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VN News (May 27, 1997)
May 27: Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights - May 27, 1997
May 27: Natural Calamities Claim 34 Lives in Vietnam
May 27: Vietnam volunteer wins Hero prize
May 27: Vietnam capital gets new anti-litter campaign beginning in June
May 27: Vietnam calls for stronger role by state sector: editorial
May 27: Vietnam Treasures Traditional Ties with Cuba
May 27: Vietnam To Extend Censorship To Uploaded Data Into Internet
May 27: Vietnam accuses West of hypocrisy over boatpeople
May 27: UN refugee agency to send Vietnamese home from Hong Kong
May 27: Vietnamese criminal gang to go on trial in mid-June: report
May 27: Vietnam moves ahead on trans-Asia highway
May 27: Commission to appraise assets in Vietnam corruption scandal: report
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights - May 27, 1997
Hanoi (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnam's daily newspapers today:
<P>NHAN DAN:<p>
1. Party General Secretary Do Muoi and President Le Duc
Anh separately received ADP President Misuo Sato during which the
Vietnamese leaders thanked the ADB for its financial assistance for
Vietnam's national development since 1993, and said that Vietnam would
improve its foreign aid management capacity, maintaining a higher growth
rate and continue improving people's living conditions.
<P>2. At a current Italy visit by Vietnam's Prime Minister,
Vo Van Kiet, Vietnam and Italy signed an agreement under which Italy
will grant Vietnam a preferential loan of 1,000 billion lire (US$ 60
million), and a programme for implementing a cultural co-operation
agreement.
<p>VIETNAM NEWS:<P>1. A project to build a tunnel underneath the Sai Gon
river linking the heart of Ho Chi Minh City with a new urban development
centre to the east has been approved in principle by municipal
authorities.
<P>2. Whirlwind, cyclones and hailstorms have this year
killed 34 people and injured 137 others in 24 provinces and cities
nationwide.
<p>HANOI MOI:<P>1. The Planning and Investment Ministry has announced that
it will make public a list of technology suppliers from ASEAN member
countries.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Natural Calamities Claim 34 Lives in Vietnam
<br>Xinhua English Newswire
<p>
Whirlwinds, cyclones and hailstorms have killed 34 people and
injured 134 others in 24 provinces and cities nationwide this year,
official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported today.
<P>The report quoted the Central Committee for Storm and Flood
Prevention (CCSFP) as saying that natural disasters knocked down or
unroofed thousands of houses and ruined thousands of hectares of rice
and subsidiary crops.
<p>
Meanwhile, public infrastructure projects like telecommunication
networks, electricity grids, roads, bridges, and culverts were
damaged, the report said.
<P>The CCSFP announced total economic losses of about 99 billion Dong
( about nine million U.S. dollars).
<P>The CCSFP has urged all local authorities to concentrate efforts
on overcoming floods and building dikes and dams, the report added.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Vietnam volunteer wins Hero prize
Straits Times <P>
<p>Singapore teacher's efforts at building English library for a
Vietnamese teachers' training
college wins her an award from Reader's Digest
TWO years ago, she took no-pay leave from her $3,000-a-month
teaching job to work as a volunteer in Vietnam, teaching English
at a teachers' training college there.
<p>
When she found that the English-language trainee teachers at the
Hai Duong Teachers' Training College lacked supplementary
reading material, she decided to set up an English library for
them and came home during the Chinese New Year holidays last
year to do that.
<p>
Teacher Yu Chin Yen, 40, wrote to several publishers in
Singapore and together with help from her friends, collected more
than 350 English books, mainly readers and some magazines, to
get the library started.
<p>
She also persuaded courier company DHL International to send
them to the college in Hai Duong province, about 60 km from
Hanoi, free of charge.
<p>
This month, Miss Yu, who graduated with a Master's degree in
Applied Linguistics from Macquarie University in Sydney,
Australia before leaving for Vietnam, was named a Hero For
Today by Reader's Digest. The quarterly award was started by
the United States-based magazine three years ago to recognise
and promote acts of bravery and public spiritedness in Asia.
