VN news (June 25)

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

Vietnam Evaluates Traditional Medicine Cure For Addicts 
Vietnam, UN Scientific Research Agreement Signed 
U.N. funds herbal addiction-treatment study Vietnamese `cure'
Vietnam to hook up to internet on July 10: report 
Vietnam drugs mastermind appeals for leniency 
Vietnam army rebuked over lavishness, corruption 
Hanoi, June 24 (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnam's daily newspapers today:
Vietnam Cracks down on Drug-Related Crimes 
Vietnam To Implement Functional Rehabilitation Programme 
Philippines to deport Vietnam asylum-seekers after US cuts funds
Rating downgrade adds to Vietnam's finance woes 
Vietnam 6-Month Trade Gap $1.43B; Exports Off Target 
Vietnam's flagship bank seeks to restore confidence 
Vietnam Achieves Bumper Rice Harvest 
Vietnam's Capital Attracts 143,000 Foreign Tourists 

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Vietnam Evaluates Traditional Medicine Cure For Addicts 

Hanoi, June 24 (VNA) - A number of traditional medicines for treating
drug addiction have been submitted to the Health Ministry for evaluation.

The first licence for the production and distribution of HUFUSA, a traditional
medicine for drug addiction discovered by physician Bui Thi Phuc, was
granted last month.

The medication was evaluated and recognised as a safe and effective remedy
for drug addiction treatment in 1993. It is the first traditional medicine
permitted by the Health Ministry to be distributed in drug detoxification
centres across the country.

Apart from HUFUSA, HEANTOS, another traditional medicine cure for drug
addiction has been created by physician Tran Khuong Dan. Mr Dan, 55,
spent three years in the mid 1980s travelling around Vietnam collecting
traditional herbal medicines from forests, coming up with a mixture called
HEANTOS that has proven so successful in breaking addiction that is now
the subject of a UNDP-funded study by Vietnamese and American doctors.

A common advantage of Vietnamese traditional remedies for drug addiction
is their low cost and availability.

However, according to Mr Nguyen Huu Lam, from the Health Ministry traditional
medications applied in Vietnam have only proved to be effective in breaking
addictive urges but not so effective in preventing a return to drug abuse.

Vietnam detected 5,717 HIV/AIDS carriers by mid-May with almost all of
them being drug addicts, highlighting the urgent task to discover a medication
that can completely cure drug addiction.

(VNA)

24-06 1425

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Vietnam, UN Scientific Research Agreement Signed 

Comline Daily News Chemicals and new materials
06/25/97

Vietnam--On May 15th, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and
the Chemistry Institute of the National Center for Natural Sciences and
Technology in Hanoi signed an international science research agreement
to further develop Heantos, an anti- drug addiction medicine invented
by Vietnamese physician Tran Khuong Dan.

The first phase of research, funded by a US$500,000-grant from UNDP,
will focus on perfecting Heantos according to U.S. FDA standards so that
it can eventually be made available worldwide. The second and third phases,
totaling US$4-US$5 million, will involve the building of a factory to
produce the drug.

Based on his research conducted in Pu Nhi Village, Hoi Xuan, Thanh Hoa
Province among the H'Mong people, Dan created Heantos, which is not addictive,
based on 15 kinds of Vietnamese herbs and two Chinese medicinal herbs.
The anti-drug addiction medicine is comprised of two remedies; the first
helps reduce the effects of withdrawal immediately, such as shaking and
comas, and helps the patient abstain from drugs within a week. The second
remedy is administered within a month after the withdrawal symptoms are
reduced and helps prevent re-addiction. Total cost of the course of drugs
is VND350,000, which is less expensive compared to the cost of conventional
treatments at VND500,000-VND1 million. Reference: The Saigon Times Magazine,
06/07/97

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U.N. funds herbal addiction-treatment study Vietnamese `cure'
draws wide interest 

The Washington Times
06/24/97

Prominent U.S. and international organizations are seriously examining
a Vietnamese herbalist's claim to have developed a formula that will
cure heroin addiction in three to five days without harmful side effects.

The U.N. Development Program announced yesterday that it was contributing
$400,000 for research on the Vietnamese cure, and that it will offer
up to $5 million more if the research is successful.

The Johns Hopkins University of Medicine and the National Institute of
Drug Abuse are participating with a group of Vietnamese scientists in
the project, which is also supported by a former Arkansas congressman,
UNDP Washington Director Roy Morey, told reporters at the National Press
Club.

Defending the decision to invest in the controversial cure, he said the
amount being spent "is minute compared to the amount that is spent either
directly or indirectly on drug abuse by any country in the world."

