancient capital of Hue. But this echo from the past has resurfaced and is being preserved by people in a northern village, 750 km from Hue. The sound is enthralling, as a group of men passionately play drums. A man who stands in the middle plays a pair of cymbals, while the other four men play on drums that hang in front of their stomachs. These drums, 40 cm high and 25 cm wide, carry images of dragons and clouds. Co Bo music, which once graced the courts of the kings of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), can now be found in Thi Cau Ward, in the northern province of Bac Ninh. In ancient scripts, Co means drum, and Bo means Ministry. Co Bo means “drums of Ministry of Rites” (one of the six main ministries of the feudal dynasties). Researchers thought the ancient art form of drumming was truly lost to time. “In 1996, while I was studying Hue’s royal music, I searched for information on the Co Bo drum but I found no answers,” said Bui Trong Hien, an ancient music researcher. The town that’s preserving Co Bo has a musical history. Thi Cau Ward used to be the village famous for quan ho (traditional northern folk songs) of Bac Ninh Province. Local elders said the drumming skills came into the town through an instrumentalist whose family name was Hoang. He served as a member of a music band in Hue’s Royal Citadel. When Hoang returned to his home village, he passed on his drum playing skills to local villagers. He taught them 12 compositions of drum performance, but today people only remember six. Tran Anh Tu, local cultural official, said people taught the drumming skills orally and through listening to each other. “The band often performs their drum playing during annual ceremonies to worship village gods and other local festivals,” he said. “In addition, most local families have their own drum bands, who perform in their own family ceremonies and funerals.” Tu said the local authorities have encouraged people to preserve the art and to find a better way to teach the skills. “Oral transference is not safe enough, so we need scientists and music researchers to do official studies and make recordings on this art of drumming,” he said. “We are asking the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to have a specific plan to help us maintain this ancient art.” Researcher Bui Trong Hien said these drumming pieces were used regularly to serve the kings and their royal family. “The drums were used to welcome the kings, when the kings met envoys from other countries, and when the kings prayed during the Nam Giao ceremony,” Hien said. “The drums were also used while servers brought the kings tea, wine and offerings.” But in Thi Cau, local musicians perform them in ceremonies to worship the village gods. It’s a skill that others from nearby villages have tried to learn, but haven’t completely mastered. Most people do not have access to this tradition early on, said Nguyen Van Cau, 76, a well-known drummer from Thi Cau. “We’ve heard these drum sounds since we were very little children,” he said. “We have practiced drum beating since childhood and we have been attached to the art for many years.” Cau said the drum sound can sometimes be heard nearly every day around this area. The lengths of the drum pieces are short, he said. “All six drum pieces can be performed in 30 minutes,” he said. “Each is then repeated again and again.” The lone cymbalist in the group of drummers controls the rhythm of the group, he said. The cymbalist must be aware of each stage of the worship ceremonies to lead the drummers into a new composition. Currently, Cau is the only person who has mastered all the drumming compositions and performance skills, along with knowing the stages of the worshipping ceremonies. He now teaches other men in the area. With Cau’s help, people in the nearby Thanh Phuong Village, in Vu Ninh Commune, have also established their own drum teams: one team with older men and another of younger players. They can perform the six drumming compositions fluently. Reported by Hoang Trung Hieu

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The go-getter spirit and “people skills,” such as networking and the ability to cooperate, are the keys to business success, said participants at an international conference in Ho Chi Minh City Friday.

