VN news (June 20)

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

Discussion of former wartime foes off to frustrating start
Close to 700 candidates to stand for Vietnam national elections
Line-up set for Vietnam's National Assembly vote
Former foes discuss failed chances to avoid Vietnam war
Iranian VP urges greater cooperation with Vietnam
Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights
Vietnam's Forests Disappearing At Alarming Rate - Ministry 
Japan to send telecom specialists to Vietnam 
Nike plays down mass lay-off in Vietnam 
Vietnam National Job Promotion Programme Claims Success
Vietnam's Agriculture Get 10pct Of Foreign Investment
Vietcombank Cites Regulations For Refusing Debt Guarantee
  _________________________________________________________________

Discussion of former wartime foes off to frustrating start

By Frederik Balfour

HANOI, June 20 (AFP) - US participants on Friday said that a conference
here with the Vietnamese on missed opportunities for peace in the Vietnam
War got off to a painfully slow start. 

"I was terribly frustrated. Some of the questions we asked got completely
sidestepped," said Chester Cooper, a CIA analyst who specialised in
Southeast Asia during part of the war. 

"They were not forthcoming. But what do you expect? These people aren't
used to open and free discussions," he added. 

Conference organisers expressed similar dismay with Vietnamese reluctance
to put their cards on the table, though they said they expect talks to
become more candid as the four day conference wears on. 

"This was a set up period. The topics will get more focused," said one of
the organisers. 

The four day conference includes key participants from the war including
former wartime US secretary of defense Robert McNamara, who has openly
admitted in his memories that the United States made a "mistake" in waging
a war it stood no chance of winning by 1967. 

McNamara and Cooper led the US side in Friday's discussions meant to focus
on the "mindset" of the former enemies in 1961. 

More than anything, the talks showed that gulf in thinking between Vietnam
and the United States persists today, participants said. 

The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam allows only one official vision of
history still anchored on Marxist-Leninist principles of revolutionary
class struggle. 

The Vietnamese wasted little time in reminding the Americans of the
devastation they wrought upon the country and who they felt was
responsible for prolonging the war which left three million Vietnamese and
nearly 58,000 Americans dead. 

"It is regretted that the US failing to understand the sacred aspirations
of the Vietnamese people have missed many opportunities to end the painful
losses of both nations," Dao Huy Ngoc, Vietnamese vice foreign minister,
said during his opening speech. 

Neither did he mince words on the topic of Agent Orange, the defoliant
used by US forces for nearly a decade. 

"In Vietnam we cannot calculate how many citizens who have suffered from
Agent Orange," he said. 

His comments came in the wake of a flurry of recent articles in the
state-run Vietnamese press chronicling the suffering of Agent Orange
victims. 

The Vietnamese claim that two million of its citizens, including 50,000
deformed babies born to parents exposed to the chemical, were affected by
the dioxin contained in Agent Orange. 

Hanoi has never officially sought compensation from the Americans for the
victims of Agent Orange, but observers say the recent media coverage could
indicate a shift in strategy, and comes when US-Vietnamese relations are
at an all time high. 

Last month Washington and Hanoi exchanged ambassadors and US Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright is due to visit here on June 26-28. 

After hearing Ngoc's remarks, former US general William Smith told AFP the
topic was obviously on Vietnam's agenda. 

Asked if he thought the Vietnamese would be seeking US assistance for the
victims in the future he said: "I wouldn't be surprised, if that's what
they are looking for." 

Missing from the conference was 85-year-old Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen
Giap, the chief architect of the Vietnamese victory over the French and
Americans. 

Giap, who once said Vietnam would "fight a hundred years, as long as it
took to win, regardless of cost," is to meet US participants after the
conference concludes on June 23. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Close to 700 candidates to stand for Vietnam national elections

HANOI, June 20 (AFP) - Vietnam's next national legislature will be full of
new faces, with only 117 of the total 666 people standing for election in
July already holding seats, an official Vietnamese report said on Friday. 

The Communist Party official Nhan Dan daily newspaper said some 112 of the
candidates are not members of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and 11 of
them have nominated themselves without any ties to party organisations. 

Elections for National Assembly deputies are held every five years and
voting is compulsory. A total of 450 seats will be decided in the polls on
July 20, up from the existing 395. 

But regardless of how they were nominated, all 666 candidates have been
vetted and approved by the National Fatherland Front, the party umbrella
group which controls all Vietnamese organizations. 

The national law-making body is also expected to see a higher percentage
of women, as some 202 women are seeking seats, accounting for 30 percent
of those approved to stand election. A total of 132 ethnic minority
candidates have also been approved. 

