Int’l media talks about Vietnamese President’s visit to US

15:47' 18/06/2007 (GMT+7)

President Nguyen Minh Triet (photo: Reuters) VietNamNet Bridge – Big new agencies and newspapers in the world have been reporting on the six-day US visit by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet. Xinhua news is running an article titled “Vietnamese president leaves for US visit”. The article quoted the spokesman of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Le Dung as saying that the trip would bring the bilateral ties to a new stage with the deeper and broader development and it aimed to promote bilateral cooperation and accelerate the implementation of existing deals, especially in the fields of economy, trade, science and education. “During the visit, the two sides are scheduled to sign a number of cooperative deals and business contracts, including a trade and investment framework agreement and a contract on plane purchase. The contracts are expected to be worth some 4.5 billion US dollars,” the article writes. “Mr Triet, accompanied by 46 state officials, including leaders of the ministries of Education and Training, Posts and Telecommunications, Public Security, Industry, Finance, Trade, Planning and Investment, and Foreign Affairs, over 100 business people and 20 reporters, is scheduled to hold talks with US President George W. Bush in Washington on June 22.” Trade will be the main topic during the Vietnamese President’s visit, writes France’s AFP. According to AFP, Mr Triet and US President George W. Bush will oversee the signing of an agreement that aims to pave the way for an eventual free trade pact. “Many US companies are hoping to start or step up business in Vietnam, a low-wage developing country that saw 8.2 percent economic growth last year and is emerging as a popular investment destination in Southeast Asia. “During Triet's visit, aircraft maker Boeing hopes to secure an order with Vietnam Airlines, and corporate deals are also expected in the energy, telecommunications, information technology and financial services sectors.” President Nguyen Minh Triet is the first Vietnamese head of state to visit Washington since the end of the US war in Vietnam in 1975, Reuters quoted an official of the US Embassy in Vietnam as saying. It forecasts that Mr Triet will be greeted by protests in support of Vietnam's tiny dissident community but according to Tom Valley, head of the Vietnam programme at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts: “I believe there is a recognition on both sides that individual events should not be an obstacle to continued dialogue aimed at strengthening ties.” “Among the issues to be discussed are efforts to clean up so-called "hot spots" of dioxin, commonly known as "Agent Orange", from three former American wartime air bases,” Reuters writes. The Radio Singapore International (RSI) reports, “Vietnam's relations with the United States are set to enter a new phase when President Nguyen Minh Triet makes an official visit to America.” “Bilateral ties between Hanoi and Washington reached an all time high in 2006 when the United States removed Vietnam from the State Department's list of Countries of Particular Concern, and approved Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organisation. President Triet and his entourage will seek to build on these foundations,” RSI reports. PV collected

