V

The number of diabetes patients in Vietnam is increasing at one of the highest rates in the world with around 65 percent of people with diabetes unaware they are affected, health experts said Thursday.

The number of diabetics increases 8-10 percent every year, Vietnam Medical Association and the Construction Informatics and Consultancy Joint Stock Company said in their national communication joint-project on how to fight and prevent diabetes. Pham Song, chairman of the association, said 4 percent of urban residents in Vietnam have the disease with 2.5 percent in rural areas, accounting for 4.5 million patients across the country. The project aims to raise around US$5 million from individuals and businesses to establish consultancy channels and stronger connections between doctors and patients. The funds will also be used for public education specifically targeting the most vulnerable such as overweight children and people who don’t do physical exercise. Reported by Nam Son

Read more »

The Asian American Association (AAA) has received 114 Vietnamese antiques for an exhibition in the US starting next month and another one in February next year.

The antiques are considered typical of Vietnam’s north, south and central regions and will be first exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston from September 13 to January 3 next year. They will then be showcased at the Asian Association Museum in New York from February 2 to May 2. The items, ranging from fine arts pieces to those relating to revolutionary history, are on loan from prominent museums nationwide including in Hanoi, Da Nang City, Hue, Ho Chi Minh City, and neighboring Dong Nai and Long An provinces. Source: Tuoi Tre

Read more »

The International Finance Corp. Thursday signed a commercial guarantee contract with An Binh Bank (ABBank) guaranteeing the lender’s payment commitments, the latter said in a statement.

The corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, will guarantee the Ho Chi Minh City-based bank’s commitments to the extent of US$10 million this year. The bank said the deal would be an advantage for its customers in approaching international exporters for purchases. Reported by Vinh Bao

Read more »

Workers weaving bags from sedge at a unit in Nam Dinh Province. People working away from home who lost their jobs due to the economic downturn may not find employment if they return to their villages.

The economic downturn has seen production fall in the countryside, sending incomes plunging and increasing the jobless rate, according a recent report by the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD). Researchers said this has been exacerbated by the return of many native residents who lost their jobs elsewhere. The institute, belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, also found most rural residents have also cut back on both their consumption and investments. Many households have slipped below the poverty line, with mountainous regions being the hardest hit. IPSARD’s report follows research it did on the impact of the economic downturn on people in rural areas at the insistence of the National Assembly’s Economic Committee. The study, which was supported by the Dutch development organization SNV, polled residents in 584 communes in four provinces – Nam Dinh in the Red River Delta, Lang Son in the northern mountainous region, Binh Thuan on the central coast and An Giang in the Mekong Delta. Most people in these communes live on farming and fishing though researchers found much farmland left fallow this year. Rising unemployment More than 21 percent of domestic migrant workers hailing from these provinces have returned home this year. 17 percent of those who had gone abroad to work also returned in the first quarter. Only 11.3 percent of the returnees have found jobs, while in mountainous regions the number is between 2.7 and 7.4. The survey also found many hired farm workers have become jobless, with the rates climbing in coastal area and delta regions. Without quoting specific numbers, the report said an average of 85.3 percent of farm workers in the four provinces have lost their jobs. Among factory workers, the layoff rate is 8.8 percent. Poverty, hunger spread More than 68 percent of 584 communes surveyed said residents have cut down their expenses on food, specifically meat and fish, by an average of 18.5 percent. They have also spent 25.9 percent less on construction and 23.6 percent less on high-value goods. In the four provinces surveyed, the number of communes having poor families has increased by nearly 16 percent over 2008. An Giang topped the list at 19.6 percent. This has affected the “hunger elimination and poverty reduction” program, the report said. A person earning less than VND200,000 a month in rural areas and VND260,000 in urban areas is considered poor. Shrinking production Farmers reported that they have had to sell farm produce at 14 percent lower prices than last year, and have been unable to sell some produce. Both rural and mountainous areas have found difficulty in selling farm produce, the report said. Nearly 5 percent of farmlands have been left uncultivated in the winter-spring season, while 0.7 percent more fish farms than in 2008 have remained fallow this year. In the four provinces, more than 15 percent of small industries have closed down this year. Another 8 percent had to cut back on production and lay off workers. The industries also reported their products fetched 14.6 percent lower prices than usual. Reported by Giang An

Read more »

PetroVietnam Finance Co., a unit of Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, will lend coffee company Vinacafe Buon Ma Thuot Co. up to VND750 billion (US$42.2 million) to fund development of a plantation.