About 92 percent of the current National Assembly are party members, a
figure which should drop to about 80 percent after elections, secretary
general Vu Mao said recently. 

The assembly will instead incorporate a larger percentage of technocrats,
economists, intellectuals and scientists, he said. 

The first session of the new National Assembly must meet within 60 days of
the elections, and must approve the successors to President Le Duc Anh and
Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, neither of whom are standing relection. 

Communist party chief Do Muoi, whose name also does not reckon among the
666 candidates, is expected to give up his post within a few months. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Line-up set for Vietnam's National Assembly vote 

Hanoi, June 20 (Reuter) - Vietnam said on Friday that the candidates
standing for election to the National Assembly next month included a
generous sprinkling of women, ethnic minorities and non-members of the
ruling Communist Party. 

But official media reports on the list, which has been passed to the
Central Election Council for publication next week, did not name any
candidates, leaving a question mark over whether the president and prime
minister were among them. 

If President Le Duc Anh, 76, and Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, 74, do not
stand for re-election to the legislature, they will step down when the new
assembly meets in September. 

Political sources said last week that Anh and Kiet were not on the list of
candidates from central organisations which went through three rounds of
consultation by the Fatherland Front, a powerful organisation linked to
the party. 

Party Secretary General Do Muoi, 80, was not on the list either, though
the head of the party is not constitutionally bound to be a member of the
assembly. 

National Assembly Office Director Vu Mao told reporters in March that
Hanoi planned to make the legislature a more "democratic" body, raising
the ratio of non-party lawmakers to 20 percent from about eight percent
now. 

Media reports said 666 candidates would stand in nationwide elections on
July 20 for 450 National Assembly seats. 

Of them, 112 -- or 16 percent -- are not members of the party, 132 are
ethnic minorities and all but 116 have been through tertiary education. 

Women account for 202, or 30.13 percent, of the candidates. Translated
into seats, that would mean a sharp rise from their representation of 18.5
percent in the outgoing assembly -- a rate which is only exceeded by 12 of
the 173 countries in the World Parliamentary Union. 

Under new legislation, election candidates will be free to campaign for
votes on television and radio and in newspapers. 

However, where electors are faced with a choice of more than one
candidate, they are usually advised on who to vote for by a local
official. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Former foes discuss failed chances to avoid Vietnam war 

By Frederik Balfour

HANOI, June 20 (AFP) - Some of the key players in the Vietnam War met for
a landmark conference Friday to discuss the missed opportunities that
could have shortened or avoided the conflict and saved three million
lives. 

But in their opening remarks the Vietnamese were swift to take the United
States to task over the 1963-1973 conflict, suggesting the four-day
conference may prove one-sided. 

"It is regretted that the US failing to understand the sacred aspirations
of the Vietnamese people have missed many opportunities to end the painful
losses of both nations," Dao Huy Ngoc, Vietnamese vice foreign minister
said at the opening of the four-day conference. 

Key participants include US wartime defense secretary Robert McNamara and
Vietnam's former foreign minister, Nguyen Co Thach. 

Ngoc also wasted no time in reminding participants of the devastating
effects caused by the 44.3 million litres (11.5 million gallons) of the
defoliant Agent Orange sprayed by US forces during the war to torch jungle
hideouts. 

"In Vietnam we cannot calculate how many citizens have suffered from Agent
Orange," he said. 

He highlighted that US Admiral Zumwalt, who ordered the use of the
defoliant, lost a son, and saw his grandson disabled as a result of the
toxic chemical. 

Ngoc also stressed the Americans grossly underestimated the resolve of the
Vietnamese who "when necessary sacrificed all rather than losing the
country and becoming slaves." 

Such revolutionary rhetoric remains a major tenet of Vietnam's ruling
communist party under which there is only one official version of history
and the past is rarely subjected to critical review. 

Ngoc's remarks came in the wake of a flurry of recent articles in the
state-controlled Vietnamese press chronicling the horrendous misery
inflicted by Agent Orange. 

Vietnam claims more than two million people, including 50,000 deformed
children born to parents exposed to the defoliant, were affected by Agent
Orange, which was used flush out communist troops from forest cover during
the war. 

Hanoi has never officially sought compensation from the Americans for the
victims of Agent Orange, but observers say recent media coverage of the
issue could indicate a shift in strategy. 

It also comes as US-Vietnamese relations are at an all time high. 

Last month Washington and Hanoi exchanged ambassadors and US Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright is due to visit here on June 26-28. 