Beauty to flower in many forms at festival

13:21' 18/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The second Da Lat Flower Festival promises to the more eye-catching than ever this year as it will also include the first Miss Vietnamese Ethnic Groups beauty contest. Miss Dervish: Ethnic minority girls will competing for the first Miss Vietnamese Ethnic Groups crown during a beauty pageant at the 2007 Da Lat Flower Festival in December. The pageant is designed to promote national virtues and cultural diversity as the country enters a period of development and international integration. The road to the Miss Vietnamese Ethnic Groups crown will be a long one. The beauty pageant is multi-tiered, with preliminary rounds feeding into the grand final, which will form part of the Da Lat Flower Festival this December. Each entrant will have to take part in four costumes rounds, including the ao dai (traditional dress), traditional ethnic dress, evening gown and swim suit. In addition, contestants will have to demonstrate talents such as singing, flower arranging and cooking - which is a unique feature of the pageant. A short list of 10-12 contestants will then be subjected to a personal interview - typically a source of fierce contention. This year's pageant sets a new prize-money record. Miss Vietnamese Ethnic Groups will be presented with a cheque for VND100mil (US$6,250), in addition to a crown and gifts valued at VND20mil ($1,250). The first and second runner-ups will receive VND30mil ($1,845) and VND20mil, respectively. There will also be a number of other awards, such as Miss Charity, who will receive VND4mil ($2,500); and Miss Talent, who will receive VND15mil ($938). Singapore's Cambridge Business College will also present Miss Vietnamese Ethnic Groups with a $7,000 scholarship to study abroad. Other winners will win scholarships valued at $3,000. Finalists will receive VND5mil each and special gifts. "Miss Vietnamese Ethnic Groups will be unique and exciting, "said Doan Thi Kim Hong, vice president of the Viet Nam Advertising Association and former winner of the Miss Favourite title at the 2005 Mrs World Pageant. The festival finale will celebrate the legend of Lac Long Quan-Au Co and the 100 eggs, which tells the story of the origins of the first 100 Vietnamese. Musician Duc Dau will be performing, as will gong musicians from Buon Me Thuot Province. "The contest is a good opportunity for beauties nationwide to learn from one another," said Hong. "That is the reason why we made the pageant a rich cultural contest - to celebrate the wild healthy magnificent beauty of Vietnam". The beauty contest will take place on December 22 and is open to unmarried women aged 18-28 and over 1.58 tall. Applications should be submitted to Lam Dong Department of Culture, and Information at 2 Nguyen Viet Xuan Street or the CIAT Company at 57 Dang Van Giai, District 2, HCM City. The closing date for applications is August 15. Preliminary rounds will be held in the North, Central and South of Vietnam. Bloomin' festival The Da Lat Flower Festival Exhibition Fair, which will open on December 15, is both a cultural and tourist festival and an international commercial event. Foreign and local businesses can find opportunities to develop their investment projects in the fields of tourism and flower, tea and coffee exports. Organised by the People's Committee of Lam Dong Province, the 2007 Flower Festival will introduce Vietnamese flowers to the world. "It also highlights the achievements of the chief flower-growing areas in the country and in particular, Da Lat," said Huynh Duc Hoa, chairman of the Lam Dong Province's People's Committee. "We are co-operating with various ministries and government offices in culture, trade and tourism to expand our festival activities, hoping to attract a great number of local and foreign visitors," he said. During the six-day event, hundreds of veteran and amateur artists from different provinces will perform from morning to late night. Traditional music and dance performances by ethnic minority groups of Gia Lai, E De, Thai and Muong will also be featured. More than 100 local and foreign companies, including Da Lat Hasfarm and the Phong Phu Garment Corporation, will display their products production lines and facilities at nearly 1,000 stalls. Several seminars about Vietnamese flower growing and export will allow participants to exchange business experiences and promote future projects. The festival is expected to welcome 80,000 visitors. (Source: Viet Nam News)

