VN Bus. News (May 10-12, 1997)

[Vu Thanh Ca <vuca@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp>]

May 12: Thailand proposes joint-venture fisheries, more bank branches in Vietnam
May 12: Vietnam's central bank chief sees 'encouraging' signs for 1997
May 12: Vietnam, Thailand agree on priority east-west highway project 
May 12: Asian Cash Rice Mixed; Active Vietnamese Shipments
May 12: Nike Lets Critics Kick It Around 
May 10: Pepper Prices Up in Vietnam 


Thailand proposes joint-venture fisheries, more bank branches
in Vietnam

HANOI (AFP) - Thailand has proposed setting up a joint venture fish
processing company with Vietnam and asked to open more bank branches
an embassy official said on Monday.

Thailand raised both issues during simultaneous meetings between the
Thai-Vietnamese joint commission on economic cooperation and the
Commission on Fisheries and Restoration of Order at Sea at the weekend
in Hanoi.

Thailand's deputy foreign minister Pitak Intrawityanunt and his
Vietnamese counterpart Vu Khoan explored areas in which economic
cooperation could be bolstered.

They focussed on setting up a joint-venture fishing project that would
include both fishing and processing, a Thai embassy official told AFP.

"We offered on the fishery side a package of investment from fishing
and processing. We want to solve the problem at sea, and that is the
packaged deal," he said.

"We need guarantees on the material to set up a factory."

He said that Thailand would propose a private sector joint venture
partner for the project whose investment size would depend on the
availability of fish. That in turn would depend on the Vietnamese
willingness to ensure a steady supply of fish to the project, he said.

However the Vietnamese have not indicated their willingness to allow
joint venture fishing in its waters, he said.

The viability of the project will also depend on the success of
proposed joint patrol of disputed fishing waters.

The official said Thailand also pushed for greater access to the
Vietnamese banking sector.

Currently only Bangkok Bank and Thai Military Bank have branch
offices, and five other Thai banks including Krung Thai Bank, Ayuthya
Bank and Thai Farmers Bank were seeking to upgrade representative
offices to branches.

"To anchor more Thai businesses we need more Thai banks," he said.

The official said Thailand encouraged Vietnam to propose
infrastructure projects which could qualify for soft loans through the
Neighbouring Countries Economic Develpoment Cooperation Fund set up
last year.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam's central bank chief sees 'encouraging' signs for
1997

FUKUOKA, Japan, (AFP) - Vietnam's central bank governor Cao Sy Kiem
said Monday that the country's economy showed "encouraging" signs
during the the first four months of this year.

"Industrial growth reached 13.8 percent, agriculture growth is
expected to be four to five percent thanks to a bumper crop, exports
increased by 33.8 percent, imports increased by 7.7 percent compared
to the same period last year," he told the annual meeting of the Asian
Develeopment Bank (ADB).

The State Bank of Vietnam governor added that the country's rate of
inflation was the "lowest ever" with the increase in Vietnam's
consumer price index falling to 1.5 percent.

"The economic situation of the first four months of 1997 has been
encouraging," he said.

Kiem said Vietnam, which rejoined the ADB only three years ago, was
determined to continue its pohich are full of difficulties."

The central bank governor also called on the ADB to play a greater
role in monetary affairs.

"We wish to see the bank, as an important regional financial
institution, not only limit itself to a development financing and a
catalytic role but also to play a big role in the promotion of
monetary and financial cooperation among momber countries," he said.

"The bank needs to step up new lending modalities in a flexible way so
as to be able to provide valuable assistance to DMCs (developing
member countries) in urgent situations," he said.

Kiem said total official development assistance to Vietnam had reached
eight billion dollars compared with some 30 billion dollars in
cumulative commitments of foreign direct investment.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam, Thailand agree on priority east-west highway project

HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam and Thailand have chosen Highway number nine as
the priority east-west corridor linking Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, an
embassy spokesman said on Monday.

During a two day meeting of the Thai-Vietnamese joint commission on
economic cooperation held in Hanoi over the weekend, the two sides
agreed on the need to discuss procedures on customs, goods in transit
and visas.