"The UNDP should be seen as putting in venture capital," he said. "And
as a venture capitalist, you must make decisions based on return. I was
in Vietnam and have personally seen people that have been treated. I
was encouraged by what I saw."

Patients are treated with a mixture of 13 Vietnamese plants called Heantos.
It was developed in the early 1980s by Dr. Tran Khuong Dan, an herbalist
who said he deliberately became addicted to heroin in en effort to find
a cure to drug addiction.

Dr. Dan, who appeared at the Press Club, said his reasons were personal.
His father fought a 20-year addiction to opium and his brother died of
a heroin overdose. He said he was surrounded by drug addicts when he
lived in Ho Chi Minh City - formerly Saigon.

Early in the 1990s, Vietnam approved Heantos as an anti-drug cure, and
it has been used to successfully treat 4,000 Vietnamese suffering from
a variety of drug addictions, Mr. Dan said. Mr. Dan cured himself of
his addiction as well.

"It got rid of addiction smoothly," he said. "And after initial treatment,
the patient had no craving for drugs."

In the initial phase of Heantos therapy, Dr. Dan said, the patient drinks
a liquid derived from the herbs once a day for three to five days until
the addiction is broken. After a one-month break, the patient then takes
a daily Heantos capsule for up to six months to prevent a relapse.

The cost of the entire treatment is about $70 per patient in Vietnam.
Mr. Morey said he did not know what it would cost if it were approved
in the United States.

Mr. Morey said the treatment has no harmful side effects.

"I'm impressed with the fact that it is an herbal cure and not a drug
substitute," he said. "It's not like methadone. So far the trials show
that the side effects in administering this do not seem adverse. Some
who have undergone treatment have experienced some drowsiness."

Former Rep. Bill Alexander, Arkansas Democrat, is one of the chief backers
of the research.

"I went to Vietnam four years ago to see how this treatment worked,"
he said yesterday. "It works. And it has overcome a leviathan bias in
the Western world to be accepted."

Mr. Alexander said that without UNDP's help, it would take a $10 million
investment over 10 years to get the product introduced in the West as
a viable addiction treatment.

The initial phase of the Heantos research will determine what components
of the herbal mixture combat addiction. The scientists will also be trying
to get FDA support for the cure.

After that, the scientists will treat patients in both Vietnam and the
United States and compare those results with previous treatments in Vietnam

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Vietnam to hook up to internet on July 10: report 

Hanoi, June 24 (AFP) - Vietnam will begin limited access to the Internet
next month a local report said on Tuesday.

Chu Hao, vice minister of science, technology and the environment said
those licenced to subscribe will be able to go on line after July 10
the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

The official link to the internet will begin after checking experimental
work of internet networks which have been licenced in Vietnam, he said.

However access to the worldwide web will be tightly restricted in keeping
with the official desire to protect Vietnam from undesirable outside
influences.

"The government will uniformly manage and control internet in Vietnam
as well as services of the net, control all international gateways, control
all sorts of information that is transmitted on the net," reports said
earlier.

Laws also stipulate that all users must apply for permission to open
an internet account, and all information on the net must conform with
press and publication laws.

Only government bodies and foreign organizations will be licenced for
internet access.

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Vietnam drugs mastermind appeals for leniency 

Hanoi, June 25 (Reuter) - Vietnam drugs mastermind Vu Xuan Truong, sentenced
to death in May for involvement in a blockbusting narcotics scandal,
has made a new appeal for leniency, state media said on Wednesday.

Truong, a former drugs-squad officer whose notoriety has made him a household
name in Vietnam, is one of 19 people who are contesting sentencing this
week in an appeals trial being held in Hanoi.

State newspapers said he had disputed a range of facts during a hearing
on Tuesday surrounding details of the amount of drugs involved.

"Truong admitted that he deserved the death sentence," said the official
Quan Doi Nhan Dan newspaper. "But he asked on humanitarian grounds for
more leniency."

Twenty-two people were found guilty at the original trial in May. Eight,
including Truong, were sentenced to face a firing squad while most others
received lengthy jail terms and had property confiscated.

The scandal erupted into the open last year after a convicted Laotian
drugs trafficker offered to exchange information in exchange for his
life being spared. The information concerned a syndicate which is said
to have flooded Vietnam with illegal narcotics.

Around 60 people have been arrested since then in connection with the
case. Half those who were placed on trial in May were police officers
or border guards.

