VN news (June 3)

[Dam Son <son@fermi.phys.washington.edu>]

China and Vietnam's Communist Party-controlled press agencies meet 
Executive most likely murdered in Vietnam's latest corruption case 
Elusive Danish crown prince wraps up private trip to Vietnam
Six executed for murder in Vietnam 
French elections show "despair" of the people: Vietnamese press 
China calls for improved ties with Vietnam despite territorial dispute 
Cambodian PM says Vietnam statue should go
Vietnam growth seen slowing slightly in 1998
Vietnam lifts ban on motorcycle imports
Vietnam Jan-May oil output up 18.9 pct yr-on-yr


Tuesday - June 03, 1997

China and Vietnam's Communist Party-controlled press agencies meet 

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Hanoi (dpa) - The heads of the Communist Party-controlled news
agencies of Vietnam and China have been meeting in China to discuss
how to boost information exchanges and cooperate in professional
training and technology acquisition, an official report said Tuesday.

A delegation from the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) - headed by its
director general, Ho Tien Nghi - began its 10-day visit to China since
May 27, according to the report in Vietnam News, an English-language
publication of the agency.

The delegation met Monday with Chinese party chief Jiang Zemin and the
ritual praises for each others progress under the enlightened guidance
of their respective ruling parties were exchanged, the report added.

In meetings with Xinhua News Agency president Guo Chaoren, both sides
said they were pleased with existing cooperation but wanted to boost
informational exchanges, especially in economic news, the paper added.
  _________________________________________________________________

Tuesday - June 03, 1997

Executive most likely murdered in Vietnam's latest corruption case 

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Copyright (c) 1997, dpa

Hanoi (dpa) - Vietnamese police said Monday that they now suspect a
company executive found dead this weekend was murdered and that he was
the key middleman between a state bank and an embattled private
conglomerate, according to local press reports.

Police were now suspecting murder, the Thanh Nien newspaper Tuesday
said, paraphrasing remarks made by Colonel Nguyen Manh Trung, deputy
director of Ho Chi Minh's investigation department.

Nguyen Van Ha, 44, the chief financial officer of the embattled Minh
Phung Garment Co. was found dead Saturday a metal wire tied around his
neck in the elevator machine room of a building belonging to the
state-owned Incombank, police reported.

Incombank is reported to have been the largest creditor to Minh Phung
and a cluster of other subsidiaries which together wracked up bad
debts totaling more than 370 million dollars in a failed bid to wrest
a large piece of Ho Chi Minh City's booming property market.

To date 23 executives from Minh Phung companies and EPCO, a trading
firm, have been arrested over the course of the last few weeks and it
was unclear why Ha had not been nabbed earlier by police.

When Ha read about his imminent arrest he reportedly became very
distraught and visited several temples to seek counsel, according to
the paper.

Ha was found in a sitting position with his face apparently to the
electric circuitry that controled the elevator in the 11-storey
building.

The exectives arrested so far have been charged with
``misappropriating socialist assets,'' a crime that can bring the
death sentence.

Minh Phung and a small constellation of subsidiaries are reported to
have owned more than 370 million dollars to banks and other companies
and roughly three quarters of this debt was owed to Incombank, the Lao
Dong (Labor) newspaper reported Monday.

Several years ago the Minh Phung Company, a private firm owned by
ethnic Chinese businessman Tang Minh Phung, had been hailed as one of
the success stories of Vietnam's limited move towards market economy.

Ha's wife said her husband left Thursday for five-day business trip
and his body was found only after employees reported unusual odours,
local newspapers reported.

Ha joined Minh Phung in 1995, leaving his job as the planning
department chief at Vietcombank, another state bank.

Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet has appointed a central bank deputy
governor, Do Que Luong, to oversee the financial investigation of the
case.
  _________________________________________________________________

Tuesday - June 03, 1997

Elusive Danish crown prince wraps up private trip to Vietnam 

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Hanoi (dpa) - Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, who managed to give
the slip to a bevy of accompanying businessmen and reporters in
Bangkok nearly two weeks ago, has just completed a private ten-day
holiday in Vietnam, Danish officials said Tuesday.