US not far from becoming No 1 investor in Vietnam

13:34' 18/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – American are nearly secure in the No 1 position among biggest investors in Vietnam with the moves made recently by the US and Vietnamese business circles. Intel announces its $1bil project While the Vietnam – US two-way trade has been growing at a dizzy speed after the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), the US investment in Vietnam has still been below expectations. However, the situation has been improved. The stamp of US investment According to a report released recently by the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), by mid May 2007, Americans had made investment in 325 projects with the total registered capital of $2.3bil, amounting to 4.4% of the total projects and 3.5% of total foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam. The US ranks 8th among the 77 countries and territories that have investment projects in Vietnam. Phan Huu Thang, Head of FIA, repeatedly said that the said figures did not reflect the actual US investment in Vietnam. Many big US groups, including Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, Unocal and Conoco, have invested in Vietnam, but through other countries like the British Virgin Islands, Singapore or Hong Kong. That explains why the investment deals were not listed as US investment. Statistics showed that 74 US invested projects in Vietnam have been carried out through third countries, totaling $2.4bil. As such, if counting on the investment through third countries, American have invested in 396 projects capitalized at $4.7bil, ranking the sixth out of 77 nations and territories that have FDI in Vietnam. In 2006, through Hong Kong, the US-based Intel group registered the investment project on Intel Products Ltd, the maker if Intel chips, which had the total capital of $1bil. The project is expected to help lure more US investors to Vietnam in the time to come. Therefore, it is understandable why in the recent reports on BTA implementation, experts from the project on BTA implementation support repeated the possibility to see the US as the biggest investor in Vietnam. Many big companies and groups have been presented in Vietnam, namely Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Citigroup and American Group, New York & Company, Alfonso DeMatteis, Dickerson Knight Group and AIA. All of them have cemented their positions in the destination countries, and this is the convincing proof to show the attractiveness of Vietnam as an investment destination. Marching towards the No 1 position A bridge which aims to help boost trade and investment has been set up, the Vietnam – US Advisory Council. With the help of the bridge, over the last year, investors have suggested at least 10 projects in important fields, including oil and gas, power, aviation and information technology. Ten official members of the council, together with other US businesses, have committed to invest $4-5bil in Vietnam in two or three years. Most recently, a delegation of 18 big US businesses came to Vietnam and had a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. The trip which has been assessed as very effective, and is hoped to bring more new investment projects to Vietnam. US investors tend not to suggest big scaled investment projects. At the APEC summit week last year, US investors reached the agreement on the Mong Duong thermopower plant project and the Cai Lan port expanding project. Two US insurers, ACE and Liberty Mutual obtained the operation licenses sooner than expected. This shows the readiness of the both sides for the new era in the Vietnam – US business relationship. Big names in the IT sector like Microsoft, Unisys, Qualcom and Motorola are also seeking the way to boost cooperation projects with Vietnam. Qualcom, for example, wants to provide the infrastructure facilities for the 3G mobile network to EVN Telecom and Hanoi Telecom, and get involved in the project on wireless Internet for Vietnamese education. Experts have predicted that many agreements will be signed between US and Vietnamese businesses in the visit by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to the US. The US visit by the then Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai two years ago could help bring salient results in business commitments, while the President Nguyen Minh Triet’s visit is hoped to open a new chapter in the economic relationship between the two countries. Phuoc Ha

President Nguyen Minh Triet’s US visit begins

10:47' 18/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, at the invitation of US President George W. Bush, has just left Vietnam this morning, June 18, heading to the US. VietNamNet’s Chief Editor Nguyen Anh Tuan will go with the Vietnamese delegation to directly report on the visit. Escorts of President Triet to the US (from June 18-23, 2007) include Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem, Chairman of the President Office Nguyen Van Chien, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan, Minister of Post and Telematics Do Trung Ta, and Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Tam Chien. President Triet will visit the United Nations headquarters, the New York stock exchange, talk with President Bush and meet with US businessmen and overseas Vietnamese in the US. Members of the Vietnamese delegation to the US: Deputy Foreign Minister Le Van Bang, Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Van Huong, Deputy Minister of Industry Bui Xuan Khu, Deputy Minister of Finance Truong Chi Trung, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Dinh Tien, Deputy Minister of Trade Nguyen Cam Tu, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee Ton Nu Thi Ninh, Assistant to the President Do Xuan Dong, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Trung Tin, Vice Chairman of the Da Nang People’s Committee Nong Thi Ngoc Minh, Chairman of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Associations Vu Xuan Hong, Chairman of the State Securities Commission Vu Bang, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vu Tien Loc. Before the visit, Mr Triet said: “The message that I, on behalf of the Vietnamese people, send to American investors is: Vietnam is an open, integrating and dynamically developing country. Vietnamese people expect more investment from the US. Vietnam is trying its best to create a favourable investment environment to enable US investors to do business effectively in Vietnam”. “With a population of more than 1.5 million, the Vietnamese community in the US represents half the number of Vietnamese living abroad. I highly appreciate contributions by overseas Vietnamese in the US to Vietnam, both spiritually and materialy, in the recent past. The State and people of Vietnam have always respected the profound sentiment Vietnamese people abroad have expressed toward their home country, their sense of national dignity and their wish to contribute to developing Vietnam into a rich and powerful country”. Several minutes before the aircraft brings Vietnamese officials to the US, journalist Nguyen Anh Tuan reported from the airport and made short interviews with some members of the Vietnamese delegation. At the airport, President Triet answered some questions for Reuters. He not only mentioned economics issues but also human rights. After the official interview, he directly asked the reporter in English about his time in Vietnam and his feelings about the country. Asked about his feelings, spokesman of the Foreign Ministry Le Dung expressed his worry when he is a member of the organising board of the trip. “This is a very important trip, which follows the visit in 2005. The country has changed greatly and has had a new position in the international arena. I’m very happy but I’m worried as well when I bear the responsibility of an organiser,” Mr Dung said. “I hope that with great efforts to prepare for the trip, it will be a success and contribute to promoting deeper, wider, more stable and effective relations between Vietnam and the US,” Mr Dung added. This flight that brings Vietnamese officials to the US has a special chief pilot: Nguyen Thanh Trung, who highjacked an aircraft to bomb the Independence Place in the former Saigon City (now HCM City) in the past and drove the aircraft bringing the first Prime Minister of united Vietnam to the US 30 years after the Vietnam War. “This is a very important flight. The previous time I brought the Prime Minister and this time the President to the US. Both of the flights are very important so I have to prepare very carefully for the trip,” the pilot said. “Each time going to the US I have a special feeling but the feeling is different each time. Today we go in peace and independence. Our position has been different and we go to the US in a different position,” he added. Meanwhile, Tran Trong Hieu, General Director, member of the Board of Directors of the IDJ Finance Company, said: “I’m happy and self-confident. I can tell US partners that Vietnam is now a good opportunity of investment”. In 2005 a Vietnamese Prime Minister (Phan Van Khai) came to the US to dispel the final remains of the past so that the US and American people can understand a new Vietnam, which is no longer at war and no longer special in the mind of American people, but a country on the road of integration. Two years later, a President of Vietnam will bring to the US a new story, new images of Vietnam, a new member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which is self-confident and equal in the race of time and a nation that is full of aspiration. VietNamNet