In an interview on Wednesday in the Lao Dong newspaper an Interior Ministry
colonel, Pham Van Dan, said Vietnam's lengthy land and sea borders as
well as poor coordination between anti-narcotics units were contributing
to an increase in the flow of drugs into Vietnam.

He said that in 1996 some 6,650 people had been arrested for suspected
involvement in drugs crimes and added that 55 kg (120 pounds) of heroin,
840 kg of opium, 1.4 kg of cocaine and 584.84 kg of marijuana had been
confiscated.

Dan said the arrests represented a 63 percent rise in the numbers of
drugs suspects being caught since 1995.

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Vietnam army rebuked over lavishness, corruption 

Hanoi, June 25 (Reuter) - Vietnam's military, one of the region's largest,
was warned on Wednesday that it needed to do more to stamp out wastefulness
and corruption while improving its financial management.

The official Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army) newspaper said in a commentary
that some army units were registering "big losses" as a result of casual
spending on parties, ceremonies and hosting guests.

It said weak financial management of army construction projects was also
contributing to losses.

"There are loopholes which have led to corruption among some army units
and army officials," it said, adding that the army should take measures
to increase revenue.

Vietnam's estimated 572,000-strong military has enjoyed the fruits of
the country's economic reform process and a number of units own factories,
farms or other commercial enterprises.

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Hanoi, June 24 (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnam's daily newspapers today:

NHAN DAN:

- In the 1995 Spring-Winter rice crop, farmers throughout the country
harvested more than 13.2 million tonnes, one million tonnes more than
the 1996 Spring-Winter crop.

- Vietnam's imports in the first six months of this year reduced by 37.8
percent compared with the same period last year.

HANOI MOI:

- The Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance of the Republic of Korea has
officially opened its representative office in Hanoi. This is the second
of its kind in Vietnam, the first in Ho Chi Minh City.

- More foreign computer companies have shown interest in producing and
installing computers in Vietnam with three 100 percent foreign invested
projects recently licensed in the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in
Ho Chi Minh City.

VIETNAM NEWS:

- Poor working conditions and increasing pollution now threaten the health
of hundreds of workers employed in Ho Chi Minh City's manufacturing enterprises.
According to a recent survey, 1,274 of the 17,600 workers in manufacturing
industries are now suffering from job-related diseases.

- A school for Japanese children was opened in Ho Chi Minh city's new
urban centre. The opening of this school helps facilitate Japanese working
and doing business in the city, which has about 2,000 Japanese people.

(VNA)

24-06 1413

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Vietnam Cracks down on Drug-Related Crimes 

Xinhua English Newswire
06/24/97

Vietnam's law enforcement departments arrested more than 3,200 persons
involved in drug smuggling, stockpiling, production and trafficking in
the first five months of the year.

They seized 10.2 kilograms of heroin, 317 kilograms of opium and 6,973
kilograms of marijuana, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Of the 1,669 drug-related cases, 846 were brought to court and 14 death
sentences were given and 12 others were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Drug sales are dominated by heroin which makes up 70 percent of the volume
and is sold in places like bars, restaurants and small stores.

Drug traffickers range from taxi drivers to law enforcement officers
and local government officials in border provinces.

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Vietnam To Implement Functional Rehabilitation Programme 

Hanoi, June 24 (VNA) - Under a new project to develop functional rehabilitation,
all central and provincial hospitals and half of all district hospitals
will have special sections by the year 2000.

The project also sets a target to have 3,000 of 10,000 villages in 50
of the 61 provinces and cities to carry out community-based functional
rehabilitation.

The programme has been executed in six communes of the Mekong delta province
of Tien Giang since 1987 with assistance from the Swedens Save the Children
(Radda Barnen). With assistance from many countries including Holland,
Sweden, the United States and Germany, and a number of international
organisations, community-based rehabilitation is conducted in 630 communes
of 56 districts in 26 provinces and cities nationwide.

Nearly 100,000 disabled persons have benefited from the assistance, with
more than 21,000 integrated into the community and nearly 11,000 disabled
children going to school.

Vietnam has nearly five million disabled people accounting for seven
percent of the total population, and six million elderly (eight percent).

Meanwhile, sufferers of occupational diseases, war wounds, malnourished
children, and the after-effects of infections have also increased the
number of disabled in Vietnam.

To alleviate the situation, the healthcare service plans to socialise
the work of functional rehabilitation and apply preventions and cures
as early as possible.

(VNA)

24-06 1427

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Philippines to deport Vietnam asylum-seekers after US cuts funds

MANILA, June 24 (AFP) - The Philippines plans to deport 278 Vietnamese
asylum-seekers after the United States decided to cut off funding for
the group after June 30, a Filipino official said Tuesday.