Vinacafe would use the money to buy urea and other products from PetroVietnam Fertilizer & Chemical Joint-Stock Co., the country’s biggest-fertilizer producer, the lender said in an e-mailed statement Friday. “We offer Vinacafe an interest rate of 6 percent for this one-year loan as it is part of the government loan subsidy program,” PetroVietnam CEO Tong Quoc Truong said in a phone interview. “This is a very good rate compared with the lowest rate of 10 percent we have offered to others.” Vietnamese lenders gave VND255 trillion ($14.3 billion) in loans to businesses between February 1 and April 23, after the government started a subsidy program to bolster the slowing economy. Source: Bloomberg

Read more »

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

Read more »

Foreign visitors at an information center in Ho Chi Minh City Friday. Tourism arrivals have dropped sharply of late, prompting authorities to launch a huge promotion campaign targeting across the board price cuts. A large scale promotion campaign to try and staunch the sharp decline in visitor arrivals will need a concerted, cooperative and proactive effort by all stakeholders, industry officials say.

The primary thrust of the campaign, set to be launched on January 1 and run until September 2009, will be to effect across the board cuts in prices and improved service quality. This would be vital to the nation’s ability to cope with the competition posed by regional countries, said Nguyen Manh Cuong, deputy head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). The campaign announcement comes in the wake of a 22 percent drop year-on-year in the number of foreign visitors last month, and a statement earlier this month by Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh saying that the sector would face zero growth or even worse next year. The tourism sector employs more than 10 percent of country’s workforce. Cuong noted that although Vietnam was not as good as its neighboring countries in promoting tourism, the upcoming campaign could at least help the local sector overcome current difficulties, which are compounded by stiff competition from neighboring countries. Thailand, for instance, has launched a 1.9-billion-baht (US$54.86-million) public relations campaign called “Apologies Thailand” in an attempt to woo tourists back to the country following the recent political crisis. Vu The Binh, a senior official at VNAT, noted Thailand has cut hotel prices to as low as $25 per night and even offered 100,000 free air tickets to bring back tourists, which means Vietnamese tour operators would face very harsh competition. Binh asked local businesses to work together to make the campaign work, instead of waiting for other companies to lower prices first as they often do. He said VNAT has chosen leading travel agencies and hotels to take part in the campaign and they have pledged to cut prices to attract more tourists, especially those from Vietnam’s main tourism markets. The national tourism agency said a website on the campaign will also be created where visitors can find links to websites of participating tour operators. Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Tran Chien Thang, said the ministry has proposed the government to halve the value added tax for travel agencies, hotel and restaurants to 5 percent so that they can lower their prices. The ministry has also requested the introduction of a visa-on-arrival system and VAT refund scheme for tourists. Many agencies and hotels said it was not too difficult to slash prices by about 30 percent. Some of them started doing it a few months ago, but with modest results. On Thursday, 30 hotels in Ho Chi Minh City agreed to cut room rates by at least 30 percent next year to support the campaign. A hotel manager, who wished to be unnamed, said it would be a huge success if cutting prices by 20 percent could increase occupancy rates to 80 percent from 50 percent. Binh said national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines would offer 30-50 percent discounts on its fares to help lower tour prices and many businesses providing related services have also registered for the campaign. Nguyen Van Tran, general director of APEX Company, said with the price cuts by hotels and airlines, travel agencies could offer cheaper tour packages to tourists. Tran said his working group, which focuses on the Japan market, would begin to advertise tour packages at new prices to their partners in January. Prices would be about 30 percent lower than at present, he said. Luu Nhan Vinh, director of the Vietnam Tourism Company in Hanoi, said once the campaign is launched, VNAT needs to ensure that registered companies really cut their prices to maintain its credibility. If companies advertised their products at lower prices but did not keep their promises, tourists would lose faith, Vinh said. Saigontourist Company Director Vo Anh Tai said there are always people who want to travel, but amid the economic slowdown, they will not accept to pay prices that have not been lowered. La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said if the marketing works well in main markets including Japan, Australia, Western Europe, South Korea and China, the tourism sector could attract 80 percent of the visitors it needs. Local retailers have also expressed their enthusiasm for the campaign. Dinh Thi My Loan, general secretary of the Vietnam Retail Association, said all association members want to cooperate with businesses in the tourism industry. They would meet to discuss detailed plans for this “meaningful cooperation,” Loan said, adding that local retailers are well aware of the current situation and would accept lower margins to offer the best prices to customers. Source: TN, Agencies

