VN news (July 3)

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

CPC Delegation Leaves Beijing for Vietnam, Laos 
More than 84,000 HIV Cases in Vietnam 
Australian Foreign Minister Receives "Positive Vibes": Diplomat
Hanoi, July 2 (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnam's daily newspapers today:
Former Forest Man To Be Vietnam Top Coach 
Vietnamese refugees get three months to go home 
Vietnam-AIDS AIDS spreads quickly in Vietnam 
Vietnam blames foreign firms for labour unrest 
Vietnam MPI: $6.5B To $7B In Foreign Investment Seen In 1998
Frontier petroleum NL - Hanoi Basin Testing 
Vietnam Eases Tax On Imported Materials For FDI Projects 
Hanoi's Industrial Output Up 12% In First Six Months 
Vietnam To Open More Tourist Routes 
Vietnam Card Phone System To Use French Equipment 

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CPC Delegation Leaves Beijing for Vietnam, Laos 

BEIJING (July 3) XINHUA - A delegation of the Communist Party of China
(CPC) left Beijing this afternoon for a goodwill visit to Vietnam and
Laos.

The delegation, led by Zhang Dejiang, alternate member of the CPC Central
Committee and secretary of the CPC Jilin Provincial Committee, was invited
by the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary
Party.

Among those who saw the delegation off at the airport were Vice-Minister
of the International Department of the CPC Dai Bingguo, Minister-Councillor
of the Vietnamese Embassy in Beijing Ho Xuan Son and Laotian Ambassador
to China Soukthavone Keola.

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More than 84,000 HIV Cases in Vietnam 

HANOI, July 3 (AFP) - A United Nations official on Thursday released
figures showing Vietnam has more than 84,000 people infected with HIV,
more than 12 times the official government figures.

According to unofficial estimates provided by Vietnam's Ministry of Health,
there are 84,195 HIV infected people in Vietnam, Rima Salah, the Unicef
representative in Hanoi said.

By 2000 some 263,000 people will be infected, Salah said, noting that
projections included an alarming rate in infection among street children
and child prostitutes.

"There are 50,000 children living on the streets, 20,000 in prostitution
and an unknown number of drug users. There is a rapidly increasing trend
that is very alarming," she told a press conference.

In contrast, official figures published in the Saigon Times Daily on
Thursday showed that as of June 28 Vietnam had 6,229 people infected
with the human-immune deficiency virus (HIV) and 860 with AIDS.

Salah said that 270 people aged between 13 and 19 years old had tested
positive for aquired-immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a figure which
vastly underestimated the real caseload.

The gulf between official figures and unofficial estimates reflected
both the incomplete manner of testing in Vietnam coupled with government
reluctance to acknowledge the scope of the problem, she said.

Testing in Vietnam, has focused on drug addicts and prostitutes, those
believed to exhibit high risk behaviour.

However by treating these two groups as criminals, the Vietnamese government
stigmatizes them, making effective prevention as well as access to social
services difficult, she said.

Existing educational facilities were inadequate to cope with the scale
of the problem which could see more than 263,000 people infected with
HIV by 2000, she said.

UN AIDS chairman to Vietnam Giuseppe Cuboni told the press conference
that focusing on the criminal side of drug prevention is a flawed strategy.

"Disease control officers don't believe in the power of law or enforcement
in controlling the spread of the disease," he said.

Official attitudes linking AIDS infection to criminal behaviour explained
why the government was unwilling to admit that the published figures
grossly understate the rate of AIDS infection, he said.

"If we carried the public responsibility to guard the health of Vietnam
we would be very guarded. There is a fear of admitting to a problem they
cannot handle," he said.

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Australian Foreign Minister Receives "Positive Vibes": Diplomat

HANOI, July 3 (AFP) - Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer held
talks with Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi described as being full of "extremely
positive vibes," an Australian diplomat said Thursday.

Downer met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet on Thursday morning
to discuss commercial relations, development assistance in an "extremely
positive atmosphere," according to a source who attended the meeting.

Downer, who after arriving Wednesday afternoon held discussions with
his counterpart Nguyen Manh Cam, also touched on areas of human rights
and ways of improving Vietnam's investment climate, the source said.

Downer left for Vientiane late Thursday morning where he will meet with
Lao Prime Minister Khamtay Siphadone and foreign minister Somsavat Lengsavath.

He returns to Hanoi on Friday where he will visit the prestigious Ho
Chi Minh Political Academy, the communist party elite training ground
where Australia earlier this year sponsored a seminar on human rights.

