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VN News (Feb. 28/1997)
Feb 28: Art: Thailand Eyes Vietnamese Art With Envy
Feb 28: Cambodia, Vietnam Sign Agreement, Memorandum
Feb 28: Ho Chi Minh City plans to relocate half a million people
Friday - Feb 28, 1997
Art: Thailand Eyes Vietnamese Art With Envy
Bangkok (WSJ) -- Art exhibitions are not generally front-page news in
Thailand. So many Thais were surprised when late last month the Nation,
the country's second largest English language paper, ran a front-page
photo of former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun presiding over the
opening of "Cultural Representation in Transition: New Vietnamese
Painting." Even more unusual, the photo showed Mr. Anand looking at two
homo-erotic paintings by Truong Tan, a young Vietnamese artist whose
work is often censored in his own country.
The exhibition of 73 paintings by 20 Vietnamese artists held recently
at the Siam Society broke new ground on other fronts too. As Mr. Anand
explained at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the show represented both the
culmination and vindication of a peace building process he began in 1976
when he was permanent secretary in the Foreign Ministry. For his efforts
in getting Thailand and Vietnam to "talk to not at each other to resolve
the political issues" he was labeled a communist and forced out of his
job only two months after the establishment of diplomatic relations in
August 1976.
Since Vietnam joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in
1995, relations have normalized to the point where an art exhibition is
no longer controversial. In fact it was at the 1995 Asean summit held in
Bangkok that the members articulated the need for more cultural
interchanges. While Vietnamese art is getting noticed in Europe and the
U.S., there's never been a comprehensive show held in Southeast Asia.
Eight Vietnamese artists, some of whom had never left the country
before, came to Bangkok for a week of visiting galleries and museums,
sightseeing, and meeting their Thai counterparts. "I'm the typical Thai
who knows nothing about the Vietnamese," said the show's curator,
Chatvichai Phromdhattavedi, who was director of Bangkok's much-loved
Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art from 1976 until its demise in 1988.
"And even though I'm in the middle of the art scene, I certainly had no
clue what Vietnamese art is all about."
In his first curatorial venture in nearly a decade, Mr. Chatvichai
chose the works for their ability to convey a sense of the country's
vibrant art scene. Equally important, they also provide fascinating
insights into Vietnamese life and reflect its recent history.
Mr. Chatvichai credits early French influences with keeping
Vietnamese artistic traditions alive through decades of turbulence. "The
French set it up so beautifully," he explains. "They created an ordered
society with literature, art, and theatre." He also believes the
French-based educational system laid the foundations for the
"systematic, international, and modern way of thinking" evident in
Vietnam today.
Thais seemed impressed by their neighbor's speedy artistic
development. "I'm envious because Thais haven't gone so far within the
same period," commented art critic Thanom Chapakdee. He's one of the few
homegrown writers in the local press who is willing to openly criticize
Thai art. Another Thai artist told Mr. Chatvichai that Vietnam will
develop much faster because they've had the "international outlook"
longer than Thailand.
Despite their many differences, both countries share similar problems
of how to react to modernization while preserving tradition. "This is a
very good reason why we shouldn't run over to America and Europe,"
insists Mr. Chatvichai, "but instead run to each other and see what
common experiences we have."
According to Mr. Chatvichai, these two pertinent issues are
symbolically represented by the paintings of Dao Minh Tri and Tran
Luong. In Mr. Tri's paintings, fish -- the symbol of prosperity -- are
locked into individual squares, and usually swim in the same direction.
Mr. Chatvichai comments that people too seek material progress whether
as part of a crowd or within their own little worlds. In contrast, the
abstract fish shapes in Mr. Luong's works float on soft natural
backgrounds of shimmering water. They evoke nature, meditation, and the
qualities of spiritual well-being that tend to get overlooked by
developing societies.
Among its other achievements, the Vietnamese exhibition provided the
Siam Society, that venerable bastion of Thai culture founded in 1904,
with an entree into the contemporary art scene. It also gave local art
buyers an opportunity to purchase 50 paintings at very reasonable
prices, especially given the rapidly escalating value of Vietnamese art
on the world market. Except for two paintings from the 1970s by Bui Xuan
Phai ($40,000) and Nguyen Sang ($20,000), everything was priced between
$200 and $3,000, and two thirds of the works on offer were sold. -- By Ms.
Gampell
Friday - Feb 28, 1997
Cambodia, Vietnam Sign Agreement, Memorandum
PHNOM PENH (Xinhua News) -- Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen
Manh Cam took home today an agreement and a memorandum he struck with
Cambodia during his three-day stay here.
Nguyen Manh Cam jointly chaired the second meeting of the mixed
committee for cooperation in economy, culture, science and technology
with his Cambodian counterpart Ung Huot on Thursday.
After the meeting, the two sides signed the agreement on bilateral
consular ties and the memorandum on implementing and improving
bilateral cooperation in various fields.
The memorandum covers the two country's relations in education,
culture, information, energy, trade, post and telecommunication,
aviation, transport, tourism, finance and border.
Ung Huot described the meeting as significant, as Cambodia and Vietnam
used the venue to discuss their border problem.
Cambodia and Vietnam will continue talks to end their long-running
border dispute but a formal agreement could take years to reach, Ung
Huot indicated.
"Solving the problem starts with people talking," Ung Huot said after
the signing ceremony, adding: "If people don't talk you don't solve any
problem."
The mixed committee, which was formed in 1995 to deal with issues along
the more than 1,100-kilometer-long border, held its first meeting in
Hanoi in September 1995.
The committee's next gathering, the third of the kind, is scheduled for
1998 in Hanoi.