<p>
Her story of public service, which appeared in Life! last
November, was printed in the Asian edition of Reader's Digest
this month, together with those of three other Asian recipients of
the award from India and Hongkong.
<p>
The 11th Singaporean to be honoured in the series, Miss Yu
received a certificate of commendation from Ms Janie Couch,
editor-in-chief of the magazine's Asian edition, and a US$300
(S$426) cash award.
<p>
Her good deed so impressed Digest's Singapore country manager
Clara Lee that she gave about 60 of her company's publications,
worth nearly $5,000, to the library.
<p>
DHL also agreed to ship the books over at no cost for a second
time, about two weeks ago.
<p>
In a telephone interview from the college last week, Miss Yu told
Life!: "I am very happy that Reader's Digest in Singapore
supported me with the books which are very beautiful and which
the students would love to have more of."
<p>
With the latest addition, the library now has nearly 500 books
which are being read by more than 300 English-language
students.
<p>
Miss Yu, who is in Vietnam under the Singapore International
Foundation's Singapore Volunteers Overseas Programme, said the
college and the students could not afford to buy any
English-language books because of budget constraints.
<p>
Even the students' English textbooks were photostated copies of
the originals, she added.
<p>
On the Heroes For Today award, she said: "I feel good to receive
it, but I never thought something I did as a private and individual
can be considered as heroic.
<p>
"If I am a hero, thousands others who have given something of
themselves are heroes too."
<p>
A teacher for over 20 years, Miss Yu, who also holds a bachelor
degree in English language and literature from the National
University of Singapore, said a visit to Vietnam a few years ago
made her want to teach English there someday.
<p>
She explained: "There was an emphasis on Russian for 10 years
between 1985 and 1995 in Vietnam when English was not taught
at all. So there is a great need for English-language teachers there
now."
<p>
When her students at the college graduate after their three years
of teachers' training, they will teach English to children in the
villages and towns all over the country.
<p>
Although she had to give up a good income for the past two years,
Miss Yu has no regrets becoming a Singapore overseas volunteer.
She said: "The students are learning from scratch and their
standards are only at our Primary 6 and lower secondary school
levels. But they are all very eager to learn and they have made
my experience there very enriching and fulfilling."
<p>
But she is coming back by the end of next month when her
two-year stint as a volunteer ends.
<p>
If given a choice, she is likely to continue teaching at the
teachers' training college in Hai Duong because she knows she is
still needed there.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Vietnam capital gets new anti-litter campaign beginning in June
Hanoi (dpa) - Authorities in the Vietnamese capital have launched an
anti-litter campaign under which litterbugs will be fined up to 50,000
dong (4.50 dollars) as of June 1, officials said Tuesday.
<P>Police and city officials have been authoritized to collect fines
either on the spot or to write summonses which violators will have to
pay at the state bank, they said.
<p>
Although one of the most pleasant cities in Southeast Asia, Hanoi is
also marred by widespread and cavalier pollution, both by industries and
individuals.
<P>``It's not just a one-time campaign, these new regulations will last
forever to keep the environment clean,'' vowed Nguyen Van Chinh, a
senior public works department official.
<P>He said the funds collected through the new fines will pay for the
clothes, equipment and salaries of public workers tasked with cleaning
the city of 3-4 million inhabitants.
<P>Pollution in the city's many lakes is also a critical problem and
Chinh said that large sources of money would have to be found to cope
with that.
<P>``We have propagandized about this since September last year in
newspapers, TV and radio, so evverybody should known about this,'' he
said.
<P>But a random sample of Hanoi residents revealed that few had heard of
the new programme, ensuring bountiful street-level disputes.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Vietnam calls for stronger role by state sector: editorial
Hanoi (AFP) - Vietnam's state sector needs to play a
stronger role in the drive for modernization and industrialisation,
the official mouthpiece of the country's communist party said in an
editorial Tuesday.
<p>
"The market economy frequently gives rise to both favourable
elements and dangers. That requires the strengthening of the
leading role of the state sector," the Nhan Dan daily editorial
said.
<P>The comments came one day after the visit of Asian Development
Bank president Mitsuo Sato, who said Vietnam must press ahead with
economic reforms, including restructuring state-owned enterprises
(SOEs).
