VN news (July 13)

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

Talks seen as boost to ties, writes Greg Torode in Hanoi 
Colin Murphy gets first glimpse of Vietnamese football 
Outcry over abuse of Vietnamese workers by foreign bosses 
Vietnam gears up for low-key elections 
Thailand, Vietnam to Delimit Disputed Gulf Area 
Vietnam leader Do Muoi's departure for China delayed until Monday
Do Muoi visit to China pegged to Cambodia crisis: diplomats 
Ousted premier accuses Vietnam Knew of coup plot, Ranariddh says
Vietnam to Build First Oil Refinery 
Hoffman-La Roche Suspends Vietnam Laroscorbine Sales: VIR 
Vietnam must treat foreign investors better: official 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Talks seen as boost to ties, writes Greg Torode in Hanoi 

South China Morning Post
07/13/97

THE Cambodian crisis and simmering tensions in the South China Sea are
expected to dominate a visit to Beijing today by Vietnam's top leader,
Do Muoi.

Diplomats said Mr Muoi, General Secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party,
is expected to meet President Jiang Zemin during his six-day stay in
China - a trip seen as a clear boost to still-fragile ties.

The invitation from Mr Jiang follows his own trip to Hanoi in 1994, the
first by a Chinese president.

In wide-ranging talks, the pair are expected to examine the situation
in the region following the violent power grab last weekend by Cambodian
Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, diplomats said.

Hanoi is now treading delicately around the diplomatic debris left after
the rise to supreme rule by Mr Hun Sen, seen as an ally of Hanoi after
he was first installed as premier by invading Vietnamese forces 16 years
ago.

Hanoi is seeking to avoid any appearance of direct involvement, particularly
after reports that Mr Hun Sen made a private visit to southern Vietnam
shortly before fighting erupted in the capital.

A Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that Mr Hun Sen did
not meet any leaders during his stay.

Vietnam would not interfere in Cambodia's "internal affairs" and called
for peace and stability, officials said.

Vietnam has also publicly backed the Association of South East Asian
Nations call this week to postpone Cambodia's entry to the group later
this month.

Relations between China and Vietnam have warmed and expanded considerably
over the past 18 months on trading, military, social and political fronts.

Rail links are now in full operation and Chinese doctors are understood
to have played a key role in the recovery of President Le Duc Anh, who
suffered a massive stroke last November.

Deep suspicions remain, however, over land and sea borders, and marine
disputes are likely to be a key issue in any sessions, according to analysts.

Mr Muoi himself was understood to be influential in orchestrating Vietnam's
angry response to the discovery of a Chinese oil rig off Vietnam's central
coast in March.

The Kan Tan III rig, owned by China's National Offshore Oil Corporation,
was later withdrawn but talks failed to find ways of preventing a recurrence
with both sides claiming sovereignty over the area.

Mr Muoi last visited Beijing in 1991 on a mission to restore ties severed
when China attacked Vietnam's mountainous northern border in 1979. The
brief but bloody conflict was followed by years of smaller clashes on
land.

Mr Muoi, 80, rarely travels but recently led a high-profile delegation
to Burma for meetings with ruling military chiefs - a move understood
to have found wide favour in Beijing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Colin Murphy gets first glimpse of Vietnamese football 

Hanoi, July 13 (AFP) - Newly arrived international football coach Colin
Murphy gets his first taste of local football in Hanoi on Sunday.

Murphy, who arrived in Hanoi on Saturday, will watch a match between
the Police Team and a team from the southern province of Dong Thap, the
Nhan Dan official newspaper reported.

Murphy is expected to travel nationwide In the next few weeks to scout
out local talent for a new national team which he will choose by August
8 in preparation for the 19th Southeast Asia Tournament (SEA Games).

Vietnam was runner up to Thailand in the 1995 games under German coach
K.H. Weigang, who quit earlier this year over a dispute with the Vietnam
Football Federation.

The team suffered humiliating defeats during the World Cup qualifying
matches last month under domestic coach Tran Duy Long, causing him to
resign.

Murphy led British club Derby County to win the British championship
in 1975 and was former coach of several clubs in Ireland and Saudi Arabia.

He reportedly will be paid a monthly salary of 5,000 dollars and will
be the third foreigner to coach the national team.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Outcry over abuse of Vietnamese workers by foreign bosses 

Hanoi (dpa) - In a sign of growing discontent over abusive overseas managers
the official Lao Dong newspaper launched an attack Sunday against law
enforcement agencies over a controversial decision to close a case of
alleged labour abuses.