The Vietnamese foreign minister, who arrived here on February 26, also
met with Cambodian Co-Prime Ministers Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen
during his stay. Enditem
Friday - Feb 28, 1997
Ho Chi Minh City plans to relocate half a million people
HANOI (AFP) -- In an effort to check Ho Chi Minh City's unfettered
growth, planners are working on a scheme to relocate half a million people to
the outskirts of the city by 2000, an official said Friday.
If approved, the new plan would keep the maximum population of the
former-Saigon to less than three million, an official from the municipal
economics institute said.
The plan also envisions creating five new suburban districts which would
accomodate about half a million people.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's main commercial hub, has seen its economy grow
at around 15 percent annually in the past several years. The bright lights of
the city and promise of a better life have caused hundreds of thousands of
people to flock to the city.
But pell mell growth in the former Saigon has brought with it problems of
pollution, homelessness and traffic congestion.
According to official estimates, the population of the inner city will
swell to 3.5 million by 2000 if the project is not implemented. Ho Chi Minh
City's current unofficial population is estimated at more than five million.
The rehabilitation project is expected to cost about 2.5 billion dollars,
but so far the plan has not included details on financing.
Close to 1.5 million people live in Ho Chi Minh City's suburbs, often in
squalid conditions lacking proper sewage or access to potable water, and
several thousand people are without shelter.
Thursday - Feb 27, 1997
First US ambassador to Vietnam to arrive April 1: official
HANOI (AFP) -- Douglas "Pete" Peterson is likely to be confirmed as
the first ambassador to Vietnam this week and will arrive in Hanoi by April 1,
a US embassy official here said on Thursday.
"I spoke to ambassador designate Mr Peterson this morning on the telephone
and unless something unexpected happens we hope there will be a vote this week
and he told me he would be here about April 1," said Desaix Anderson, U.S.
charge d'affaires.
Anderson told US businessmen at a local American Chamber of Commerce
luncheon that Peterson was eager to get to Vietnam and start work.
Peterson, 61, was held prisoner by North Vietnam for more than six years
after his Air Force jet was shot down during the Vietnam war.
Vietnam has unofficially chosen Le Van Bang to become the first Vietnamese
ambassador to Washington where he is currently Vietnam's charge d'affaires.
Peterson, a Florida Democrat in the US House of Representatives between
1991 and last year, played a key advisory role in Clinton's decision last year
to normalize relations with Vietnam.
The two countries still have not reached a bilateral trade agreement
Washington lifted its trade embargo on Vietnam in February 1994 nearly two
decades after imposing it on the whole country in May 1975 just after South
Vietnam fell to communist forces.
Thursday - Feb 27, 1997
Cambodia, Vietnam progressing in resolution of disputes: FMs
PHNOM PENH, Feb 27 (AFP) - Cambodia and Vietnam are well on the way to
solving disputes over their shared border and addressing concerns about
illegal immigration, the foreign ministers of each country said Thursday.
Their comments came following the second annual meeting of a joint
Cambodian-Vietnamese commission on bilateral relations at which agreements
were reached to expand cooperation in several fields.
Hanoi's visiting foreign minister Nguyen Manh Cam said the two contentious
issues remained unresolved but that rapid progress was being made on both.<p>
"We have established a system to resolve the disputes," he told reporters.
"We have decided to continue these discussions and accelerate (them) to
resolve the problems."
Last year, Cambodia's First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh raised
a storm when he accused Vietnam of "invading" his country by supporting
Vietnamese peasants who have extended their farming across the often
ill-defined 1,130-kilometer (678-mile) border.
Hanoi protested the allegation bitterly but allowed that disputes existed
and agreed to set up a technical committee to investigate the problems.<p>
Cambodia's Foreign Minister Ung Huot said Thursday that committee continued
to meet and was making good progress.
Cam and Ung Huot, who signed an agreement on consular relations after the
meeting, also said there were ongoing discussions about concerns over the
thousands of ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia.
Many, some of whom have lived here for generations, remain worried about
their status under a new nationality law especially because of strong
anti-Vietnamese sentiment in Cambodia.
Cam said he was certain that a satisfactory solution to that issue would be
reached soon.
In other matters, the two ministers said they they had agreed to expand
cooperation in the fields of agriculture, education and road, railway and
water transportation.
Discussions are also under way for Vietnam to sell electricty to Cambodia
and for the two countries to increase their cooperation over development in
the Mekong River basin.
Friday - Feb 28, 1997
Ho Chi Minh City plans to relocate half a million people
HANOI (AFP) -- In an effort to check Ho Chi Minh City's
unfettered growth, planners are working on a scheme to relocate
half a million people to the outskirts of the city by 2000, an
official said Friday.
If approved, the new plan would keep the maximum population of
the former-Saigon to less than three million, an official from
the municipal economics institute said.
The plan also envisions creating five new suburban districts
which would accomodate about half a million people.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's main commercial hub, has seen its
economy grow at around 15 percent annually in the past several
years. The bright lights of the city and promise of a better
life have caused hundreds of thousands of people to flock to the
city.
But pell mell growth in the former Saigon has brought with it
problems of pollution, homelessness and traffic congestion.
According to official estimates, the population of the inner
city will swell to 3.5 million by 2000 if the project is not
implemented. Ho Chi Minh City's current unofficial population is
estimated at more than five million.
The rehabilitation project is expected to cost about 2.5 billion
dollars, but so far the plan has not included details on
financing.
Close to 1.5 million people live in Ho Chi Minh City's suburbs,
often in squalid conditions lacking proper sewage or access to
potable water, and several thousand people are without shelter.