After hearing Ngoc's remarks, former US general William Smith told AFP the
topic is obviously on Vietnam's agenda. 

"We are going to hear a lot more about it in the conference." 

Asked if he thought the Vietnamese would be seeking US assistance for the
victims in the future he said: "I wouldn't be surprised, if that's what
they are looking for." 

Of all participants, McNamara is likely to be the most willing to discuss
his errors of judgement. 

In 1995 in his memoires entitled "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons
of War," he admits it was "terribly wrong" for the US to pursue a war that
by 1967 was unwinnable. 

McNamara, who on Friday gave his view of the American "mindset" in 1961,
told reporters he hoped lessons learned here would ensure "we don't repeat
this tragedy in the next century." 

Absent from the conference was 85 year-old general Vo Nguyen Giap, the
chief architect of the Vietnamese victory over both the French and
Americans who once said Vietnam would fight "a hundred years, as long as
it took to win, regardless of cost." 

Giap is scheduled to meet with participants after the conclusion of the
seminar. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Iranian VP urges greater cooperation with Vietnam 

HANOI, June 20 (AFP) - Closer economic ties would help Iran and Vietnam
stand up to governments which interfere in the affairs of other nations,
official reports quoting Iran's visiting first vice President said here
Friday. 

"In the interest of the two countries I think that we must make more
efforts to expand on current cooperation," Hassan Ibrahim Habibi told
Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet after a meeting Thursday. 

"This cooperation will allow us to strongly stand against large countries
which abuse human rights in order to violate the sovereignty of other
nations and hypocrites who always have an ambiguous atitude in these
matters," Habibi was quoted as saying by the Communist Party newspaper
Nhan Dan. 

Although Habibi did not mention any specific nations, his words appear to
have been a veiled reference to the United States ahead of a visit here
next Thursday by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. 

The two leaders also discussed measures to strengthen commercial exchanges
and investment in agriculture, oil, transport and banks. 

Kiet said that existing cooperation and commercial exchanges between Hanoi
and Teheran did not live up to their potential. 

Habibi also met Communist Party Secretary General Do Muoi and President Le
Duc Anh. 

He was due to visit the national university of Hanoi Friday, the army
museum and a textiles factory before meeting General Vo Nguyen Giap, who
masterminded resistance to French and American forces in Vietnam. 

Habini will leave for Iran Sunday after a brief stop in Ho Chi Minh city
-- the economic powerhouse of southern Vietnam. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Wednesday - June 18, 1997

Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights - June 19, 1997

Hanoi, June 19 (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnam's daily newspapers today: 

NHAN DAN: 

- Iran's first Vice President, Hassan Ibrahim Habibi, is to arrive in
Hanoi today at the beginning of a four-day official friendship visit to
Vietnam. On this occasion the paper runs an editorial on the strengthening
of relationships of friendship and cooperation between Iran and Vietnam. 

VIETNAM NEWS: 

- Vietnam exported goods worth more than US$3.36 billion in the first five
months of 1997, a 31.8 percent increase over the same period in 1996. 

- Operation Smile should reach another 25,000 children over next eight
years. 

- The Ministry of Fisheries has approved a feasibility study on the
upgrading of the Ca Mau fishing port, Ca Mau province, which cost US$2.4
million, with US$1.7 million to come from the Overseas Development
Assistance programme under the Asian Development Bank. 

HANOI MOI: 

- The State Treasury issued its thirteenth set of T-bills yesterday worth
VND 100 billion at an interest rate of 11.95 percent a year. 

- An exhibition of agriculture and food industry - AGRITECH 97 - ended in
Hanoi yesterday after two days of opening. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Vietnam's Forests Disappearing At Alarming Rate - Ministry

Hanoi (AP) -- Illegal and unchecked logging has left Vietnam with only 28%
of its original forest land remaining, said an agriculture ministry report
published Friday. 

The average forest area per person in Vietnam is 0.15 hectares,
significantly lower than the global average of 0.97 hectares per person,
the report said. 

The figures were released by Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture said in a
new report. The official Labor newspaper published the report Friday. 

Deforestation is considered an especially serious problem and the area of
reserved forests is going down to a very low level, a ministry spokesman
was quoted as saying in the newspaper. 

Woodlands are becoming a scarce, but valuable resource as uncontrolled
farming and illegal logging has wiped out many forests. 