Liu Tien Kuang, manager of the Taiwanese-invested Hue Phong shoe factory
in the Go Vap district of Ho Chi Minh City, allegedly beat and humiliated
his Vietnamese employees.

An investigation began last September, but in May the prosecutor's office
of Ho Chi Minh City decided that the evidence was insufficient, closed
the case and returned the passport of Liu Tien Kuang, who immediately
left Vietnam.

"It is highly regrettable that Liu Tien Kuang fled to Taiwan, because
he must be severely punished to make an example for other companies,"
Nguyen Thi Tuyet, director of the labour department of Go Vap district,
was quoted as saying by Lao Dong. In recent days the newspaper has run
front-page articles questioning the wisdom of the prosecutors' decision
to close the case.

As a result of the controversy the authorities of Go Vap district ordered
the dismissal of Nguyen Van Dong, human resources manager and trade union
chief at Hue Phong factory, who had supported the Taiwanese manager,
Lao Dong reported Sunday.

The controversy came just two weeks after another Taiwanese, 27-year-old
Hsu Jui Yun, was sentenced to six months in jail for abusing workers
by the People's Court in Dong Nai province, 30 kilometers north of Ho
Chi Minh City.

The incident occurred in March when the Taiwanese manager allegedly abused
her Vietnamese employees at Pouchen, a Taiwanese-owned factory that produces
sport shoes, operating near Ho Chi Minh City. Hsu Jui Yun reportedly
ordered her female employees to run around the factory's facilities as
a punishment for alleged violation of company rules.

The sentence, the first of its kind in the country, highlighted the cultural
differences between socialist Vietnam and "tiger economies", notably
Taiwan and South Korea, whose managers have become notorious here because
of frequent labour abuses.

In July 1996 a Korean was given a three-month suspended sentence by a
Ho Chi Minh City court for abusing her Vietnamese employees, but the
convicted manager, Jang Mi Baek, abruptly left the country in violation
of the terms of her conviction. Vietnamese officials later said that
her unauthorized departure held up Vietnam's legal system to foreign
ridicule.

Labour unrest has increased in the past decade in Vietnam, notably at
foreign-invested companies, with Taiwanese and South Korean firms topping
the list. Many of the recent labour troubles have occurred because of
alleged labour abuses and disputes over bonuses, which some investors
believe are not performance-based.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Vietnam gears up for low-key elections 

By John Chalmers

Hanoi, July 13 (Reuter) - In some countries, the days leading up to a
nation-wide election come alive with cut-and-thrust debate and frantic
last-minute campaigning for votes.

Don't expect the same in Vietnam this week as the communist-ruled country
gears up to elect deputies for the National Assembly's next five-year
tenure.

"We do not use the phrase 'contesting the National Assembly elections',"
the legislature's chairman, Nong Duc Manh, said in a recent radio interview.
"This is because we do not challenge each other in the elections."

"I should also say that a candidate should not speak ill of other candidates..."
he said.

When polling stations open across the country next Sunday, the people
of Vietnam will be granted their constitutional right to exercise power.
Just how much power is open to question.

With 664 candidates running for 450 seats, two-thirds can be sure of
victory. Only 11 are self-nominated candidates, just 112 are not members
of the party, and all of them have been approved by the Fatherland Front,
a socio-political umbrella organisation.

"At first it seems rather undemocratic," Nguyen Si Dung, director of
the assembly's centre for information, told Reuters in an interview.
"But actually it's not that bad."

Dung said that by the time election day arrives, assembly hopefuls have
been through a gruelling process of scrutiny by a range of mass organisations
and voters in their constituencies.

But, despite the official election festivities of street banners and
dragon dances, public enthusiasm is not running high.

"The candidates are all the same to me," said one Hanoi voter. "I'll
just go down the list, look at their birth dates and choose the youngest
guys."

That scepticism could stem from a common perception that the assembly
is little more than a rubber-stamp for decisions made by the non-elected
government and, above that, by the party's powerful Politburo.

Officials deny that, and point to the fact that 16 percent of the candidates
are not party members, almost double the proportion of non-members in
the outgoing assembly.

For Bradley Babson, the World Bank's representative in Hanoi, the legislature
has become a "melting pot of national thinking" during the past decade
of social and economic reform.