Read more »

Experts are warning of increasing sex-related crimes and general social disorder if the highly unnatural level of gender imbalance in the country is not addressed.

They were speaking at conference in Hanoi Monday on “building a project to intervene in elements that affect gender at birth,” organized by the General Department of Population and Family Planning. The male to female ratio in Vietnam has climbed from 105:107 to 112:100 in the 1999-2007 period, said Pham Nang An, deputy head of the population and family planning bureau under the department. He said the ratio was alarming as it was far beyond the natural gender ratio of 103-106:100. The 112:100 ratio was similar to China’s in 1987, An added. It had been estimated that in 2004 in eight to ten years, there could be “40 to 60 million missing women” in China. An warned that rising gender imbalance in Vietnam could lead to social disorder and an increase in sexual crimes. Pham Ba Nhat, head of the bureau, attributed the ratio to the traditional preference for male children in Vietnamese society. Nhat said gender diagnosis during pregnancy and abortion of female fetuses was the main cause of the imbalance. He added that elsewhere in the nation, that when baby girls were born, some parents informed authorities that the babies were adopted; thus they had the right to give birth to more babies. Vietnamese law regulates that a couple can only have two children at the most. Prof. Nguyen Duc Vy of the Central Maternal Hospital said there was a need to distinguish between legal abortion and abortion based on gender. The latter must be banned, he added. Vy said there should be a ban to abort fetuses of more than 12 weeks old, except for birth deformities, as at this time the fetus’s gender could be known. Nguyen Dinh Cu, head of the Institute of Population and Social Issues, said surveys showed that more than 66 percent of pregnant women knew their fetus’s gender before giving birth, and up to 98 percent of the cases were thanks to ultrasonography check-ups. Cu said the percentage showed that the implementation of the population ordinance, which bans parents from choosing their baby’s gender by any means, was lax. He added there had been no penalties prescribed so far on violators including parents, doctors, and medical staff relating to checking fetuses’ gender so far. Dr. Nguyen Thi Thuong from the institute said authorities should offer better welfare policies for the elderly and farmers as they still bore in mind that sons were the only people they could rely on to take care of them during old age. Daughters are considered outsiders as they have to live with their husbands’ families after their marriage. Another conference in Ho Chi Minh City last month disclosed that around three million Vietnamese men will have difficulty finding wives by 2030 due to the rising gender imbalance. Reported by Nam Son

Read more »

Quả táo thêm nhiều "sẹo".

Nokia ngắt kết nối mọi người.

Đâu còn dòng chữ đi lên với dấu chấm than ở cuối.

LG nhận ra rằng "Cuộc sống phũ phàng" (Nguyên gốc khẩu hiệu: Life's good - Cuộc sống tươi đẹp)

Biều đồ một đi xuống không trở lại của Cisco.

Dell đổ vỡ.

Máy in Xerox hết mực dần.

Read more »

A three-year project worth US$480,000 will be carried out in the central city of Da Nang to help improve the living standards of people with disabilities, particularly children.

The East Meets West Foundation (EMW) and Da Nang’s Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs have signed an agreement for the implementation of the Support Network for People with Disabilities Project in Da Nang. The project, co-funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Irish Aid (IA), will be carried out by EMW and local partners. From December 2008 to November 2011, the project seeks to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities in Da Nang, with a focus on children with disabilities in all seven districts, EMW said. Key activities will include medical and social screenings for the disabled in the city; physiotherapy and rehabilitation services for nonsurgical cases; and the establishment and technical support of community-based treatment units. Reported by Truong Son

Read more »

The Ministry of Finance has decided to raise the import tariffs on finished steel from 8 percent to 12 percent from December 21 to restrain imports, following a request from the national steel association.