Addressing the 19th Asian Corporate Conference, Henry B. Nguyen, managing general partner of IDG Ventures Vietnam, said a solid definition of the “entrepreneurial spirit” was not prevalent in Vietnam. He said it was this lack of clarity that led many small- and medium-sized enterprises to collapse in their early years. He said Vietnamese were not as good at networking and cooperating as their overseas counterparts. “This must change as cooperation and networking help us create synergy, especially in the economic crisis,” he said. “In the end, people drive business.” Government support is also essential, he added. Just do it Ly Qui Trung, founder and CEO of Pho 24 Corporation said, “I had the idea for Pho 24 on a flight from Vietnam to Australia several years ago. I was sitting next to an Australian man who said Vietnam always reminded him of the pho and vice versa. “My wife asked if I have a mental problem when I first mentioned pho business to her,” he said. But now Pho 24 now has an extensive network of about 70 outlets across Vietnam, Southeast Asia with future plans for the European and US markets. “If you really want to start a business, write out and outline your idea on paper and ask for advice from experts,” he said. Cutting red tape Hoang Van Dung, standing vice chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said his organization had been working hard to remove all obstacles to entrepreneurship in Vietnam. Dung said, “About 96 percent of Vietnamese firms are small- and medium enterprises and they typically face capital shortages and problems with red-tape.” At last month’s meeting held in Ho Chi Minh City to review Vietnam’s two-year WTO membership, former Minister of Trade Truong Dinh Tuyen said the country had reformed bureaucracy but that slow administrative procedures still added extra costs to the opening of any business here. The legal system is also inefficient, he said, and a confusing legal framework creates liabilities for people and business. Dung said VCCI had worked with the US government to launch the Vietnamese provincial competitive index program to rank local authorities’ support for business communities. “The program aims to bring about better business legislation,” he said. Reported by Vinh Bao

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Workers at a construction site in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 7 work without helmets or other protective gear. There was no fence and no warning sign as Hoang Lam Tinh was hit in the chest by the excavator and pushed to his death into a nearby drain.

The 48-year-old from the north-central province of Thanh Hoa was working on a construction site in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 when the accident happened last month. With weak regulations and enforcement, and even weaker punishment levied on investors and contractors, serious accidents are just waiting to happen at hundreds of construction sites in the city, placing the lives of hundreds of workers in the balance. There were eight accidents involving fatalities at construction sites in the city in the first nine days of this month. Many of the workers on construction sites are poor migrants from far off places working for a pittance without even the minimum safety equipment to provide a subsistence livelihood for their families. Projects galore As the nation’s commercial hub, thousands of construction sites function everyday in the city, from minor ones like residences to major infrastructural projects like the East-West Highway. The East-West Highway project, that runs through eight districts as it links districts 1 and 2, is one of the city’s major projects but few construction sites along the potential highway have fences around the operating machines. Many construction workers don’t wear protective clothing or safety helmets. It is common to see a worker in regular street clothes directing a crane driver to lower huge iron beams into the right spot. At many buildings under construction in District 7, workers on the edge of upper floors can fall at any time as there are no barriers. According to inspectors from the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, most accidents at construction sites are the result of such falls, as well as scaffolding collapses and electric shocks. Deputy chief inspector of the department, Nguyen Quoc Viet, said the “safety index at city construction sites has dropped to the alarming point.” The composition of the construction workforce changes constantly and officials cannot open working safety courses every time there’s a new worker, Viet said. He said most construction investors and contractors “are not aware of labor laws.” The price surge in construction materials from mid-2008 onwards has added to the reasons the contractors’ foremen do not equip workers with protective gear, maintain fences, or post warning signs, Viet said. Early this month, foreman Nguyen Huu Cong of the New Saigon residential complex in Nha Be District died after falling from the 21st to the 15th floor along an unfenced elevator pit. Labor regulations stipulate that there should be one official responsible of ensuring safety at a site of more than 300 workers. But in the construction industry with a high risk of accidents, that ratio is just too small, Viet said. Puny punishments Viet’s superior Huynh Tan Dung said inspecting a construction site requires officials from more than just one agency. “But such joint inspection has not been the norm so far,” Dung said. Current mechanisms allow individual labor inspectors to make uninformed checks. But the inspectors can only fine people working at the sites, not the project investor or contractor who hires the foreman. And the maximum fine is VND200,000 (US$11.47) for an error. When there’s an accident involving the investor or contractor’s responsibility, each will be fined a maximum of VND20 million ($1,147). In 2007, the city People’s Committee ordered the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Department of Construction to send their inspectors together to check major construction sites in the city. But Viet said the number of sites that the inspectors actually look at is nothing compared to the total number. He suggested construction inspectors of wards and communes work more at minor construction sites in their areas. Viet also blamed the police for creating more trouble in the process to find out why an accident happened. As no time limit has been imposed on the police to communicate their findings to the inspectors, they keep it to themselves for far too long. Thus, the inspectors end up sharing the findings three to six months after an accident, instead of 40 days as stipulated, Viet said. The police also show little support when the inspectors suggest bringing the case to court, he said. Source: Tuoi Tre

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An office worker talks on his mobile phone outside a company in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. When the Investment Banking Division at Japan’s Citigroup branch told Mai Nguyen to move to another division as the company was restructuring, she simply quit her job as a financial analyst.

