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VN News (Apr. 27, 1997)
April 27: Experts meet in Vietnam-China maritime talks
April 27: Hanoi to spend 17 billion dollars to fight floods in Mekong delta
April 27: Hanoi says U.S. harms own image by opposing Burma
April 27: Vietnam to Plant Five Million Hectares of Trees
Experts meet in Vietnam-China maritime talks
HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam and China held a third round of expert-level
talks on matitime issues and on the prickly issue of territorial
demarcation, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported Sunday.
The official news agency said the meeting took place "in a friendly
and frank atmosphere" but did not report any specific progress during
the four-day discussions which ended Friday in Hanoi.
Vietnamese and Chinese experts "exchanged views on the possibility of
cooperation in several areas and principles of the Tonkin Gulf
demarcation", the agency added.
Earlier this month the two sides held an expert level meeting in
Beijing to discuss their competing claims in an area outside the Gulf
of Tonkin, where China began exploratory drilling for oil and gas
deposits in early March.
The talks were inconclusive but both countries agreed to continue to
dialogue on the issue.
The Chinese rig was positioned in a potentially gas-rich area lying
64.5 nautical miles (119 kilometers) off the Vietnamese coast and 71
nautical miles (130 kilometers) from China's Hainan Island until the
Chinese moved it on April 3.
Since Vietnam and China reestablished diplomatic relations in 1991
they have been holding regular expert level talks on three contested
areas.
These are the Gulf of Tonkin, the South China Sea -- including the
disputed Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands -- and their common land
border in northern Vietnam.
___________________________________
Hanoi to spend 17 billion dollars to fight floods in Mekong
delta
HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam is planning to invest 17 billion dollars between
now and 2010 in a project to fight floods which cause huge loss of
lives and property every year in the south, the official Vietnam News
Agency (VNA) reported Sunday.
The Mekong delta area traditionally suffers serious flooding during
several months of monsoon rains which regularly hit the southern
provinces.
The southern "rice bowl" accounts for 60 percent of Vietnam's rice
exports and more than 60 percent of fruit output of the whole country.
The agency did not specify how the government was to finance the
colossal project.
Most of the capital for the anti-flood project would be spent on
building protecting dykes, communication infrastructure like bridges
and roads and accommodation for local people in flood-affected areas,
the report said.
___________________________________
Hanoi says U.S. harms own image by opposing Burma
Hanoi (Reuter) - Any country which applies pressure to prevent Burma's
entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) can only
harm its own image in the region, Vietnam said in a reference to the
United States.
``Making pressure or preventing this decision is not in keeping with
international fundamental principles and only harms the image and good
of the country interfering in Southeast Asia,'' Hanoi's foreign
ministry said in a statement released late on Saturday.
The 10-line statement, which did not specifically mention the United
States, followed open opposition from Washington to the prospect of
Burma joining the ASEAN grouping.
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said on Friday that the
United States had very strong concerns about the proposal by ASEAN to
bring in Burma.
``We have no objection as to Laos and Cambodia,'' he said. ``We have
an objection to Burma.''
Founded in 1967 to promote regional economic, social and cultural
cooperation, ASEAN comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It is expected to admit
Burma, Cambodia and Laos this year.
Vietnam's foreign ministry said the decision to accept the three new
members was an internal affair for ASEAN.
``...just like the United Nations, ASEAN does not turn the internal
affairs of countries willing to be accepted into conditions for
acceptance -- the point is whether that country is suitable for the
structure and rules of ASEAN,'' it said.
The United States said last Tuesday that it would ban new investment
by American firms in Burma because of what Washington described as
deepening political repression by the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC).
The SLORC has been accused by human right groups and Western
governments of abuses like summary executions, using forced labour and
employing repressive tactics against the opposition.
Communist Vietnam, itself once a long-time victim of U.S. economic
sanctions, said Washington's move against Burma was an interference in
the country's internal affairs.
___________________________________
Vietnam to Plant Five Million Hectares of Trees
Xinhua English Newswire
Vietnam plans to plant five million more hectares of forests in the
next 14 years, raising the nation's forest coverage from the current
28 percent of land area to 43 percent.
The afforestation acreage is to include 1.6 million hactares of
specialized forests to provide materials for the paper industry,
350,000 hactares of forests for furniture-making and 450,000 hactares
of forests for construction timber.
It will also include 300,000 hactares of precious timber forests and
1.7 million hactares of watershed protective forests. In addition,
some 500 million scattered trees will be planted annually.
The project will cost an estimated 2.7 billion U.S. dollars.
Forests in Vietnam are now shrinking, both in acreage and quality, due
to unplanned exploitation and annual fires, seriously affecting the
national protection capacity and the environment.
The country now has only 9.3 million hactares of forests which are
concentrated in 35 of the country's 61 provinces and cities, as
compared to 14 million hactares in 1943.
However, this is an improvement from the 8.2 million hactares of
forests in 1995.