Bathing with herbs in Sapa

11:17' 18/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Spending the whole night on the train and some more hours on a coach, I finally arrived in the tourist town of Sapa. Being exhausted, I only wanted to take a nap but Phuc, a local friend of mine, said, “Don’t sleep, that’s a waste!” and brought me to a … public bathroom. Having just entered the bathroom, I immediately caught a whiff of fragrant herbs. I scooped my hands into the viscid, dark red water inside the wood-bathtub and threw it on to my face to feel the warm and fragrant water. I then entered the bathtub to immerse my whole body in the herb water. Sweat beaded on my forehead and dripped from my head. Each pore relaxed to absorb the herb water to each fibre of my body. Around ten minutes later, I clearly felt the recovery in my body. After the whole 35-minute period, my body was refreshed. The owner of this public bathroom, the most famous herb bathing service in Sapa Town, Le Van Minh, said that as a member of the local traditional art troupe, he often went to mountainous villages to collect traditional songs and dances of ethnic minority people. Once in the village of Red Dao, he caught a heavy cold. The locals quickly treated the cold by putting Minh in a big wood cask full of red water. They told Minh that they used a traditional remedy of herbs which has existed for hundreds of years. As he lived in Sapa Town, a famous tourist site in Vietnam, Minh immediately thought of using this traditional herb remedy of Dao people to serve tourists. He successfully convinced some Dao families to transfer their traditional remedies to him. Minh has built nine bathrooms to serve tourists for the past year. Each herb remedy for bathing includes 12 to 14 kinds of herbs, plus three kinds of herbs from Minh’s family. The herbs are boiled for 3-4 hours to extract the essence, and then mixed in water to serve tourists. According to Minh, the herbal essence accounts for 2% of the total volume of water in the bathtub and water must be 30-37oC. Healthy people should soak their body in the bathtub for 30-35 minutes and 20-25 minutes for weak ones. After the bath, massage and point acupuncture can help people recover their health. The fragrance of herbs will be on the body for up to three days later. Minh’s public bathroom welcomes around 30-70 customers a day. The service price there is quite cheap, VND50,000 ($3)/person/time. He also sells dried herbs for VND20,000/kg ($1.25). At a public bathroom in Sa Xeng village, Ta Phin commune, Sapa district, Lao Cai province, I saw four foreign visitors who had just left the bathrooms. They smiled and said, “Number one”. The bathroom’s owner, a Dao ethnic man named Ly May Chan, said that she opened this public bathroom nearly five months ago and the service had been attracting many visitors. Chan is convincing villagers to build a larger public bathroom of over 100sq.m. Chan and her friend are trying to commercialise the bathing herb remedy. However, six kinds of herbs in the remedy are facing extinction so they are trying to plant them. Dr. Tran Huu Son, director of the Lao Cai provincial Department of Culture and Information, said that Dao people often used herbs to bath all the year round. Their traditional herb remedies for bathing can include from ten to 120 kinds of herbs, which help bathers refresh their bodies, make their skin smooth, and can cure some kinds of diseases like rheumatism, pain in the bones, colds. To turn those remedies into unique tourism products, many organisations have helped Dao people to process herbs into resin or powder for easy use. The Global Environment Fund is implementing a project to help preserve the valuable genes of herbs and help locals to plant herbs in their gardens. There are 11 public bathrooms using the traditional herb remedies of Dao people in Sapa town and Ta Phin. Herb bathing has become a unique tourism product of Sapa. (Source: SGGP)