“I did not want to do it,” Mai told Thanh Nien Daily in an email. “Furthermore, 10 years of living in Japan is enough for me.” For the past two months, the 31-year-old executive has been searching for a position in the finance industry in Vietnam. Her search is being done from Japan through an employment agency in Ho Chi Minh City. Though there are no official statistics available, the trend is clear as documented by several local online job search engines: increasing numbers of Viet Kieu, particularly those equipped with overseas degrees, have returned or are considering seeking employment in Vietnam due to the global economic recession. Le Thi Thuy Loan, CEO of Loan Le Co. Ltd, a manpower agency that specializes in executive and middle management jobs, says she has seen a 20 percent surge in the number of Viet Kieu applicants and Vietnamese students who have graduated overseas. About 3,000 candidates are Viet Kieu in the database of approximately 600,000 candidates at loanle.com.vn, according to Loan. “The trend gradually began to take shape right after the Tet holiday,” Loan says. “There are two types: those who lost jobs overseas and Vietnamese students who have trouble finding jobs following graduation since the priority [at a time of recession] must be hiring residents of that country.” Huynh Van Thoi, general director of onlinejobs.vn, says each month the website receives about 1,000 Viet Kieu applicants. Thoi feels this trend will increase competitiveness in the domestic labor market, especially at the managerial and executive levels. But it’s only a temporary trend, he said, and only occurring in fields that have been worst hit by the global economic downturn, particularly finance, banking and information technology. “We will see more Viet Kieu and Vietnamese working overseas returning to the country in the coming days but it’s hard to pinpoint when that trend will end,” he says. Earlier this month, US magazine Business Week ran an article titled “Why Skilled Immigrants Are Leaving the US,” in which it cites a research study conducted by Duke University and the University of California at Berkeley which tracked down 1,203 Indian and Chinese immigrants who had worked or received education in the US and had returned to their home countries. According to the article, 87 percent of Chinese and 79 percent of Indians said a “strong factor in their original decision to return home was the growing demand for their skills in their home countries.” Some have trouble with working visas and others want to be closer to family and friends, the article says. In June 2007, Loc Nguyen graduated with a master’s degree in healthcare management from California State University at Northridge. The 30- something says he was offered several fellowships following graduation but there are more options back home. Loc has accepted a part-time position with the Hospital Management Department at Hung Vuong University in HCMC but says he’s looking for positions such as business development director, quality assurance director or associate director in healthcare management. “Though these positions are not available now, I believe they would be available soon in the future,” Loc said. “With a strong overseas network and specific skills in healthcare management, I believe I would be a strong candidate.” According to Loan, when businesses can be picky, like now, the gap between an excellent candidate and a good candidate is wider. “In the good old days, for example, when people flocked to buy real estate, you wouldn’t see much of a difference between a good sales manager and an excellent one,” she said. “But now it’s different.” And that’s where a Vietnamese applicant with a strong overseas connection and education could come in, she says. “These candidates now accept lower salaries and some of them have excellent problem-solving, communication and team work skills,” Loan says. “Plus, it would not be too hard for them to adjust to the working environment in Vietnam.” But Thoi says the trend could be somewhat negative if some companies intend to recruit Vietnamese who have worked overseas simply to advertise the company’s image. “That can be very questionable considering many Vietnamese are excellent candidates,” he says. Mai says the Vietnamese market still holds great potential for highly qualified candidates like her. “It’s very difficult to find another job right now,” she says, referring to the Japanese market. “Vietnam has been badly impacted by the crisis but it’s still doing much better than many developed countries.” Reported by Huong Le

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