The ministry also increased the import tax on steel billet from 2 percent to 5 percent. Last month, the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) had proposed that the government hike the tariffs to protect domestic steel makers from cheaper imports. Chairman Pham Chi Cuong said manufacturers in neighboring countries lowered prices and pushed exports to reduce stocks that had piled up as a result of falling demand in markets hit by the global economic slowdown. Earlier this month, local steel producers raised prices by VND200,000-VND300,000 (US$12-18) a ton. The retail price is now around VND12.5 million ($735) a ton. Domestic steel consumption this year is estimated at about three million tons, a 14 percent year-on-year decrease, VSA said. Source: Tuoi Tre

Read more »

Fourteen sugar refineries in central and central highlands regions are facing a shortage of sugarcane for processing, Vietnam Sugar and Sugarcane Association President Vo Thanh Dang said Friday.

The shortage will cause competition among the refineries in the region to buy cane when the harvest starts, he said. The region’s sugarcane farms have dwindled by 4,600 hectares to only 67,500 hectares since last year. Refineries promised to pay between VND460,000 (US$26) and VND470,000 per ton at the beginning of the crop and will adjust the price according to the market price. Reported by Hien Cu

Read more »

Shipments of plastics from Vietnam to the US increased 41 percent through August to $112 million, led by polyethylene bags. Vietnam may take US export market share from China should the former be admitted to an American program that would eliminate some import duties, the Congressional Research Service found in a study.

Though experts say that the US might want something in return, Vietnam’s government asked the US in May to make it eligible for a program that promotes growth in poorer countries by axing tariffs on some imports. While there is no regulatory timetable, the target is for President George W. Bush to admit Vietnam this year, according to the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Business Council. “Rising production costs in other parts of Asia, especially in China, are leading manufacturers to explore alternative locations for their Asian operations,” said the report by Washington-based Michael Martin and Vivian Jones, Asian trade and finance analyst and international trade and finance expert respectively. Olympus Corp., a Tokyo-based digital-camera maker, will close a factory in China to move some operations to Vietnam, the Nikkei newspaper said in November. Olympus said last year it plans to build a factory in Vietnam. “Chinese companies in particular, facing rising labor costs and the strengthening of the renminbi against the US dollar, may find the added bonus of Generalized System of Preferences eligibility an incentive to relocate their final assembly operations to Vietnam,” Martin and Jones wrote. Exports to US Vietnam’s exports to the US, the world’s largest economy, have grown quicker this year than those from China, which is not a member of the US program. Shipments rose 20 percent through August, and Chinese exports gained 6 percent in the same period. Any shift to Vietnam “could partially offset the general rise in the US bilateral trade deficit with China,” the Congressional Research Service said. Last year, the US posted a US$262 billion trade shortfall with China, its largest gap with any trading partner, according to figures from the US International Trade Commission. Vietnam’s machinery industry would probably benefit the most, according to the study. Electrical-machinery exports to the US jumped 23 percent through August to $253 million, paced by shipments of video cameras and wiring. Plastics exports may also gain from duty-free access under the American program, the US said. Shipments of plastics from Vietnam to the US increased 41 percent through August to $112 million, led by polyethylene bags. Apparel, furniture Vietnam’s top exports to the US – apparel, furniture, shoes and crude oil – are largely excluded from the tariff-elimination program, the Congressional Research Service study said. Products designated by the US as “import-sensitive” aren’t part of the program, according to a June report from the US-ASEAN Business Council. Inclusion in the program offers the potential for Vietnam to diversify its exports into new areas where it has so far not been competitive, the US-ASEAN Business Council report said. “It’s probably not going to happen this year,” said Fred Burke, a partner in the Ho Chi Minh City office of the law firm Baker & McKenzie. “The American business community hasn’t been pushing it.” The US may want Vietnamese concessions in exchange. “My sense is that American companies don’t want to just give away something for nothing,” Burke said. “They’d want something in return, like better access to retail distribution in Vietnam.” Source: Bloomberg

Read more »

Thai Ha Street in Hanoi suffered the worst in the heavy rains Friday The worst flooding in more than two decades turned many streets in the capital city into torrential rivers Friday, leaving at least three dead and two missing and many vehicles stranded in deep waters.