SBV strives for controlling inflation

11:13' 18/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – In late May 2007, the monetary policy of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) seemed to see a turning-point. By asking commercial banks to increase their compulsory reserve for both the Vietnam dong (from 5% to 10% for deposits of less than 12 months) and foreign currencies (from 8% to 10%), the SBV has officially sent a signal: it will give priority to keeping inflation lower than the economic growth rate. The consumer price index (CPI) of the first five months increased by 4.3% compared to that of late 2006. The CPI of June 2007 is forecast to increase 0.4%. Thus, the CPI of the first half of the year will be more than 4.7%. Will the CPI of the whole year be less than 8%, lower than the expected growth rate of 8-8.5%? Maintaining the inflation rate of 3.3% for the last six months of the year seems to be a difficult mission. Before releasing the new regulations on compulsory reserve, SBV Governor Le Duc Thuy told the press that controlling inflation was one of the top missions of the central bank. He stated that this agency realised that it was necessary to take some measures to keep inflation under control. Those measures had actually been realised regularly but the policy to control inflation was clearer in May. Firstly, the SBV took a positive step in withdrawing the volume of cash circulating in the market through the operations of the open market. In May only, around VND12,000-VND15,000 billion (US$750 - $937.5 million) was withdrawn from circulation through auctions of quasi-money papers. Secondly, banks were reminded very frequently about credit control, especially raising the quality of credit. While the credit growth rate of state-owned commercial banks is less than 20% compared to the same period of last year, the outstanding debt balance of joint stock banks has quickly grown. Many joint stock banks have boosted loans for stock investment and this has contributed to their credit growth. By warning banks to not give loans for stock investment that exceed 3% of their total outstanding debt balances the SBV has officially fixed the 3% limit for stock loans. The third measure, which is being performed by the SBV, is flexibly controlling the foreign exchange rate. Since mid May, the devaluation of the Vietnam dong against the US dollar has gone faster. By June 12, 2007, the US dollar/Vietnam dong exchange rate of the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) was equal to the inter-banking exchange rate daily announced by the SBV. Previously, in late December 2006 and the first quarter of 2007, the exchange rate of banks was always much lower than the daily-announced inter-banking exchange rate. Even in the first quarter of 2007, the Vietnam dong gained higher value (0.3%) compared to the US dollar. However, in the past three weeks, the devaluation of the Vietnam dong against the US dollar has reached 3.5%/year, according to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). With the above measures, the SBV can completely maintain the devaluation of the Vietnam dong at 1% in 2007 as its goal. Once it can control the exchange rate, inflation control will be more effective. However, some challenges still exist and the most difficult is the prediction of financial investment flow. It is difficult to know whether foreign investment in stocks from now to the year’s end will suddenly rise. It is not accidental that the value of the Vietnam dong continuously increased against the US dollar in January 2007, the time foreign investors ‘pumped’ up to US$350 million into the stock market. At that time the forex limits of many banks were always full and they couldn’t change Vietnam dong for US dollars and the SBV had to buy US dollars, increasing the national foreign currency reserve. (Source: TBKTSG)