On Sunday Downer will attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the My Thuan
Bridge in the southern Mekong delta, a 70 million dollar project financed
with 47 million dollars of nonrefundable Australian aid.

Two-way trade with Australia was 447 million dollars in 1996 and Australia
is Vietnam's 13th largest foreign investor with 678 million in approved
investments.

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Hanoi, July 2 (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnam's daily newspapers today:

NHAN DAN:

- From June 24-26 Party General Secretary Do Muoi had working visits
to seven Mekong river delta provinces where he was told that thousands
of poor farmers in the Mekong delta have had to sell or mortgage their
land to survive. He asked provincial officials to take urgent measures
to solve the problems in order to stabilise local people's life.

VIETNAM NEWS:

- Deputy Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has signed a circular announcing
the Vietnamese government's decision on taxation of imported materials
by foreign invested enterprises.

- A Taiwanese woman has been the first foreigner jailed in Vietnam for
maltreating Vietnamese women workers working in the Taiwanese Pouchen
Company venture which is located in the southern province of Dong Nai.

Hanoi MOI:

- Business leaders from companies based in northern Vietnam attended
a seminar yesterday at Hanoi National University where they were addressed
on a variety of topics by international academics and business people.

(VNA)

02-07 1754

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Former Forest Man To Be Vietnam Top Coach 

BERNAMA The Malaysian National News Agency

HANOI, July 1 (Bernama) -- After three months of searching and deliberations,
the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) finally announced that a former
Nottingham Forest trainer will be the chief coach of the country's national
squad.

The Nhan Dan (People's) newspaper said today Collin Murphy, a former
player and one time coach for Nottingham Forest, was selected from an
extensive list including those from Italy, Argentina and Russia.

All of them were introduced by local sports brokerage company Strata
which had a tiff with former national coach Karl Heinz Weigang over contractual
terms before the German left for Malaysia's Perak professional soccer
team in March this year.

The report said Murphy, who had been coaching in Singapore, Australia,
Sweden, Germany and Tunisia, will be initially contracted until the SEA
Games in October in Jakarta.

The possibility of a long-term contract would depend on the results of
the Jakarta Games, it said.

According to VFF schedules, Vietnam will play a string of friendlies
in Thailand next month before heading off to China for a month-long training
programme in early September.

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Vietnamese refugees get three months to go home 

BUSINESSWORLD (Manila), July 2, 1997

By Cecille E. Yap

The United States has given the remaining 298 Vietnamese refugees in
Palawan until September 30 to return to Vietnam, a US Embassy official
said yesterday.

In an interview, US Embassy spokesman Bruce Byers said refugees who have
received repatriation grants from the US government have until end-September
to leave the country.

Otherwise, the money will be turned over to the Philippine government,
which in turn, will shoulder their living expenses.

The US has offered the refugees $1,000 each for repatriation expenses.
The offer, which expired last June 30, is the "last assistance" to be
given by the US, Mr. Byers said.

Mr. Byers also said the US has entered into an agreement for the Vietnamese
government to accept refugees who did not qualify for US citizenship,
particularly children of US servicemen with Vietnamese nationals born
during the Vietnam War.

The US said earlier most of the Vietnamese refugees, except for 70 Amerasians,
are not eligible for US citizenship since they have fake documents. They
will thus have to be sent back to Vietnam.

An interagency committee composed of representatives from the Department
of Foreign Affairs, Office of the President, and the military's Western
Command has recommended to President Fidel Ramos the immediate repatriation
of the refugees.

The committee said the government does not have enough funds to shoulder
their living expenses.

In the 1980s, the US brought some 300,000 Vietnamese refugees to the
Philippines for a six-month orientation program to prepare them for their
"eventual" stay in the mainland.

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Vietnam-AIDS AIDS spreads quickly in Vietnam 

HANOI, July 02 (AP) - The virus that causes AIDS is spreading quickly
in Vietnam, with government figures showing a more than 20 percent jump
in the number of cases in just four months.

Figures published Wednesday in state-controlled media indicated there
are now 6,229 reported cases of human immunodeficiency virus and full-blown
AIDS in Vietnam, up from 5,005 in February.

The deadly disease has spread to all but eight of the country's 61 provinces,
the Vietnamese-language newspaper Youth reported Wednesday.

Of the total number of cases, 860 have developed into full-blown AIDS,
according to figures compiled by the National AIDS Control Committee.