The deluge began as the skies opened up around 1 a.m. and never let off, thwarting efforts by trucks dispatched to rescue vehicles stuck in flooded areas, authorities said. The rains, considered the worst since 1984, left many streets under water up to two meters. At least five people were reported dead or missing until late Friday. Breakdown truck owners said they had worked at full-blast, but their efforts could not make a dent considering the large numbers of motorbikes and cars stranded in the city. An ambulance is among the vehicles that broke down on Nguyen Chi Thanh Street in Hanoi Many motorbike owners said they had to wait for rescue trucks for hours. Many taxis broke down in Nguyen Luong Bang, Thai Ha, Ton Duc Thang, and Kham Thien streets. Many taxies were flooded, forcing cabdrivers to climb on the vehicles’ roofs. Commuters could only move their vehicles a few feet at a time. Many motorbike mechanics capitalized on the heavy rains to make money. A spark plug normally sold at VND35,000 (US$2) each fetched VND70,000 Friday. Until late Friday, traffic to many flooded streets remained cutoff. Hanoi authorities also reported that many dikes in the city were damaged and around 61,300 hectares of crops submerged, causing losses of hundreds of billions of dong. Power outages also occurred in several areas of Hanoi and Ha Dong Town, where rainfall was the highest since 1960. State-run power utility Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) said Friday it had instructed agencies concerned to tackle the blackouts at the earliest. Hanoi was expecting the rains to continue over the next two days, weather experts said. The Hanoi Water Drainage Company said the city drainage system is equipped to handle only 85mm of rainfall, and the city had received 300mm Friday. Central regions also hit hard Non-stop rain continued to batter central provinces Friday with at least 16 people reported dead or missing. INCLEMENT WEATHER EXPECTED TO CONTINUE The north-central provinces would experience more heavy rains over the next several days, meteorological experts said Friday. Water levels in northern rivers have reached the highest emergency level but could not recede, they warned. The weather would not be favorable for seafaring vessels to put to sea this weekend. The north-central province of Nghe An, the hardest-hit, said at least 12 people had been swept away by the floods. The sole route linking Nghe An’s Vinh Town to mountainous districts remained severed until Friday, holding up hundreds of motorbikes and cars. Many dikes in the province were now in peril and could burst at any time, provincial authorities said. But despite repeated warnings from local authorities about the dangers posed by the relentless downpours, many residents were still catching fish, capturing floating timber from rivers, or at sea. A large amount of crops, yet to be calculated, has been destroyed by the floods. Elsewhere, in Ha Tinh Province, four people have been killed by the floods which also destroyed houses, crops and cattle stocks. Rescue and repair workers have been working non-stop in the northern and central provinces of Phu Tho, Ha Nam, Hoa Binh, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Tri, and Quang Binh. The Central Steering Committee for Flood Control and Prevention issued an emergency notice Friday instructing affected provinces to take precautionary measures as the weather would remain unpredictable in forthcoming days. They were told to reinforce dike systems and evacuate residents to safer ground as quickly as possible. Reported by Thanh Nien staff

Read more »

Stocks rebounded Wednesday on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange as the recovery on international stock markets boosted investor confidence.