Diplomat confident of successful US Presidential trip

11:23' 17/06/2007 (GMT+7)

Nguyen Tam Chien (photo: mofa.gov.vn) VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam's Ambassador to the United States has predicted that the upcoming visit to the US by State President Nguyen Minh Triet will usher in a bright new era of bilateral relations between the two countries. Ambassador Nguyen Tam Chien made the remark during an exclusive interview with the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) prior to the State President’s trip that is scheduled from June 18-23. The Vietnamese diplomat spelt out the three following reasons why he felt the visit would prove to be successful: Firstly, the trip is to be the first ever made by a Vietnamese State President to the United States. The visit would showcase a rapid increase of high-level diplomatic exchanges over the last decade. In 2005, then Prime Minister Phan Van Khai made an official visit to the US that was preceded by a 2000 trip to Vietnam by US President Bill Clinton and followed by a 2006 visit to the country by George W Bush for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Secondly, the State President will travel with a massive business delegation of over 200 business executives. A large number of US conglomerate and company executives have registered to meet and discuss business opportunities with the delegation and it is expected that a plethora of contracts will be signed during the meetings. Thirdly, the Unites States is home to an overseas Vietnamese community of over 1.5 million or close to half of the entire Viet Kieu community based outside the Southeast Asian nation. The Vietnamese ambassador concluded by saying “I strongly believe that the visit will be a success. The trip's outcomes will complete the full normalisation of relations between Vietnam and the US and usher in a new stage of cooperation between the two countries, where joint efforts will be made to set up long term cooperative ties. (Source: VNA)

Illegal travel operations boom

12:52' 16/06/2007 (GMT+7)

Visitors at Tan Son Nhat Airport. VietNamNet Bridge – The Republic of Korea is one of the key markets of Vietnam tourism. Around 145,500 Korean tourists came to Vietnam in the first quarter of 2007, up by 17.7% year on year, according to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism statistics. Local travel firms may lose Asian markets Foreign tour guides flock to Hanoi VN tourism: rich potential, poor products Actually, local travel agents have to sit idle while watching Korean visitors come to Vietnam through illegal travel agents. At HCM City-based Tan Son Nhat Airport, one can see a group of Korean people always present at the international terminal. At first look, one might think that they come to the airport to welcome their relatives and friends. However, a taxi driver at the airport said that they were tour guides. “I see them almost everyday at this airport. They come here to pick up groups of Korean visitors,” the driver said. At a conference seeking measures to attract foreign tourists to Vietnam held by the VNAT in late April 2007, the representative of the Ministry of Public Security’s Immigration Management Agency confirmed that there were more than 100 illegal Korean tour guides operating at Tan Son Nhat Airport. According to Vietnam’s Tourism Law, foreign tour guides are not allowed to work in Vietnam. VNAT inspectors said that there were three forms of illegal tourism in Vietnam. The first is travel companies that are allowed to offer local tourism services but still sell outbound tours to tourists. The second is tour guides seeking travellers themselves and the third is operating in the name of foreign companies. The current fine imposed on illegal travel operations is only VND10 million (US$620), which is too modest, according to Pham Huynh Loc, chief tourism inspector. The tourism inspection agency now has around 40 employees while Vietnam has up to 556 companies offering international travel services and over 5,000 others providing local travel services. Reporters engaged in conversation a group of Korean visitors who were visiting Tax Shopping Mall on Nguyen Hue Road, District 1, HCM City. A tourist named Cho pointed to a Korean man who was speaking to the group of Korean visitors and said: “He is our tour guide. We buy the tour to Vietnam through a travel office in Seoul. This tour guide picked us up at the Tan Son Nhat Airport. That’s good because we are fellow-countrymen. He has lived in Vietnam for a long time so he knows everything about this country.” Most illegal Korean tour guides in Vietnam are sent to Vietnam by Korean travel companies. Some of them are students or those who are working in Vietnam. In Vietnam, there are only two licenced travel joint ventures with Korean partners, the VTA Co, Ltd. and VTB Co., Ltd. Nguyen Duc Hanh, Deputy Director of the VTA Co, Ltd said that licenced companies couldn’t compete with illegal ones. “They have available sources of tourists while they dodge taxes so they can offer cheaper tours,” he said. In addition, local travel companies lack tour guides who can speak the Korean language, he added. Mr Hanh revealed that his company welcomed around 3,000 to 4,000 foreign visitors. As it lacks tour guides speaking Korean, the firm has to recruit Korean people who are living in Vietnam as tour guides. Those people are trained with tourism knowledge before working as tour guides. “Illegal tourism operations are alarming now. Close cooperation among local governments, police, and the tourism inspection agency is needed to prevent it,” said chief tourism inspector Pham Huynh Cong. (Source: TN)