<P>A dominant role of the state sector in economic growth was
declared as a major tenet of communist party plans for the next
five years outlined in the Eighth Communist Party Congress last
June.
<P>But economists and multilateral agencies have criticised Vietnam
for dragging its heels on economic reform and for perpetuating a
climate in which the playing field is tilted in favour of SOEs.
<P>Since the launch of economic reforms more than a decade ago,
most SOEs have been subjected to the rigours of the market economy
but others enjoy implicit subsidies.
<P>An earler Nhan Dan report said 17 percent of the country's 6,250
state enterprises were suffering losses.
<P>"In order to master and hold firm in a competitive market, state
enterprises must promote their strengths, trying to produce
products which can compete with imports," the editorial said.
<P>It called for a restructuring of general corporations, and small
and medium sized state-owned enterprises.
<P>This requires that the state "complete and regulate the
reorganization and rearrange small and medium state-owned
enterprises."
<P>Evidence of SOE inefficiency abounds.
<P>Almost daily, newspapers report stockpiles of unsold cement,
steel and pulp and paper. Even rice is being left to rot because
state run trading corporations cannot manage the stock.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Vietnam Treasures Traditional Ties with Cuba
Xinhua English Newswire
<p>
Vietnam's communist party general secretary, Do Muoi, said Monday
that his country has always attached great importance to the
development of traditional relations with Cuba and stands side by
side with the Cuban people.
<P>Do Muoi made the remarks during his meeting with Nestor Lopez
Cuba, the chief of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces' Political
Department. The Cuban military officer is visiting Vietnam.
<p>
Do Muoi briefed Cuba on Vietnam's renovation process, policies on
multi-sector economic development, foreign investment and challenges
and difficulties faced in the process of a shift to market mechanisms
under state management.
<P>" Vietnam is pursuing the socialist path," Do Muoi said.
<P>Cuba said he hoped the friendship and broad cooperation between
the two countries would be consolidated and developed.
uesday - May 27, 1997
Vietnam To Extend Censorship To Uploaded Data Into Internet
HANOI (AP)--The government has extended its censorship of the Internet to
include data uploaded onto the information network, according to new
regulations published Tuesday.</p>
<p>Information sent from Vietnam onto the worldwide information network will
have to be approved by the Ministry of Culture and Information in advance,
the Communist Party newspaper, The People, reported.</p>
<p>The government has already specified that it will censor information to
be downloaded from the Internet when Vietnam comes online.</p>
<p>Now Vietnamese organizations hoping to upload information to the Internet
must first submit to ministry officials a detailed list and career history
of all employees and provide a copy of papers authorizing the organization
to use the Internet.</p>
<p>The new regulations, in effect since May 21, were made public by
state-controlled media on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The rules also extend to diplomats and foreign organizations, who must
also obtain permission to access the Internet in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Foreign businesses wishing to supply information to the Internet will
have to register the names of all staff members who will have access to the
service, The People reported.</p>
<p>In March, the government announced it would censor all information coming
into Vietnam through the Internet, and would control who has access to the
online service.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet appointed a panel of
senior government officials to manage and direct the use of the Internet in
Vietnam.</p>
<p>The board, headed by the minister of science and technology, includes
educators, interior ministry officials, and government censors, the Vietnam
News Agency reported.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Vietnam accuses West of hypocrisy over boatpeople
By Adrian Edwards <P>
Hanoi (Reuter) - Hanoi on Tuesday accused Western governments of having
used the Vietnamese boatpeople issue as a political tool and said their
reluctance to accept the last refugees from camps in Hong Kong demonstrated
insincerity.
<p>
A commentary in the official Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army) newspaper
said that the United States and other Western countries had used the issue
after the Vietnam war ended in 1975 ``to slander and isolate Vietnam.''
<p>
It said Washington had sought at that time to encourage an exodus from
Vietnam, but added that Western unwillingness today to offer homes to
boatpeople still in Hong Kong and identified as political refugees showed
the issue had been motivated by political aims and not concern over human
rights.
<p>
``Despite calls from the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees) America and Western countries still ignore and definitely do not
receive anyone,'' it said.