In recent years, Vietnam has started making efforts to protect its
forests, but only after vast tracts have been devastated. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Japan to send telecom specialists to Vietnam

Hanoi, June 20 (Kyodo News) -- Japan's Posts and Telecommunications
Minister Hisao Horinouchi told the chief of the Vietnamese Communist Party
and government officials Friday that Japan will send telecom specialists
to Vietnam starting in fiscal 1998. 

According to Japanese officials, Horinouchi told General Secretary Do Muoi
that Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) will send its personnel to
the state-run telecom firm over five years from next fiscal year beginning
in April 1998. 

Horinouchi was also quoted as saying NTT will train employees from the
Vietnamese telecom company as instructors in switchboard technology. 

The Japanese posts minister also proposed a plan to accept Vietnamese
trainees at his ministry with the aim of helping Vietnam set up a postal
savings system, the officials said. 

The Vietnamese government officials called on Horinouchi for yen loans in
order to build a new television broadcasting center, according to the
officials. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Nike plays down mass lay-off in Vietnam

Hanoi, June 20 (Reuter) - U.S. sportswear giant Nike Inc on Friday played
down the dismissal of more than 400 apprentice workers at one of its
factories in Vietnam, which have been at the centre of recent labour abuse
allegations. 

Spokesman Vada Manager told Reuters by telephone that the trainees laid
off had never signed a contract, were paid for the work they did and would
be given first right of refusal to return when business picked up. 

He said the South Korean Sam Yang plant in southern Vietnam, which is
sub-contracted by Nike, had hired 800 apprentices in addition to the
roughly 6,000 already working there. 

``As the year began and as Nike began to look at its production needs and
order situation, it became pretty clear that they may be a little
overstaffed,'' he said. 

``So...of the 800 new hires that they had made over a period of time they
decided to lay off or defer bringing on line approximately 400 or so of
those workers.''

Manager said there was nothing illegal about the dismissals and defended
Nike's labour practices in Vietnam, where it has five subcontracted
plants. 

Last March the activist group Vietnam Labour Watch accused the firm of
abusing workers, saying some earned less than the minimum wage in their
first three months, some were limited to one trip to the lavatory and two
drinks of water per shift. It said verbal abuse, sexual harassment and
corporal punishment were common. 

``All of our sub-contractors have abolished what was known as the training
wage,'' Manager said. ``We feel that we are a real leader in the way our
workers are treated and the way we administer our business in Vietnam.''

He said the average earnings of workers at Nike factories in Vietnam was
about $480 a year before benefits and overtime. That compared with average
per capita income of about $170 a year in Dong Nai province, home to four
of the five plants. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Vietnam National Job Promotion Programme Claims Success

Hano, June 19 (VNA) - The National Programme for Job Promotion (NPJP)
claims it is directly helping on average 25 percent of those people who
find work each year get a job. 

Its estimated that 1.2 million people each year since 1992 enter the
workforce, mainly as labourers, and that the NPJP in the same period has
been involved in providing loans to employment-generating projects that
have resulted in 1.8 million people getting work. 

The NPJP under the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs has
loaned VND 1,805 billion (about US$154 million) to 45,517 small-sized
projects from 1992 to May 1997. 

The capital given by the NPJP aims to develop production in areas of
high-economic value, particularly in the provinces. 

The NPJP helps to resurrect and develop traditional village professions,
creating jobs and income for people in rural areas. The NPJP claims to
have reclaimed 95 percent of the above loans. 

The NPJP has recently reviewed the implementation of State Resolution No.
120 on lending capital and providing jobs in the central province of Nghe
An. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Vietnam's Agriculture Get 10pct Of Foreign Investment

Hanoi, June 19 (VNA) - Foreign investment in agricultural production,
forestry and fisheries accounts for only 10.7 percent of the total number
of licensed projects and 4.7 percent of total investment capital licensed
by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) by the end of May 1997. 

Licences for 212 projects worth nearly US$1.5 billion have been given for
the sector but only 198 projects (not including expired or cancelled
projects), totalling US$915 million, have been implemented. 

Almost all investment projects in the sector are small, averaging US$5.4
million per project, or one-third of the average of other FDI projects in
the country. 

Projects below US$5 million accounted for 74 percent of the total while
projects over US$10 million made up only 17 percent. No project is worth
more than US$40 million. 

Taiwan has invested the most of the 29 countries putting capital in this
sector, with 53 projects worth US$266 million. The USA comes second with
nine projects worth US$81 million, and the British Virgin Islands, third
with 5 projects worth US$79 million. 

Most projects are being implemented in the South with 27 in Ho Chi Minh
City, 22 in Dong Nai province, and 20 in the central highlands province of
Lam Dong. 

