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VN News (Mar 6-7, 97)
Anh Ca will be absent for two weeks from now, so I will be posting VN
news during this time.
Son.
Mar 07: Vietnam Hoa Binh Power Plant Dam Riddled With Cracks -Report
Mar 07: Vietnam fumes over U.S. envoy delay
Mar 06: Vietnam Takes Step To Guard Copyrights With Published List
Mar 06: Vietnam PM visits India and Bangladesh to boost bilateral ties
Mar 06: U.S. Pacific commander to visit Vietnam to enhance defence ties
Friday, Mar 07, 1997 [36]... Back to headlines
_[INLINE] Vietnam Hoa Binh Power Plant Dam Riddled With Cracks -Report_
Hanoi (AP) -- Cracks measuring as wide as 20 centimeters (eight
inches) have been found in the biggest power dam in northern Vietnam,
a local official said Friday.
A state-controlled newspaper quoted government officials as saying the
cracks put the dam at peril.
The dam is part of the Hoa Binh power plant, which lies off a main
highway in Hoa Binh town, 76 kilometers (47 miles) southwest of Hanoi.
The dam, built with Soviet assistance in the 1980s, has also been
troubled by soil erosion around its edges, said the local official who
asked not to be identified.
A 20-meter (66-foot) piece of land has collapsed from the dam's
reinforcing walls, he said.
Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet has appointed a delegation of researchers
from Hanoi to investigate the cause of the cracks and landslide.
The soil erosion could set off a major landslide that would disable
the dam's power plant and cut off electricity in many parts of the
country, newspaper Labor reported.
The more serious threat comes from structural flaws in the dam. If the
dam were to burst, much of the northern Red River delta area,
including Hanoi, would be flooded. The dam blocks a tributary feeding
into the Red River.
The Hoa Binh facility is the biggest hydroelectric power plant,
providing electricity to much of northern Vietnam, and is the main
source of power in the south.
The dam is among many facilities that are crumbling in Vietnam.
Vietnam has repeatedly said it wants to upgrade the facility but has
yet to start work.
Hanoi has been trying to attract foreign investment to rebuild the
aging, dilapidated, Soviet-era facilities.
___________________________________
Friday - Mar 07, 1997 [33]... Back to headlines
_[INLINE] Vietnam fumes over U.S. envoy delay _
Hanoi (Reuter) -- Vietnam, sneering at U.S. politicians who refuse to
forget the past, lashed out at Washington on Friday for failing to
clear hurdles blocking an exchange of ambassadors between the two
former enemies.
``Vietnamese people are always ready, together with American people,
to put the past behind them, opening their arms for friendship and
cooperation that could benefit both countries,'' the official
Communist Party daily Nhan Dan said.
``Unfortunately, there are still some American politicians who do not
keep up with the times, sticking to the same mistakes they made
decades ago.''
The editorial poured scorn on U.S. Senator Bob Smith, a conservative
New Hampshire Republican who has vowed to stall confirmation of the
first U.S. ambassador to post-war Vietnam.
Earlier this week, Smith said he would block indefinitely a Senate
vote on the nomination of former Representative Douglas ``Pete''
Peterson, once a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Smith said he would hold up the nomination pending the outcome of
investigations into whether U.S. policy towards Vietnam had been
improperly influenced by illegal foreign contributions to President
Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign.
Peterson had been expected to take up his post in Hanoi next month, an
event which would crown a new era of warmer bilateral relations and
open the way for full trade and economic ties.
Clinton lifted a long-standing embargo on trade with Vietnam in 1994
and the two countries normalised diplomatic relations the following
year.
Vietnam's Washington ambassador-in-waiting, Le Van Bang, told Reuters
in the northern port town of Haiphong on Thursday that his number one
challenge would be to ``overcome the Vietnam syndrome.''
That syndrome, Hanoi believes, is a tendency among many Americans to
associate Vietnam with the war that ended more than two decades ago
rather than see it as a country with doors open to the outside world.
``I feel this is a very important, historic job for me,'' said Bang, a
veteran diplomat and Hanoi's former representative to the United
Nations. ``This might be a very big shoe for me to fit into. But I
will try my best.''
Speaking in English with a faint American accent, Bang said he hoped
1997 would bring a commercial trade deal between the two countries --
one of the conditions needed for Vietnam to earn the Most Favoured
Nation (MFN) trading status it so anxiously wants.
MFN, which guarantees non-discriminatory tariff rates on exports,
would help Vietnam's textiles and other goods compete in the U.S.
market.
Asked about debts owed by the wartime government of former U.S.-backed
South Vietnam to the United States, he said repayment of the more than
$100 million concerned would have to be rescheduled over 10 or 20
years.
U.S. State Department officials were in Hanoi this week for meetings
about the debt, loaned to Saigon as humanitarian and development aid
during the war, which ended in 1975.
___________________________________
Thursday - Mar 06, 1997 [34]... Back to headlines
_[INLINE] Vietnam Takes Step To Guard Copyrights With Published List _
Hanoi (WSJ) -- The Vietnamese government moved toward implementing
measures to protect intellectual property by publishing a list of
items covered by the country's copyright law.
The list, circulated in state-controlled media, includes published
writings, theatrical works, videos, music recordings and architectural
designs.