Accompanied by a lady friend and two security people, the prince
boarded an Air France flight from the Vietnamese capital Monday
evening bound for Paris.

The group traveled from southern Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi with stops
in Nha Tang, a central beach resort, the former royal city of Hue and
picturesque Ha Long Bay.

``It was the normal tourist circuit... but they had a very nice and
very private time,'' said Niels Lassen, the Danish ambassador in
Hanoi, who played host during the young prince's visit to the
Vietnamese capital.

The prince and his entourage had given the slip to a pack of newsmen
earlier after a two-week working trip in Thailand.

The absence was noticed only after the plane started taxiing onto the
runway and despite pleading from at least one reporter for the pilot
to turn around, the plane took off for Europe without the prince.

That set off a scramble among the Danish tabloid press, who soon
afterwards ``reliably'' reported the prince was in a Thai holiday
resort.

Later reports placed the prince in Vietnam, where it is not easy to
get a quick visa because of bureaucratic delays.

Besides taking in various tourist sites in the capital the prince also
visited the former home of his father, a French count who grew up in
colonial Hanoi, where the count's father owned the local horse-racing
track.

The stately building, located near the prime minister's office, now
houses the Hanoi government's committee in charge of ethnic minorities
and mountainous areas.

The prince was invited for tea there with one of the committtee's
senior officials.
  _________________________________________________________________

Tuesday - June 03, 1997

Six executed for murder in Vietnam 

HANOI (AFP) - Six men have been executed for murder in Ho Chi Minh
City, a police newspaper reported Tuesday.

The six were shot dead at Thu Dac, in the suburbs of the city,
formerly Saigon, in southern Vietnam, in front of thousands of
onlookers, the city's Cong An newspaper said.

The men were given the death penalty after trials for murder and armed
robbery at several courts in recent months, the newspaper added.

Last year 113 people were sentenced to death in Vietnam and 104 the
year before. The authorities rarely give the total number of
executions.

Those sentenced to death are shot with five bullets in the body and
one to the back of the neck, often in front of large public crowds.
  _________________________________________________________________

Tuesday - June 03, 1997

French elections show "despair" of the people: Vietnamese press 

HANOI (AFP) - The results of this week's French election show the
"unhappiness and despair of the French people," the official army
newspaper said here Tuesday.

"The defeat of the (rightwing) alliance of the RPR (Gaullist Rally for
the Republic) and the UDF (Union for French Democracy) in the
elections shows the despair and the unhappiness of the French people
in the face of the failure of the government to tackle economic
difficulties," the Quan Doi Nhan Dan said in a bylined editorial.

It was the only Vietnamese newspaper to offer a commentary on Sunday's
elections which saw the Socialists win and the appointment of Lionel
Jospin as prime minister.

The newspaper listed the "difficulties" as "inertia, bureaucracy and
inefficiency which hold France back compared with the other members of
the European Union."

Noting "France has opened a new chapter," the daily added, "knowing
whether or not the new government will be able to respond to the
people's aspirations is another matter" and asked "who can be sure
(Jospin's) commitments will take shape?"

In a more cautious reaction the Vietnamese government said, of its
former colonial ruler, the elections were an "internal French affair."

A foreign ministry spokesman said Hanoi "is convinced the friendly and
cooperative relations between Vietnam and France will continue to
improve."
  _________________________________________________________________

Tuesday - June 03, 1997

China calls for improved ties with Vietnam despite territorial dispute

BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese President Jiang Zemin has urged closer ties
with Vietnam, despite a smoldering dispute over territorial waters
that erupted in March, Xinhua reported Tuesday.