<p>
``Even Britain, the country which originated the concept of receiving
refugees, has received just 19 people.''
<p>
UNHCR officials say more than 1,000 people who have been granted refugee
status are still awaiting resettlement from Hong Kong by third countries.
<p>
A meeting in Geneva on Monday of resettlement nations made some headway
towards finding homes for some, but officials told Reuters there was still
no definite date for a final resolution of the issue.
<p>
Vietnam's boatpeople exodus began in the 1970s following the communist
victory over the government of U.S.-backed South Vietnam.
<p>
The flood of people arriving in regional countries of first asylum reached a
peak during the late 1980s, prompting the international community to endorse
a series of screening and repatriation measures in 1989 aimed at bringing
the issue to a close.
<p>
Since then some 110,000 boatpeople have been returned to Vietnam through
forced and voluntary repatriation schemes.
<p>
Refugee officials in Hanoi said on Tuesday that the final voluntary
repatriation flight for boatpeople in Hong Kong would take place on Wednesday.
<p>
Boatpeople remaining in Hong Kong after that date will include those
categorised as refugees, people who cannot be repatriated immediately
because of medical or other reasons and several hundred others who Hanoi
says are not genuine Vietnamese.
<p>
Hong Kong is due to revert to Chinese rule in just over a month.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
UN refugee agency to send Vietnamese home from Hong Kong
HONG KONG (AFP) - The UN refugee agency will repatriate more than
250 Vietnamese asylum seekers from Hong Kong Wednesday as its voluntary return
programme winds up ahead of handover to Chinese rule. <p>
The Vietnamese -- deemed economic migrants rather than political refugees
and therefore ineligible for resettlement abroad -- will be flown to Hanoi
aboard chartered planes.<p>
The UNHCR has declared a May 31 deadline for those agreeing to return home
voluntarily, those remaining after that date could be forcibly repatriated.<p>
There are currently 1,465 economic migrants held in detention centres
here.<p>
A further 1,384 Vietnamese boat people have been accepted as bona fide
refugees and are hoping to resettled in a third country. Most would prefer to
go to Canada or the United States.<p>
China, which becomes sovereign power here in July, has repeatedly said it
has no wish to inherit the Vietnam problem, which grew after Britain declared
Hong Kong to be a port of first asylum for Vietnamese escaping the communist
regime.<p>
Wednesday's flights are part of a last-minute attempt to clear the camps
which appears doomed to fail.<p>
In Geneva on Tuesday, four Western nations agreed to accept some of the
remaining refugees from Hong Kong, after lobbying from the UNHCR.<p>
The United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden jumped on board while
France vowed to follow suit, the assistant High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), Sergio de Vieira de Mello, said.<p>
"We have asked the traditional resettlement countries to make a final
effort in Hong Kong," de Mello said. "We only presented those (cases) which we
realistically believe can be accepted."<p>
Many of the Vietnamese refugees have criminal records and a problem with
drug addiction which have so far undermined their chances of finding new
homes.<p>
However, the UN body has presented host nations with a list of just 128 of
the remaining cases in Hong Kong -- those with "mild" criminal records and
drug problems.<p>
The United States on Monday agreed to accept nine families, the United
Kingdom seven families -- about 19 individuals -- and Sweden 15. France put
forward no number, but said it would go along if other countries agreed to
accept a last batch of boat people.<p>
"We can accept more positive decisions," de Mello said, adding that other
governments had not yet received answers from their capitals on the refugee
issue.<p>
If further offers were not forthcoming, "we would have to look for other
solutions," the UNHCR official said, insisting voluntary repatriation would be
the last possible option for the Vietnamese refugees.<p>
Around 500 non-refugees are expected to still be in Hong Kong when the
British colony returns to China.<p>
The UNHCR has asked China to take an open-minded attitude about the
remainder.<p>
"I believe we can count on (China's) flexibility," de Mello said, adding
that he had not received a "positive or negative reply" from Chinese
authorities.<p>
Some 214,648 Vietnamese refugees have passed through Hong Kong since
1975.<p>
A representative from Hong Kong and from the China's permament UN mission