The group have been stuck in refugee camps in the Philippines for 10
years after the US government refused to take them in, having discovered
that they falsified documents to gain entry into its Orderly Departure
Program (ODP).

US Consul Kevin Herbert informed Manila that Washington would drop all
its responsibilities over the ODP rejects after June 30, said the foreign
department official, who asked not to be named.

The foreign department "asked the US to at least extend the deadline
until December but the embassy said Washington did not approve it," the
official said.

The official said the asylum seekers were desperate, and that "some are
already threatening to commit suicide."

"Deportation is the only durable solution to this problem," the official
said. However, the situation is complicated since they had already renounced
their allegiance to Hanoi.

The group were flown to a refugee camp near Manila in the early 1980s
to train them for eventual resettlement in the United States. They were
transferred to another camp in the western island of Palawan several
years ago.

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Rating downgrade adds to Vietnam's finance woes 

By John Chalmers

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, June 25 (Reuter) - Vietnam's efforts to shore
up confidence in its banking system and ability to meet financial commitments
were knocked sideways on Wednesday by a credit rating downgrade.

The Thomson BankWatch agency said in a statement from Hong Kong that
it had cut its Vietnamese sovereign risk rating and also its short-term
local currency rating for nine prominent banks, in their case to sub-investment
grade.

That will come as a blow to Hanoi, which had only just begun to hit back
at several months of reports of declining foreign exchange reserves,
a cash crisis in the banking system and repeated bank defaults on letter
of credit guarantees.

Vu Viet Ngoan, Deputy Director-General of state-owned Vietcombank, told
Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that there was no liquidity shortage
at the major banks and that regulatory obstacles were to blame for occasional
delays in debt repayments.

He also said an improvement in the country's balance of payments had
bolstered foreign reserves and a forthcoming agreement with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) was set to add a further $400-500 million.

"So we can say that the payment ability of the state has been improved
and will be improved," he said.

The international financial community's growing concern about the creditworthiness
of Vietnam and its banks could not have come at a worse time. Hanoi is
on the verge of tying up a Brady-style bond deal to restructure its foreign
commercial bank debt and is hoping to make a debut eurobond issue later
this year.

Thomson BankWatch said the sovereign downgrade, to C from B-, was prompted
by increased concern over Vietnam's ability and/or willingness to honour
its financial commitments in the face of mounting short-term trade debt
and dwindling foreign reserves.

"At the same time, we are additionally concerned by the government's
recent directives to local banks regarding the precedence of national
banking laws over the country's commitments to international banking
conventions," it said.

Vietcombank's Ngoan said internal regulations prevented banks from dipping
into their own funds if a client failed to pay or from forcing the client
to take out a new loan.

Strict adherence to those rules has alarmed foreign banks, many of which
have already started to reel in credit lines.

They say international regulations, which require banks to honour debt
guarantees regardless of whether they get paid themselves, must take
precedence where foreign parties are involved.

Ngoan, whose bank was among the nine downgraded by the rating agency,
said the central State Bank of Vietnam was "paying the utmost attention"
to the regulatory problem and said he expected it to be resolved in the
near future.

Thomson BankWatch's explanation for its move was scathing.

"The banking sector has long been characterised by weak management practices,
a poor legal framework and alleged widespread corruption..." it said.

It added that those problems had been complicated recently by major fraud
cases at local conglomerates, a surge in property speculation and macroeconomic
management troubles.

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Vietnam 6-Month Trade Gap $1.43B; Exports Off Target 

Hanoi (AP)--Vietnam's exports should reach about $4.1 billion by the
end of June, up about 30% compared with the same six-month period in
1996, the People's Army newspaper reported.

The export total, however, accounted for only 46% of Vietnam's projected
target, the official report said.

The trade balance was still leaning toward imports, which will hit $5.5
billion through six months.

The majority of the $1.43 billion trade deficit was the result of supply
and raw-material imports by foreign companies, the newspaper said.

The government is trying to cut the trade deficit by promoting exports,
while reducing the country's dependence on imports.

In May, Hanoi introduced a series of import restrictions in order to
ease the imbalance. The government temporarily barred the importation
of some construction materials and consumer goods.

Paper products, steel, industrial glass and cement will all be placed
on the import moratorium list. Electric fans, some luxury automobiles
and motorbikes, are also on the list.

More than 94% of all imports are production materials, Trade Ministry
figures show. The remaining 6% of imports are consumer goods.