"China and Vietnam are joined by common mountains and rivers and the
friendship between the two peoples of the two countries goes back to
ancient times," Jiang told the visiting director general of the
Vietnam News Agency, Ho Tien Nghi.

"Further consolidation and development of the existing friendship and
cooperation corresponds to the fundamental interests of the two
countries and is conducive to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific
region," he said.

Tempers flared between Hanoi and Beijing in late March when China
started exploratory drilling in the sea area near to the Gulf of
Tonkin that is claimed by both neighbours.

Under heavy international pressure, China withdrew the rig on April 3
and the two sides then held inconclusive meetings in Hanoi and Beijing
on the subject.

China and Vietnam restored diplomatic ties in 1991 after a brief war
on their land borders and two separate disputes in the South China
Sea, first in 1974 over the Paracel Islands and again in 1988 over the
Spratly Islands.

In 1992, trouble again brewed when China signed an exploration
agreement with the US-based Crestone Energy Corp. to drill for oil
near to the Spratlys.

"China and Vietnam have the same social system and the conditions of
the two countries are similar as both adhere to the socialist road and
to taking economic construction as a central task," Jiang said.

He praised the development of economic and cultural exchanges between
the two sides since the normalization of ties in 1991.
  _________________________________________________________________

Cambodian PM says Vietnam statue should go

PHNOM PENH, June 3 (Reuter) - Cambodia's First Prime
Minister said on Tuesday a central Phnom Penh monument
commemorating friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam had stood
for long enough and would be removed if he won an election next
year.

Prince Norodom Ranariddh said if his FUNCINPEC party won
the election the statue near Phnom Penh's national assembly of
a Vietnamese soldier and a Cambodian comrade standing
protectively over a Cambodian woman and her baby should go.
"If FUNCINPEC wins the election, and FUNCINPEC will win ...
the biggest memorial near parliament has stood for a long time
and it is time to stop them from standing any longer," he said,
referring to the figures in the statue.

Ranariddh was responding to reporters' questions about a
Vietnamese complaint on Monday over a bomb attack on a
Vietnamese war memorial in the southern Cambodian port city of
Sihanoukville.

The official Vietnamese News Agency quoted a Vietnamese
foreign ministry statement describing the Saturday evening bomb
attack as a provocative act aimed at sabotaging friendship
between the two countries.

Ranariddh brushed aside Hanoi's complaint saying he was not
happy with Vietnam for several reasons. He cited a border
disagreement between the two countries and the illegal
immigration of Vietnamese people to Cambodia.

"Vietnam isn't happy, what can we do? I have got many
things about which I am not happy with Vietnam but I don't say
anything," he said.

The Phnom Penh statue and the Sihanoukville memorial were
erected after Vietnam's late 1978 invasion of Cambodia when
Vietnamese forces and members of the Cambodian opposition drove
a hated Khmer Rouge government from power.

Vietnamese forces remained in Cambodia until late 1989.
Many Cambodians have a long and deep-rooted suspicion of
their larger neighbour to the east and Cambodian nationalists
have in the past expressed fears that Vietnam wanted to
"swallow" Cambodia.

Ranariddh's co-premier and political rival Hun Sen fled to
Vietnam when he broke with the Khmer Rouge government in the
mid 1970s and returned with the Vietnamese invasion force in
1978.

Hun Sen went on to become premier of the Hanoi-backed
government which ruled until a 1991 peace treaty officially
ended the Cambodian war and paved the way for United
Nations-run elections in 1993.
  _________________________________________________________________

Vietnam growth seen slowing slightly in 1998

HANOI, June 3 (Reuter) - Vietnam's Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) growth rate is likely to rise to 9.6 percent this year but
may fall slightly in 1998 because of government moves to
restrict imports, a report issued on Tuesday said.

The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) think-tank
said in its annual report that Vietnam was likely to restrict
imports slightly in 1998 due to current account pressures,
giving a slightly lower growth rate than this year of 9.2
percent.

GDP growth in 1996 stood at 9.34 percent.