These issues are expected to be raised at a meeting of the
sub-committee on transportation set to convene by the middle of the
year, he said.

The proposed highway project, which also requires approval by Laos
aims at harmonizing rules and regulations for the three countries.

The corridor would eventually run from Mukdahan in Thailand through
Savanakhet in Laos to Quang Tri province in Vietnam to the port of
Danang.

The Asian Development Bank has authorised a three million dollar
feasibility study of the project under the Greater Mekong sub-region
program. Japan has promised funding of about 60 million dollars to
build a bridge linking the Thai and Lao portions of the highway.

During the meetings in Hanoi headed by Thailand's deputy foreign
minister Pitak Intrawityanunt and his Vietnamese counterpart Vu Khoan,
the two sides also explored ways of expanding trade and investment.
                 ___________________________________


Asian Cash Rice Mixed; Active Vietnamese Shipments 

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Asian physical rice offers are mixed late
Monday in Asia, with price increases noted in the higher-grade Thai
rice, while Vietnamese 5% broken rice prices moved lower, trade
sources said.

Offers for Thai 100%B rice are now at $337-$338/ton, up from $335/ton,
while Thai parboiled rice prices are up about $10/ton at $340/ton.

Rumors that exporters haven't covered their large orders, coupled with
the inability of some millers to meet new demand, sent higher-grade
prices higher, said a trade source with a major exporter in Bangkok.

'Local supplies are a bit tight because of rumors of large orders to
Iran and to the African countries for the parboiled rice,' he said.
'All the millers have many old orders in hand so they can't cope with
the new ones.'

The orders for parboiled rice aren't that large, but prices are higher
because there are few suppliers of such rice, he said, adding 'some
normal millers don't have the machines to process the parboiled rice.'

Offers for the lower-grade Thai rice are largely unchanged at $260/ton
for the 25% brokens.

Vietnamese 25% brokens are offered flat at $198/ton while the 5%
brokens are offered $5/ton lower at $230/ton.

Most of the demand is for the lower grade rice, as international
brokers contract the rice largely for West Africa, said a trader in Ho
Chi Minh City. He added two to three vessels of 25% brokens. likely
bound for West Africa, were heard contracted at $197/ton FOB, last
week.

According to him, rice shipments are active at the moment, with
ongoing loading of more than 100,000 tons of lower grade rice.

In Pakistan, offers for the 25% broken rice are largely stable around
$220/ton amid decreasing stocks, while the Indian grade is still
priced at $260/ton.

As reported Friday, rice shipments out of the port of Karachi for the
week of May 3-9 are at 17,036 tons, down from 27,111 tons recorded the
previous week.

-By Joyce Teo 65-421-4825
                 ___________________________________


Nike Lets Critics Kick It Around 

By GREG RUSHFORD
Wall Street Journal

Nike Inc. has been accused by labor and human-rights activists of
running sweatshops in China and Indonesia and of abusing female
workers who make sneakers in Vietnam. How is Nike--which is adamantly
proud of its employment practices--defending itself? More pointedly,
has Nike's public relations effort helped or hurt? The answer to the
latter question is that Nike, like so many other corporations under
fire, sometimes seems to be its own worst enemy when it comes to
getting out its side of the story.

This is particularly unfortunate, since careful scrutiny of the
complaints against the company suggests that Nike really is the
progressive and humane employer it claims to be. Despite some
problems, impartial reporters who have looked into Nike's operations
have mainly found them to be clean.

So why is Nike a target? Because, with 37% of the athletic-shoe
market, it is "the biggest," says Medea Benjamin of San Francisco's
Global Exchange, part of a loose network of about 15 left-wing
organizations world-wide that aims to bring as many bodies as possible
into the streets for an international protest day against Nike on Oct.
18. Funded variously by labor unions, the religious left and a
grass-roots donor base, the anti-Nike protesters are the younger
brothers and sisters of the antiwar and pro-Sandinista activists of
decades past.

The critics ask if it's right for Nike to pay millions a year to CEO
Philip Knight and athlete endorsers Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods
while the young women who make Nike sneakers in Asia earn about $2 a
day. But that's the wrong question. A monthly wage of $40 to $60 in
Vietnam, for example, is two to three times that country's per-capita
annual income of $250, notes Russell Roberts, an economist at
Washington University in St. Louis.