The move by the government was a step forward in the implementation of
its copyright law, which was adopted at the end of 1994, the Vietnam
News reported.
The failure to enforce its copyright regulations has been a major
stumbling block in efforts to establish a trade pact between the U.S.
and Vietnam.
Washington remains critical of Hanoi's slow response to the sale of
pirated goods.
Until the U.S. approves a trade agreement with Vietnam, Hanoi's chance
of joining the World Trade Organization and other international
commercial groups will be hindered.
The foreign business community in Vietnam has been skeptical over
whether the law would be seriously enforced or how effective it would
be.
Pirated books, compact disks, video and music tapes, even the latest
computer software titles are widely available in Vietnam more than two
years after the law was adopted.
Analysts say close to 95% of computer software in use in Vietnam today
is pirated.
On many street corners frequented by tourists in Hanoi and southern
Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, throngs of young boys aggressively hawk
photocopies of popular books.
Vietnam's copyright-protection officials acknowledge the extent of the
intellectual-property piracy.
"We must say violations are now serious," Thuong Thuan, head of the
copyrights protection department, said in an interview published in
the Vietnam News.
He said in order to enforce the law and fight piracy, his department
needs support from other branches of government.
Police, customs and the Ministry of Culture and Information must also
play a role in curbing the sale of pirated goods, he said.
Copyright protection is still the main issue of concern in the
negotiations between Vietnam and the U.S. The two countries are trying
to negotiate an intellectual-property rights agreement as a step
toward an overall trade pact.
Vietnam passed its first law to protect trademarks and patents in
1989, but copyright protection wasn't put into law until 1994.
___________________________________
Thursday - Mar 06, 1997 [35]... Back to headlines
_[INLINE] Vietnam PM visits India and Bangladesh to boost bilateral
ties _
Hanoi (dpa) - Vietnam and India are expected to sign several
agreements aimed at boosting bilateral ties, esepcially commercial
relations, during Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet's two-day visit to New
Delhi that begins Friday, officials in Hanoi said Thursday.
Despite long-standing, close, political relations between Hanoi and
New Delhi, commercial ties have lagged, with last year's bilateral
trade reaching only 170 milllion dollars, slightly in India's favor.
``Our goal is to bring that up to 250 million to 300 million dollars
in the next two or three years,'' said a senior Indian official in the
Hanoi embassy, who asked not to be identified.
Besides a trade promotion and investment protection agreement, the two
countries are expected to sign a double taxation treaty, and an accord
that would provide Indian assistance on forestry projects, the
official said.
Indian officials also say they are prepared to expand an existing
programme that offers 30 long-term and 100 short-term educational
scholarships for Vietnamese students in a whole range of fields,
except defence.
The visit builds on close political ties that were inaugurated in 1954
when Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was the first head of
state to visit Hanoi after it won its independence from France.
Communist Party chief Do Muoi visited India in September 1992 and then
Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao visited Hanoi in October
1995.
Besides meetings with his Indian counterpart and other Delhi ministers
Kiet is expected to address a prominent business conference on
Vietnam's progress in reforming its economy on Saturday.
The following day he will visit the nearby Taj Mahal in Agra before
traveling on to Bangladesh for a one-and-a-half day visit before
returning home.
Vietnam and Bangladesh are expected to sign a consular affairs and a
trade agreement during Kiet's visit to Dhaka, where he will also pay
his respects at Bangladesh's Independence War memorial.
The Vietnamese prime minister and his delegation of eight persons will
be using a private aircraft, informed sources said.
___________________________________
Thursday - Mar 06, 1997 [36]... Back to headlines
_[INLINE] U.S. Pacific commander to visit Vietnam to enhance defence
ties_
Hanoi (dpa) - The U.S. chief of the Pacific Command, Admiral Joseph
Prueher, will visit Vietnam March 20-22 to ``enhance understanding and
promote cooperation'' between the two defense ministries, the
Vietnamese foreign ministry announced Thursday.
The visit follows close on the heels of a unprecedented two-week visit
to Washington by six Vietnamese colonels, which concluded last week.
``This visit by the admiral is also within the framework of an effort
to increase understanding and promote cooperation between the Defence
Ministry and the (U.S.) Defence Department,'' said Tran Quang Hoan,
the spokesman for the foreign minstry.
``This is a normal thing to do between the two countries whose
diplomatic relations have been established,'' he added.
The trip to Washington was the first substantial military exchange not
dominated by the lingering MIA (missing-in-action) issue.
The Vietnamese delegation, led by senior colonel Vu Tan, visited the
Pentagon, the National Defence University and Capitol Hill.
The delegation were all from the Ministry of Defence's External
Relations Department which deals with the gradually increasing foreign
defence attache corps based in Hanoi.
The U.S. has had an army colonel posted in Hanoi for roughly one year
but Vietnam has yet to fill its defence attache post in Washington
although it is expected to do so shortly.
The two former adversaries are preparing to exchange ambassadors for
the first time, perhaps as early as later this month.
U.S. ambassador-designate, Douglas ``Pete'' Peterson, a former U.S.
pilot who spent six-and-a-half years as a POW in Hanoi, was
unanimously approved Tuesday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
for the post.
___________________________________