"It is genuinely debating legal and policy matters, genuinely providing
feedback to the government on the perception of its performance, genuinely
holding individual ministers accountable for the activities..." he told
Reuters in an interview.

The 51-year-old National Assembly, which holds two one-month sittings
a year, has indeed begun to flex a few muscles.

At their autumn session last year, the deputies took a swipe at the corruption
that plagues the nation and even refused to endorse the government's
choice for a ministerial post.

As "the highest organ of state power," the National Assembly is officially
responsible for appointing senior officials from among its ranks, including
the president and prime minister.

Since President Le Duc Anh and Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet -- both men
in their mid-70s -- are not standing for re-election to the assembly,
they will stand down when the newly mandated deputies meet for the first
time in September.

Officials say that with the elections out of the way and new leaders
installed, the country's reform process will get a much-needed shot in
the arm.

Although Vietnam is still enjoying one of the best economic growth rates
in the world, deep-seated problems in the banking industry and the state
sector are now coming home to roost.

"The renovation has had some success, but now we have to push it further,"
says Dung. "We need a new government and new assembly to lead the country
into the 21st century -- and we need to choose the right people."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Thailand, Vietnam to Delimit Disputed Gulf Area 

BANGKOK (July 13) XINHUA - Thailand and Vietnam plan to draft an agreement
to delimit the disputed overlapping area in the Gulf of Thailand early
next month.

A meeting is expected to take place on Samui Island in Surat Thani, South
Thailand and will be co-chaired by the two countries' deputy foreign
ministers, Thai Foreign Minister Prachuab Chaiyasarn said Saturday.

The meeting is being arranged after Vietnam has endorsed the results
of Thai and Vietnamese legal experts' approach to defining their territorial
waters, after eight rounds of talks over five years.

Vietnam will be the first country to delimit the 6,500-square-kilometer
overlapping zone in a legal framework with Thailand.

It took Thailand and Malaysia 11 years to end disputes through their
joint development zone in unsettled areas in the Gulf of Thailand.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Vietnam leader Do Muoi's departure for China delayed until Monday

Hanoi, July 13 (AFP) - Vietnam's top leader Do Muoi has delayed his departure
for Beijing until Monday, a Vietnamese airport official said on Sunday.

Muoi, Communist Party General Secretary, was scheduled to depart Sunday
for a four-day official visit to China at the invitation of his Chinese
counterpart Jiang Zemin.

The airport official gave no reason for the one-day delay, and government
officials could not be reached for comment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Do Muoi visit to China pegged to Cambodia crisis: diplomats 

HANOI, July 13 (AFP) - When Vietnamese Communist Party Chief Do Muoi
meets with his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin this week, the recent
crisis in Cambodia is expected to top the agenda, diplomats said on Sunday.

"Do Muoi will want to assert Vietnam's neutrality and non-interference
and non involvement in Cambodia," an Asian military attache told AFP.

"Vietnam has paid a heavy price in December 1978," he said, referring
to Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia and the ouster of the Beijing-backed
Khmer Rouge regime in Phnom Penh led by Pol Pot.

China retaliated by attacking Vietnamese border towns in a short but
bloody offensive in February 1979, causing a rupture in diplomatic relations
which were only fully restored at the end of 1991.

"The emergence of Vietnam as a regional influence is a potential threat,
and Vietnam needs to show it has no intentions," the attache added.

Do Muoi's visit to Beijing, now due to start on Monday, comes at Jiang's
invitation, and is part of a series "of regular exchanges and high level
visits" between the two communist countries, the Vietnamese foreign ministry
said earlier.

However, while diplomats said the visit was planned in advance of the
outbreak of fighting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia will figure prominently
in discussions.

A diplomat from a southeast Asian country said Vietnam may try to reassure
Beijing that it had no part in the de facto coup d'etat last weekend
by Cambodian Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, when he ousted his co-premier
Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

"This may be a very urgent visit. Hun Sen was in Vietnam a few days before
that act. Vietnam has rejected the allegation (of its involvement),"
he said.

He also noted Hun Sen had rejected pleas by Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk,
who is convalescing in Beijing, to travel to China for talks with Prince
Ranariddh, leader of the royalist FUNICINPEC party.

And he added that while Vietnam publicly supported the decision by the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday to delay Cambodia's
admission to the regional grouping following the fighting, it did so
reluctantly.