Economists also say Nike's capital has helped bring vastly improved
living standards to the countries where the company has operated:
first Japan, then South Korea and Taiwan, and now newly developing
nations like China, Indonesia and Vietnam. "Nike's arrival usually
corresponds to an economic boom, while its departure usually signals
that the time has arrived for a country to move up the development
scale," write Li Tong and Robert Zielinski of Jardine Fleming
Research's Singapore office. Messrs.Tong and Zielinski coined a
phrase--"the Nike Indicator"--to describe the wave of prosperity that
Nike has helped create in Asia.

But Nike hasn't been so adept at public relations. Last year, company
officials put their hands in front of CBS correspondent Roberta
Baskin's camera as they barred her from one of their factories in
Vietnam. Ms. Baskin then trashed Nike, interviewing a group of women
who had been slapped by a Korean supervisor working for one of the
subcontractors that run Nike's five Vietnam plants. Nike had actually
dealt with the abuses before the U.S. journalists showed up--but the
company sure made itself look guilty.

Nike made the same mistake with Thuyen Nguyen, a 33-year old New
Jersey businessman who emigrated from Vietnam in 1975. Disturbed by
the CBS broadcast, Mr. Nguyen flew to Vietnam to investigate for
himself. Nike officials took him on a plant tour, but Mr. Nguyen says
he became frustrated when they asked him to stay away from the press.
So he hooked up with officials from the Vietnamese General
Confederation of Labor, a government-dominated union, who made sure he
interviewed disgruntled workers. He also gleaned anti-Nike reports
from Vietnamese publications like Worker magazine. "When I gave my
report to Nike, I got little response," says Mr. Nguyen, who has now
launched an organization called Vietnam Labor Watch. "So I called [New
York Times columnist] Bob Herbert, because Nike was telling me Bob
Herbert is dishonest."

Mr. Herbert, an honest Manhattan liberal whose literary juices flow
when the subject is corporate greed, wrote a column ripping Nike. He
passed along Mr. Nguyen's most damning finding: that a Taiwanese
supervisor had made 56 women employees run twice around a 1.2-mile
factory perimeter as punishment. Nike's "boot camp," Mr. Herbert
dubbed it.

Nike officials protest vehemently that Mr. Nguyen's "discovery"
actually had already been reported to them and dealt with; the
Taiwanese supervisor is being prosecuted. But again, Nike would have
been better off not acting as if it had something to hide.

Meanwhile, the company's PR team has issued a stream of press
releases, boasting that it was the first in the industry to establish
a code of conduct, that it has worked with a White House task force to
sign an antisweatshop accord, and that it has hired former Atlanta
Mayor Andrew Young to inspect its Asian operations. To Nike's critics
such symbolism means nothing. And while the company pays hired guns
like Mr. Young big bucks in hopes of clearing its name, prominent
critics like the Rev. Jesse Jackson aren't let anywhere near Nike
factories. Coverup, the activists cry.

True, Mr. Jackson & Co. wouldn't be satisfied even if Nike doubled the
wages it pays its Asian workers. But what Mr. Knight must do is forget
PR gimmicks and slam-dunk his critics with the economic facts.
  _________________________________________________________________

Mr. Rushford is editor and publisher of the Rushford Report, a
Washington-based newsletter on trade politics.
                 ___________________________________


Pepper Prices Up in Vietnam 

Xinhua English Newswire

Pepper prices have surged to decade highs in Vietnam, following
reports of poor harvests in other Asian countries including Indonesia,
Malaysia and India, according to an official report released here
today.

The price of white pepper has hit 55,000 dong (about 4.72 U.S.
dollars) per kilogram, while black pepper is selling for 35,000 dong
(three dollars) per kg, up more than 6000 dong (about 52 cents) from
the prices in December.

But the prices are still lower than that on the international market,
the report said.

Vietnam now has a total pepper acreage of 6,000-7,000 hectares,
concentrating in central coast provinces and the central highlands. It
produces some 9,000 tons of pepper a year, of which 7,000 tons are for
export.