here attended the meeting.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Vietnamese criminal gang to go on trial in mid-June: report
Hanoi (AFP) - A notorious Hanoi-based criminal gang is set to go on
trial in mid-June, a report said Tuesday. <p>
Twenty four people in the crime syndicate headed by Duong Van Khanh --
better known as "White Khanh" -- have been charged with "murder, robbery, rape
and intentionally causing physical pain" the Saigon Giaiphong daily
reported.<p>
Khanh, 41, earned the nickname "White" after he was disfigured by an acid
attack inflicted by a rival gang in 1992. <p>
A former cyclo driver, Khanh established his gang in 1990, carving himself
a small empire based on extortion and a local monopoly on supplying porters to
local trading markets. <p>
Khanh has been personally linked to at least one murder in 1991 and his
gang is believed to be responsible for at least one other death as well as
cases of rape.<p>
He was finally arrested along with 39 of his gang members last May during a
daring daytime robbery of a karoake bar and hotel in downtown Hanoi.<p>
Police nabbed Khanh at the scene of the crime where the gang used five vans
to pull off the robbery.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Vietnam moves ahead on trans-Asia highway
Hanoi (AFP) - Vietnam is pressing ahead with preparations to build
a trans-Asia highway linking the country with Laos and Thailand so
construction can begin in early 1998 a report said Tuesday. <p>
About 31.5 million dollars will be spent on compensation for some 19,000
people displaced and on clearing the 80 kilometre (50 mile) Vietnamese portion
of the road of mines and bombs, the ministry of transportation and
communication was quoted in the Saigon Times Daily as saying. <p>
The Vietnamese portion will cost 145 million dollars to build. <p>
The proposed highway project, which Vietnam and Thailand have agreed will
involve rehabilitating Highway Number 9, also requires approval by Laos for
harmonizing rules and regulations for the three countries. <p>
The corridor would eventually run from Mukdahan in Thailand through
Savanakhet in Laos to Quang Tri province in Vietnam to the port of Danang. <p>
The Asian Development Bank has authorised a three million dollar
feasibility study of the project under the Greater Mekong sub-region program.
Japan has also promised funding of about 60 million dollars to build a bridge
linking the Thai and Lao portions of the highway.
Tuesday - May 27, 1997
Commission to appraise assets in Vietnam corruption scandal: report
Hanoi (AFP) - Vietnam's government has set up a commission to
assess the financial health of two companies involved in a corruption scandal
possibly involving millions of dollars, a report said Tuesday. <p>
Minh Phung Garment Co and the Export-Import and Tourist District 3 Company,
better known as Epco, have been at the centre of an investigation into
corruption and fraud involving state owned banks. <p>
Acting on instructions from Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, a commission headed
by deputy governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Do Que Luong will assess the
assets of Minh Phung and EPCO in an attempt to unravel a complex web of
ownership designed to deceive bankers, the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper said. <p>
So far 18 people have been arrested in connection with Minh Phung,
including the company's general director Tang Minh Phung and his wife, and
EPCO general director Lien Khui Thin, for their alleged role in a complex
scheme of bank frauds.<p>
Ming Phung's troubles first surfaced in March after an affiliate company,
EPCO, defaulted on a 18 million dollar debt to state-owned Vietcombank.<p>
The investigation has focused on trying to assess a labyrinthine company
structure in which Minh Phung allegedly used more than 22 subsidiaries and
associate companies to deceive bankers of its true financial structure.<p>
After his arrest, Phung said his company owed state-owned Incombank nearly
370 million dollars, hundreds of times the amount of Minh Phung's authorised
capital.<p>
"This case has the potential to be a hundred times bigger than Tamexco,"
said a Vietnamese executive at a fertilizer company, referring to a 40 million
dollar corruption scandal in which four people got the death sentence earlier
this year. <p>
Minh Phung is one of Vietnam's largest garment manufacturers with more than
9,000 employees. Like many high flying private joint stock companies it has
diversified into property development and import-export. <p>
EPCO, which has trade offices in Sydney and San Francisco, is a big
importer of fertilizer and exporter of coffee with turnover exceeding 150
million dollars last year. <p>
Officials at both EPCO and Minh Phung have refused to talk to media.