Some diplomats have interpreted Vietnam's unexplained decision to send
its deputy foreign minister in place of Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh
Cam to Kuala Lumpur as a signal of its opposition to the decision.

Hanoi officially said Cam sent his deputy Vu Khoan to the minister's
visit last week because he was "too busy," but Cam himself will accompany
Muoi to Beijing this week.

The 80-year-old party chief's departure for Beijing comes just six days
before Vietnam's National Assembly elections.

Do Muoi last visited Beijing in 1991, while Jiang visited Vietnam in
1994. Although Sino-Vietnamese ties are still marred by territorial disputes
over land and sea borders -- the latest row erupted in March when Hanoi
demanded China withdraw an oil rig off Vietnam's central coast -- the
two communist regimes share common ideologies.

Do Muoi's last official visit abroad was last month to Burma, whose army-backed
regime maintains close ties with Beijing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ousted premier accuses Vietnam Knew of coup plot, Ranariddh says

By Ben Barber
The Washington Times
07/12/97

Ousted Cambodian Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh, warning of a new civil
war, said yesterday that Vietnam knew Second Prime Minister Hun Sen was
planning to seize power.

"At a minimum we can say that Vietnam was aware of the coup," said Prince
Ranariddh in an interview with The Washington Times.

"I cannot say Vietnam prepared the coup, but at least Hun Sen consulted
with them - he went to Vietnam one day before the coup happened" last
Saturday.

The prince yesterday rejected an appeal by Loy Sim Chheong, secretary-general
of the prince's Funcinpec party (United National Front for an Independent,
Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia) to appoint a substitute co-prime
minister to prepare for elections next year.

"We have to stick to this government," said the prince. "It's very simple.
It's a matter of principle."

Funcinpec officials who cooperate with Hun Sen do so out of fear they
will be killed otherwise, he said.

The prince said that if Cambodia is "unfortunate" and there is no political
solution to the Hun Sen takeover, "we would have a resistance - it's
already organized."

"I feel very sad to talk about it. Civil war and fighting again. I was
doing it for years and I don't want to be back again. It is a great danger
for Cambodia."

In a joint letter to President Clinton yesterday, the chairmen of the
Senate and House international relations committees, Sen. Jesse Helms
of North Carolina and Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman of New York, urged a "firm
U.S. response" to Hun Sen's power grab.

Amnesty International reported yesterday that three close associates
of Lt. Gen. Nhek Bunchhay, Prince Ranariddh's toughest general, may also
have been captured and summarily executed. Gen. Nhek Bunchhay is believed
to remain free.

Any potential Vietnamese involvement in the Cambodia coup could violate
the terms of a "road map" under which the United States dropped its embargo
on Hanoi and normalized diplomatic relations this year on condition that
Hanoi get out of Cambodia.

Vietnam's army installed Hun Sen in power in Phnom Penh in 1979 and backed
him during a 10-year civil war against a U.S.- and China-backed resistance
that included Prince Ranariddh and Pol Pot's murderous Khmer Rouge.

China was not actively involved in the latest Cambodian events, Prince
Ranariddh said, "but they have a good intelligence network in Cambodia."

"On the first of July when I went to the celebration of the hand-over
of Hong Kong, the Chinese ambassador warned me about my personal security."

A few days later, the prince fled Cambodia and Hun Sen's troops took
over the country on July 5, executing two prominent Ranariddh aides and
looting much of the capital city.

Yesterday, sustained fighting broke out on the road to Thailand 20 miles
west of Siem Reap in western Cambodia, site of the ancient Khmer temple
of Angkor Wat.

"This afternoon the government side sent troops and ammunition from Kompong
Cham to confront the other side," said a military official loyal to Hun
Sen. "Now the other side is trying to move forward into Siem Reap."

Evacuation of foreigners continued from Phnom Penh yesterday as well,
although the capital appeared to be calming down after the fighting and
looting.

Prince Ranariddh yesterday said he backed the U.S. decision to suspend
its $25 million in aid to Cambodia for 30 days and asked that aid not
be restored unless Hun Sen backs down and restores the coalition government.

However, the prince noted that Hun Sen moved to seize power even though
he knew it jeopardized pledges of $450 million in foreign aid made in
Paris a few days before the coup.

Hun Sen has warned outsiders not to interfere in Cambodia and appeared
to dismiss the loss of aid which funded half the country's budget.

Japan and Germany have also halted aid while the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations withdrew an invitation to join the regional trading bloc.