Investors say foreign companies are slow to invest in the sector because
of high risks with the rate of annulled projects was 27 percent compared
to 16 percent for other sectors. 

In addition, Vietnam's agricultural infrastructure is underdeveloped with
farmers unfamiliar with large-scaled production and legal documents
relating to land use incomplete. 

However, foreign-invested projects have helped boost the quantity and
quality of farm and aquatic produce. By the end of 1996, farm produce
processed by foreign-invested enterprises grossed nearly US$320 million,
including US$162 million from exports. Enterprises involved in aquatic
production earned US$100 million in turnover with US$85 million from
exports. 

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Cong Tan has called
for more foreign investment in the sector, saying at a meeting with
domestic and foreign business people and media workers that Vietnam gives
special encouragement to investment in industrial crops such as rubber and
tea, fruit and vegetables for export, livestock breeding (mostly dairy
cows), afforestation and forest product processing, aquaculture and
off-shore deep-sea fishing. 

Priorities will be given to projects to build infrastructural facilities
in mountainous and poor areas and investment in rural health and
educational development, the Minister stressed. 
  _________________________________________________________________

Vietcombank Cites Regulations For Refusing Debt Guarantee

Hanoi (Dow Jones) -- Bank of Foreign Trade of Vietnambank is unable to
honor its debt guarantees to foreign banks on behalf of Vietnamese clients
because of regulatory uncertainties, according to an official at the
state-owned bank. 

"Our problems are not due to liquidity; the foreigners misunderstand," Vu
Viet Ngoan, deputy director-general of Vietcombank, said in an interview.
"It's just that our internal regulations aren't clear." 

Vietcombank guaranteed foreign-bank loans to trading company Export
Processing Co., or Epco, which later failed to meet its debt payments.
Despite the guarantees, Vietcombank can't cover those payments until
regulatory questions are cleared up, Mr. Ngoan said. 

He said it's unclear whether the bank has authorization to use its own
funds to make the payments. Vietnamese banking regulations don't allow
Vietcombank to extend loans or dip into the accounts of the client without
approval from officers of that concern. 

The fact that Vietnamese banks are citing irregularities in local banking
rules as reasons not to honor letters of credit is causing alarm in the
international banking community. Uniform custom and practices, which are
the international rules governing international debt guarantees, generally
supersede domestic law. These international rules require the bank to
honor debt guarantees regardless of the letter of credit applicants'
ability to pay. 

Exposure to Several Banks

In recent months, officials from garment and trading company Minh Phung
and Epco have been charged with fraud. Last month, several more officials
at the two companies were arrested on related charges. The two companies
are linked through their shareholding structure. 

The details and extent of the debt incurred by the two concerns aren't yet
known, though several Vietnamese and foreign banks are exposed to the
losses. 

Foreign bankers estimate that Minh Phung and Epco have incurred at least
US$300 million in debt, the bulk of which is believed to be dong
denominated. The debt exposure to foreign banks is at least US$20 million.
The names of the foreign creditors haven't been disclosed. 

Because of the investigation and arrests, officials of Minh Phung aren't
available to authorize Vietcombank to charge their accounts and pay the
foreign creditors, at least one foreign banker was told by Vietcombank
officials. 

"There is not yet a regulation explaining how we can debit their account,"
Mr. Ngoan said, but because the rules are vague "it is easy to accuse
someone of violating them." He added, "We know that in principle we have
to pay regardless of problems, but in the case of Vietnam some details are
not clear." Vietcombank needs to await new guidelines from Vietnam's
central bank, Mr. Ngoan said. 

Faltering on Commitments

The dispute over the two companies' debts is the latest in a series of
recent cases in which Vietnamese banks haven't meet their commitments to
foreign lenders. 

In some cases, foreign bankers say, the Vietnamese banks simply don't have
the funds to meet their obligations. In others, uncertainty over
regulations and authorization may be at fault, they say. The bankers
believe top Vietnamese officials will need to intervene to clarify the
situation and ensure that debt obligations are met. 

The size of Vietnam's foreign-currency reserves is unclear. Some banking
and diplomatic insiders believe the reserves are enough to cover only two
to four months of imports. The government's recent tightening of
regulations governing investors' ability to convert dong earnings into
foreign currency is fueling speculation about a liquidity crisis. 

But Mr. Ngoan insisted that Vietcombank isn't short of funds. "In July,
when we release our annual report, you will see that our bank balance is
healthy," he said. 
  _________________________________________________________________