"This (1998) rate could be higher if the government loosens
credit, expands export promotion measures and increases
protection of domestic 'infant industries'," the report said.
It added that inflation in Vietnam was expected to rebound
this year to around 12.5 percent from 4.5 percent at the end of
1996. In 1998 it forecast the level falling back to 9.5 percent.
The PECC report said growth in output levels would be
increasingly affected by the challenge of developing domestic
competitiveness as Vietnam attemtps to meet its trade
commitments relating to membership of the ASEAN regional
grouping.

Vietnam joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in
1995, committing itself to lowering tariff barriers over a
10-year period under the terms of the ASEAN Free Trade
Agreement.

The communist country's trade deficit reached $4 billion in
1996, equivalent to around 17 percent of GDP, prompting debate
in government circles over the merits of trade liberalisation.
The PECC is a non-governmental organisation devoted to
economic cooperation in the Pacific Rim.

  _________________________________________________________________

Vietnam lifts ban on motorcycle imports

HANOI, June 3 (Reuter) - Vietnam has lifted a temporary ban
on imports of fully assembled motorcycles less than a month
after it was imposed, Deputy Industry Minister Nguyen Xuan
Chuan said on Tuesday.

Chuan told Reuters that Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet had
scrapped the ban and set an 1997 import quota of 100,000
completely built-up (CBU) motorcycle units compared with
150,000 last year.

The quota for imports of completely knocked-down (CKD)
motorbike units was raised to 250,000 from 200,000 in 1996.
The import of CBUs, along with 11 other consumer items, was
halted by a Ministry of Trade circular on May 10.

The circular's list of items -- which included beer, soft
drinks and electric fans -- was drawn up in response to concern
over the country's stubborn trade deficit, which was equivalent
to about 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1996.

The halt on imports of motorbike CBUs had led to a jump in
the price of Honda Motor Co's hugely popular Dream II.

The state-controlled Vietnam Investment Review said a Dream
II would now fetch around $2,900 in Ho Chi Minh City compared
with $2,620 before the ban came in.

Two wheels, not four, still rule the road in Vietnam.
There are now more than 4.2 million motorbikes registered
among a population of 77 million, and Chuan expects demand to
rise dramatically in coming years as personal incomes grow.

"According to our estimates, demand for motorcycles by 2000
will be from 600,000 to 800,000 units a year," he told the
Vietnam Economic Times in a recent interview. "Actual demand
now is about half a million units. As incomes and local
production grow, demand will rise."

The government is aiming to promote local industry and
create jobs by shifting the weight of imports to CKDs from CBUs
and plans to keep the total quota unchanged in coming years so
that growing demand can be met from domestic production.
  _________________________________________________________________

Vietnam Jan-May oil output up 18.9 pct yr-on-yr

HANOI, June 3 (Reuter) - State oil and gas firm
Petrovietnam and its production-sharing partners pumped 3.9
million tonnes of crude oil in the first five months of this
year, state media reports said on Tuesday, an 18.9 percent on
the same period of 1996.

The official Vietnam News Agency said that Vietsovpetro, a
Vietnamese-Russian joint venture, pumped all but 100,000 tonnes
of the first five months' output.

Vietsovpetro produces the bulk of Vietnam's oil, most of
which comes from the Bach Ho (White Tiger) offshore field.
Production sharing projects with foreign partners accounted
for less than 15 percent of last year's total of 8.805 million
tonnes.

Petrovietnam expects crude oil output to reach nine million
tonnes this year.

Vu Van Mao, director of the company's Petroleum Information
Centre, said output from Bach Ho would peak in about four or
five years.

He said output from the recently discovered Ruby and Rang
Dong fields, which are due to go into production next year,
would more than compensate for declining output at Bach Ho.

Vietnam is planning to increase its gross oil equivalent
production to 30-40 million tonnes by 2010, with gas output at
six to seven billion cubic metres a year.