AIDS was first discovered in Vietnam seven years ago.

Major tourist destinations, including Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon,
and the coastal province of Khanh Hoa carry the country's largest AIDS
burden.

More than two-thirds of the HIV and AIDS cases were contracted through
dirty needles used by drug users. The remaining cases were spread through
unprotected sex.

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Vietnam blames foreign firms for labour unrest 

By John Chalmers

HANOI, July 3 (Reuter) - Vietnam took a swipe at foreign investors' labour
practices on Thursday, blaming low pay, long working hours and excessive
production targets for growing unrest among the ranks of local factory
workers.

The official English-language daily Vietnam News ran a front-page article
about a recent labour management workshop in Hanoi at which foreign contractors
were lambasted for violating the labour law.

Deputy Labour Minister Le Duy Dong told the workshop that while unreasonable
wages, working hours and annual leave were the main causes of strikes,
physical abuse of workers was also to blame.

"He told the workshop strikes were also caused by violent management
involving punishment of workers by managers if workers violated labour
discipline," Vietnam News said.

"While (he)... conceded that Vietnamese workers did at times violate
labour discipline, corporal punishment violates Vietnam's labour laws."

Dong said research by his ministry had shown that most labour conflicts
were occurring at small-scale enterprises with investment from South
Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

The workshop was organised by the South Korean embassy, whose ambassador
acknowledged the need for Korean employers to obey the law and understand
differences of culture and language.

Until now, the government of Vietnam has been wary of criticising foreign
labour practices because of the country's heavy dependence on investment
from abroad.

Strikes were banned in communist-ruled Vietnam until market reforms and
the opening up of the economy in the late 1980s, but the right to strike
was not enshrined until a new labour law was passed three years ago.

Since then, the number of strikes has ballooned. Fewer than 3,000 people
nationwide went on strike in 1994, while four times that number walked
off their jobs in Ho Chi Minh City alone during the first three months
of this year.

South Korean and Taiwanese contractors have come in for heavy criticism
for their treatment of workers at plants under contract to the U.S. sportswear
giant Nike.

Last week a Taiwanese supervisor of one Nike factory was sentenced to
six months in prison for forcing 56 workers to jog twice around the plant
perimeter in the heat of the day.

That factory was one of five -- three South Korean and two Taiwanese
-- producing shoes for Nike in Vietnam which were named in March by a
labour rights group for abuse of their workers.

Nike has denied the allegations and an independent review of Asian Nike
plants by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young found
that workers were well-treated and factories "clean, well-organised,
adequately ventilated and well-lit."

But Young's report, which was released last week, said many workers were
unaware of their rights.

It also quoted confidential audits which had found that religious holidays
and days off were regularly denied to certain workers, that workers on
one shift were made to work overtime against their will and some were
paid "training" or "probationary" wages beyond their actual training
period.

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Vietnam MPI: $6.5B To $7B In Foreign Investment Seen In 1998

Hanoi (Dow Jones, AP) -- The Vietnamese government expects to receive
$6.5 billion to $7 billion in direct foreign investment in 1998, an official
from the Ministry of Planning and Investment said Thursday.

She was unable to provide an estimate for 1997 but said foreign direct
investment reached $8.66 billion in 1996.

Foreign investors will continue to focus on the industrial, agriculture
and aquaculture sectors, she said.

The largest foreign investor in Vietnam is Taiwan, followed by Hong Kong
and then Japan.

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Vietnam Eases Tax On Imported Materials For FDI Projects 

Hanoi, July 2 Asia Pulse - Construction projects funded by foreign direct
investments (FDI) have been given relief by the Vietnamese government
when it announced Wednesday that they would be exempted from import taxes
on building materials.

However, based on a circular signed by Deputy Prime Minister Phan Van
Khai, the new decision applies only to FDI projects licensed before Nov
23 last year.

Taxes for imports of decorative items and equipment are now exempted
for such projects including hotels, office buildings, apartments and
hospitals.

"This is good news as fittings and interior decoration items are very
expensive, especially in hotel construction," said a top representative
of a construction group from an Asean country.

He said almost all of those who had obtained their project licenses before
the November cut-off point had delayed the import of building materials
as they awaited for the outcome of a petition made to the government.

Except for a few recently licensed projects, said another developer,
most of the big ongoing projects had been licensed before the cut-off
point as projects tended to be delayed by a myriad of "red tape" problems
especially at the implementation phase.

Countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, which are among the
top 10 investors here, had invested billions of dollars in the booming
construction industry in developing hotels, apartments, sea ports and
industrial or export processing zones.

Companies and investment groups from Malaysia include Petronas, Renong,
Pernas, Sungai Way and Metroplex.

(BERNAMA)

02-07 1745

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Hanoi's Industrial Output Up 12% In First Six Months 

Hanoi, July 2 (VNA) - Hanoi's industrial output in the first half of
this year reached VND 5,520 billion (US$500 million), a 12 percent year-on-year
increase.

Of the figure, State-owned industrial enterprises achieved VND 3,253
billion (US$290 million), a 9.0 percent increase; the foreign invested
sector, VND 1,700 billion (US$ 150 million), a 16.8 percent increase;
and, the non-State sector, VND 573 billion (US$52 million), up 15.7 percent,
from last year.

Meanwhile local State-run enterprises produced VND 682 billion (US$62
million), down by 7.7 percent from the corresponding period last year
due to a decline in output in some industries including electronics (60
percent) and bicycles (20 percent).

Eighteen of the 23 central industries posted higher output, with the
mineral resource development company, up by 216.9 percent; the Thang
Long tobacco company, up by 20.7 percent; the Thang Long garment company,
up by 34 percent; and the Hanoi engineering enterprise, up by 28 percent.

Of the five industries with lower output value, textiles decreased by
1.7 percent, and machinery and equipment manufacturing by 5.6 percent.

(VNA)

02-07 1750 Hanoi's Industrial Output Up 12% In First Six Months Hanoi,
July 2 (VNA) - Hanoi's industrial output in the first half of this year
reached VND 5,520 billion (US$500 million), a 12 percent year-on-year
increase.

Of the figure, State-owned industrial enterprises achieved VND 3,253
billion (US$290 million), a 9.0 percent increase; the foreign invested
sector, VND 1,700 billion (US$ 150 million), a 16.8 percent increase;
and, the non-State sector, VND 573 billion (US$52 million), up 15.7 percent,
from last year.

Meanwhile local State-run enterprises produced VND 682 billion (US$62
million), down by 7.7 percent from the corresponding period last year
due to a decline in output in some industries including electronics (60
percent) and bicycles (20 percent).

Eighteen of the 23 central industries posted higher output, with the
mineral resource development company, up by 216.9 percent; the Thang
Long tobacco company, up by 20.7 percent; the Thang Long garment company,
up by 34 percent; and the Hanoi engineering enterprise, up by 28 percent.

Of the five industries with lower output value, textiles decreased by
1.7 percent, and machinery and equipment manufacturing by 5.6 percent.

(VNA)

02-07 1750

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Vietnam To Open More Tourist Routes 

Hanoi, July 2 (VNA) - The Huong Giang Travel Company of Vietnam has just
signed an agreement with two tourist companies of Thailand and Laos to
open tourist routes through the three countries.

Under this agreement, a route from Mukdaharn (Thailand) through Savannakhet
(Laos) to Hue-Da Nang in central Vietnam will be established in the immediate
future.

The Vietnam General Tourism Department says that a total of 700,000 foreign
tourists have visited Vietnam so far this year, seven percent less than
for the same period last year.

But in Hanoi, the total was 143,000 - 10 percent higher than last year
- with the French accounting for 20 percent of the figure.

Hotel occupancy rates were 75 to 85 percent at joint-venture hotels;
60 to 75 percent at State-owned hotels and 20 to 30 percent at private
establishments.

(VNA)

02-07 1752

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Vietnam Card Phone System To Use French Equipment 

Hanoi, July 2 (VNA) - the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications (VNPT)
has signed a contract to purchase equipment from French firms, Ascom
Monetel and Gemplus, for the first phase of installation of the national
system of card phones.

Under the contract, Ascom Monetel will supply equipment for the national
and provincial payphone management systems (NPMS and PPMS) and public
phones, while Gemplus will provide IC cards.

Installation of the national card phone system is divided into three
phases with the first scheduled to be completed on September 2, 1997.

In the first phase, a national management centre and six regional centres
will be built and 518 card phone boxes will be installed in Hanoi, Haiphong,
Ho Chi Minh City, and Ba Ria Vung Tau province. In the second phase,
the system will be expanded to 20 other cities and provinces, and the
remaining of the countrys 61 provinces and cities will be covered in
the third phase.

So far card phones have not achieved popularity in Vietnam and have been
installed only in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City by Malaysia's Sapura firm.

(VNA)

02-07 1755

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