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Vietnam's flagship bank seeks to restore confidence 

By John Chalmers

Hanoi, June 25 (Reuter) - Vietnam's flagship state-owned bank has hit
back at reports of a cash crisis in the banking system, maintaining that
regulatory obstacles are to blame for occasional delays in debt repayments.

Vu Viet Ngoan, Deputy Director-General of Vietcombank, told Reuters late
on Tuesday that the state's ability to honour its financial commitments
could not be called into question.

"We can say that the payment ability of the state has been improved
and will be improved," Ngoan said, noting that the central State Bank
of Vietnam's hard currency reserves had been bolstered by an improvement
in the balance of payments.

Ngoan said he wanted to clear up worries about repeated bank defaults
on letter of credit guarantees and the central bank's ability to act
as a lender of last resort, which are denting the international financial
community's confidence in Vietnam.

Those worries have come at an awkward time for Hanoi, which is on the
verge of completing a Brady-style bond deal to restructure its foreign
commercial bank debts and is hoping to make a debut eurobond issue later
this year.

Ngoan said Vietnam would reach an agreement with the International Monetary
Fund this year which would increase its reserves by a further $400-500
million.

A senior banker told Reuters last week that reserves stood at around
$1.6 billion, equivalent to about seven weeks of imports.

But analysts point to a recent ban on foreign investors buying hard currency
in Vietnam to meet offshore payments as a signal that central bank reserves
are actually much tighter.

Ngoan said some smaller, privately held banks had run into liquidity
problems. But for most commercial banks, and Vietcombank in particular,
deposits have grown this year while lending has been stagnant because
of slowing economic growth.

"So our payment ability has improved because liquidity is improved.
We are now facing a situation of funding surplus," he said. Vietcombank's
deposits at foreign banks had increased since last year to around $1.0
billion, he noted.

Ngoan argued that since there was no liquidity problem, a recent spate
of missed payments to foreign banks on letters of credit opened for Vietnamese
clients could not be blamed on an inability to pay.

He said the trouble was due to internal regulations, which prevent a
bank from either dipping into its own funds if a client fails to pay
or from forcing the client to take out a new loan.

Strict adherence to those rules has alarmed foreign bankers, many of
whom have already started to reel in credit lines.

They say international regulations, which require banks to honour debt
guarantees regardless of whether they are paid themselves, must take
precedence where foreign parties are involved.

Ngoan said the central bank is "paying the utmost attention" to the
regulatory problem and said he expected it to be resolved in the near
future.

The problem has come to a head recently because more than $1.0 billion
in letters of credit are falling due this year following a surge in short-term
trade financing from abroad in 1996.

But Ngoan said Vietcombank had failed to pay by the due date on less
than $5 million in guarantees and was in discussions with foreign banks
on restructuring the credit.

"We confirm that we will pay on letters of credit," he said. "The
question is the time for the regulations to be amended."

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Vietnam Achieves Bumper Rice Harvest 

Xinhua English Newswire
06/24/97

Vietnam harvested more than 13.2 million tons of rice for the winter-spring
crop this year, up by 1.039 million tons from that of last year, local
press reported today.

Of the increase, northern provinces accounted for 230,000 tons and southern
provinces 806,000 tons, the General Department of Statistics was quoted
as saying.

The rice-growing areas rose 4.6 percent to some 2.676 million hectares
in the country from that of last season.

Thanks to good weather and new high-yield rice strains, the average yield
was estimated at 4.95 tons per hectare, 0.19 tons higher than the previous
crop.

In addition to the rice output, 1.3 million tons of other grains were
harvested in the season.

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Vietnam's Capital Attracts 143,000 Foreign Tourists 

Hanoi, June 24 (VNA) - Hanoi has received 143,000 foreign tourists so
far this year, a year-on-year increase of 10 percent, according to the
Hanoi Tourism Service.

French tourists accounted for 20 percent of the visitors.

The industry earned a turnover of VND 505 billion (nearly US$46 million)
from tourism, an increase of 33.8 percent over the same period last year,
with the State-run sector making up 45.3 percent.

Proceeds from tourist services were VND 348 billion (US$31 million),
representing 69 percent of the total turnover.

However, occupancy rates of hotels in the period showed a decline, at
only 75-85 percent for joint ventures, 60-75 percent for State-run hotels,
and 20-30 percent for private establishments.

Some 140 domestic and international travel companies are involved in
tourism in Hanoi with nearly 350 hotels, 97 in the State sector, 13 joint
ventures, and 224 in the non-State sector.

(VNA)

24-06 1421

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