"In the past, we were also subjected to an economic embargo," said Hun
Sen's spokesman, Khieu Kanharith. "We will not die, and development will
continue, though it might be slow."

But Meas Samith, spokesman for the Public Works Ministry, said the government
and country could "absolutely not" survive.

The cut-off of even minimal aid will have far-reaching impact in Cambodia,
where many of its 10 million people live hand to mouth.

It is unlikely that the royalist forces loyal to the prince could overthrow
Hun Sen's forces, which are better armed and in virtually complete control
of most population centers.

But alone, or allied with the remaining Khmer Rouge guerrillas still
in western Cambodia - considered the most fanatic and strongest fighters
among all three political groups - Cambodia could face another long conflict.

The country is still traumatized by the 1975-78 Khmer Rouge systematic
extermination campaign against intellectuals, doctors, merchants, teachers,
monks, politicians and others with education or Western contacts.

Hun Sen said he moved against the prince's militias and compounds because
Prince Ranariddh was bringing former Khmer Rouge fighters into the capital
to prepare to seize power himself.

Prince Ranariddh, after meetings with Captiol Hill and State Department
leaders yesterday, denied the charges and said he would not resort to
forming a resistance with the Khmer Rouge.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Vietnam to Build First Oil Refinery 

Xinhua English Newswire
07/13/97

Vietnamese government has officially approved the project of building
its first oil refinery, local press reported today.

Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation will be the investor of the project,
which would be located in the central province of Quang Ngai.

Total investment for the project is estimated at 1.5 billion U.S. dollars,
of which 600 million dollars will be mobilized from the state budget,
and 400 million from long-term foreign loans and bonds.

The construction of the refinery, which has a designed capacity of 6.5
million tons of crude oil per year will start later this year and is
expected to be completed in 2001.

Main construction items of the project include a 110-hectare factory,
a 42-hectare crude oil tank area, a 28-hectare storage tank area, a 135-hectare
tanker terminal, a 40-hectare pipeline safety corridor and an underwater
pipeline system and port facilities which will cover an area of 336 hectare.

The factory will turn out high-grade products including propylene, liquefied
petroleum gas, regular and super grade petrols, aviation fuel and diesel
oil for both domestic consumption and export.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Hoffman-La Roche Suspends Vietnam Laroscorbine Sales: VIR 

Hanoi, Jul 13 (Dow Jones) -- Drug company Hoffman-La Roche is suspending
sales in Vietnam of injectable vitamin-C supplement Laroscorbine after
two ampoules were found to be contaminated, a local weekly newspaper
reported Sunday.

According to the Vietnam Investment Review, the company has suspended
sales of both the 500 mg and 1 gram sizes until it has finished inspecting
its stock.

However the Ho Chi Minh City Healthy Department has submitted the product
to a number of tests and has not fond any more contaminated samples.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Vietnam must treat foreign investors better: official 

HANOI, July 13 (AFP) - A senior Vietnamese investment official said Vietnam
must take better care of its foreign investors to raise its profile as
an emerging market, a local report said on Sunday.

Do Quoc Sam, chairman of the National Investment Projects Appraisal Committee,
said Vietnam needed to pay more attention to investors already in the
country.

"Aiming investment campaigns at foreigners that have already projects
up and running ... deserves more attention," Sam was quoted as saying
by the Vietnam Investment Review, a weekly jointly published by the Ministry
of Planning and Investment and Kerry Packer's Australian Consolidated
Press.

Sam said he had sent a report to Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet based on
meetings he had in Europe with business leaders in which he suggested
ways to improve the foreign investment climate here.

He suggested strengthening the services of Vietnamese consultant firms
and improving the quality of Vietnam's financial institutions.

Vietnamese state-owned banks have recently come under heavy criticism
by foreigners for their failure to honour international obligations on
letters of credit.

Sam also blamed frustration among foreigners on a lack of coordination
between central and local agencies making it difficult to obtain investment
approvals.

In the first six months of 1997, foreign investment approvals fell 15
percent to 2.15 billion dollars over the same period of 1996.

Foreign investors routinely gripe about Vietnam's opaque legal system,
bureacracy and corruption, which together with a stagnation in economic
reforms, have started to tarnish Vietnam's appeal as in investment destination.

Since the foreign investment law was promulgated in late 1987, Vietnam
has licenced about 27.8 billion dollars of foreign projects, of which
about 7.5 billion has been realised.

-------------------------------------------------------------------