The VN-Index, Vietnam’s main stock index, moved up sharply soon after the opening bell on heavy buying. But the uptick ran out of steam in the second session which saw heavy trading with 18.7 million shares changing hands. The benchmark index eventually closed 8.82 points, or 2.73 percent, up at 331.62. Trading volume was high, with 23.3 million shares traded, compared with Monday’s 14.7 million and Tuesday’s 18.2 million. Of the index’s members, 132 advanced and 21 declined. Nguyen Hai Son, a broker at FPT Securities Co. in HCMC said sentiment was the key driver. “Investors were buoyant after gains on stock markets around the world,” he said. But it is hard to make a prediction now since the market moves rely mainly on investor confidence, which is driven by the international markets, he said. Asian stocks soared for a second straight day Wednesday after a strong rally on Wall Street as hopes mounted for further interest rate cuts to shore up the global economy. Japan's Nikkei stock index jumped more than 7 percent in early trade, regaining the key 8,000-points level, after the Dow Jones had soared almost 11 percent in New York overnight. Shares jumped almost 8 percent in Seoul and 4.5 percent in Sydney. Singapore saw a gain of 3.8 percent. In Canada, the Toronto Stock Exchange rebounded 7.2 percent, nearly erasing Tuesday's 8.14 percent plunge, the worst single-session drop in 21 years. In the wake of huge gains in Asia, European exchanges rebounded. London's FTSE 100 index rose 1.92 percent and the Paris CAC 40 gained 1.55 percent. The Frankfurt DAX, again powered by big gains for Volkswagen, soared 11.28 percent to 4,823.45. In Latin America's biggest stock market, Brazil's Ivobespa index soared 13.42 percent, while Argentina's Merval jumped 6.58 percent. Stocks’ performances Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank, the exchange’s only listed traded lender, remained the most active stock by volume, with 2.4 million shares changing hands. The HCMC-based lender edged up VND900, or 4.74 percent, to close at VND19,900. Vitaly Joint Stock Co., Hanoi P&T Construction & Installation Joint stock Co., Petrolimex Joint Stock Tanker Co. and furniture maker Savimex Corp. were the top four movers Wednesday, all rising by the daily maximum limit. Lam Dong Mineral and Building Material Joint Stock Co. and Lu Gia Mechanical Electric Joint Stock Co. were the two biggest losers, both plummeting 4.98 percent. Foreigners have been net sellers since early this month, notching up net sales of VND71.5 billion (US$4.3 million). Reported by Hoang Uy (With input from AFP)

Read more »

Police examinine the wastewater dumping system of Vedan Vietnam in Dong Nai Province. Vedan Vietnam, the Taiwanese company caught polluting a Dong Nai Province river, has not stopped discharging wastewater into the river, local inspectors said.

The monosodium glutamate (MSG)-maker’s illegal drainage system had not yet been removed despite being threatened with the loss of its wastewater discharge license, according to inspectors from the southern province. In mid-September, the company was found using the illegal drainage system to discharge large amounts of untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River. Vedan Vietnam had paid VND265 million (US$15,993) in fines as dictated by a Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) decision, Dong Nai Department of Natural Resources and Environment Director Le Viet Hung said Wednesday. The company had closed two plants that produced lysine and starch and cut the volume of water used in production to 15,000 cubic meters from 28,000 cubic meters a day, Hung said. Hung said inspections of Vedan Vietnam’s facilities had confirmed the company was still pumping wastewater into the river. MNRE has issued a decision to revoke the firm’s wastewater discharge license for six months. However, it is not clear who has the authority to order a complete suspension of the firm’s operations. Provincial inspection agencies have submitted their reports on Vedan Vietnam to local police. The reports said that after Vedan Vietnam’s illegal drainage system was discovered, the company signed contracts to export around 130,000 tons of wastewater to Taiwan by sea. This year, the firm planned to use 638,180 tons of cassava from more than 20,000 Vietnamese farmers, the inspectors said. The inspectors recommended the provincial government and MNRE find a way to ensure the incomes of cassava farmers and Vedan Vietnam’s 2,000 workers are not harmed. Investigations will continue investigating into the Taiwanese company’s failure to pay wastewater discharge fees of VND127 billion ($7.7 million) over the 14 years it was dumping untreated waste into the river. The provincial environmental police department has received around 2,600 petitions from farmers from the nearby districts of Long Thanh and Nhon Trach demanding compensation from Vedan Vietnam for the pollution that affected their production. Reported by Hoang Tuan

Read more »

The first ten months of 2008 saw the influx of about US$59.3 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country, the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said.

The ministry said it licensed about 68 projects worth over $2 billion in October, raising the total number of FDI licensed projects from January-October to 953 with a total registered capital of $59.3 billion. The investors of 247 FDI projects in Vietnam increased their capital investment by $1 billion in total in the last ten months. Malaysia tops the FDI list among 44 foreign investors in Vietnam during the period with 40 licensed projects worth $14.9 billion, followed by Taiwan ($8.6 billion), Japan ($7.3 billion) and Brunei ($4.4 billion). Despite the domestic and global economic turmoil, FDI inflow into Vietnam could reach a record of $62 billion by the end of the year, economic experts said. Reported by Vinh Bao

Read more »