Vietnam and RoK co-operate on film production

10:44' 17/06/2007 (GMT+7)

In 'Scent of Sage Leaves’, a television series produced by Vietnam and the RoK on screen in Vietnam VietNamNet Bridge - The Korean Television Development Institute (KBI) will co-operate with six Asian countries, including Vietnam to produce a television series with the theme of “Asia is one.” ‘Asia is one’ will consist of 20 episodes each an hour long. The television series is expected to be screen simultaneously in these countries. The project will have the participation of 11 television stations, including KBS and EBS of Korea and nine television stations from five other countries: Vietnam Television, TVRI and JTV of Indonesia, Ulan Bator of Mongolia, NBN of the Philippines and CCTV of China. KBI Director Yu Kyun said that “This year marks 15th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Korea. It’s hoped that the joint project in film production will bridge the understanding on culture between the people of the two countries as well as link people from Asian countries, including Vietnamese people now living in Korea.” (Source: Nhan Dan)

Inflation may hit growth

12:10' 17/06/2007 (GMT+7)

photo: howstuffworks.com VietNamNet Bridge - Economists last week warned that high inflation could endanger the Vietnamese economy and called for the government to apply tighter monetary policies to curb price rises. The International Monetary Fund’s representative in Vietnam, Il Houng Lee, said that inflation remained stubbornly high, with the 12-month rate estimated to have risen back above 7 per cent since April 2007. “Adjustments in electricity and petroleum prices, together with a resurfacing of food supply shocks, have contributed to the recent uptick in prices,” he said. However, he said that large increases in the prices of commodities other than food would also seem to point to growing demand pressures, that may become more difficult to contain as growing inflows of capital complicate monetary management. “This risk of rising inflation could be heightened if a large positive fiscal impulse were to further add to the demand pressures in 2007,” he said. According to preliminary data just released by the General Statistics Office (GSO), inflation in the first five months was up 4.32 per cent and inflation in June is predicted to hit 0.5 per cent. The rising prices of key industrial products such as petrol, cement, coal, electricity and fertilisers are increasing the pressures on business efficiency and economic growth this year, a monthly government meeting was warned last week. If prices continue to rise, there will be a negative impact on economic growth, according to a Ministry of Planning and Investment report presented at the meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. However, GSO officials remained concerned that inflation could potentially break from tradition and accelerate if the relevant government bodies failed to prevent price hikes. As a result, government statisticians predicted that the consumer price index (CPI) could grow faster than the GDP. “A more restrained monetary policy will likely be required to contain inflation, and limit the potential expansion of non-performing loans,” Lee said. According to a recent IMF report, “Credit growth has showed signs of re-acceleration in recent months, with the rate of credit growth rising from 23 per cent in the year prior to September 2006 to about 29 per cent in the year prior to February 2007.” “While the authorities’ monetary program for 2007 envisages a slowing of credit growth to 20 per cent by year-end, the achievement of this objective is threatened by ample excess bank liquidity,” it stated. “The authorities’ recent efforts to introduce prudential restraints on commercial bank lending for stock market purchases are welcome steps, which should help reduce banks’ exposure to stock market risks and guard against a potentially costly boom-bust cycle in stock prices. “The authorities also need to take more pro-active measures to mop up excess liquidity, by allowing the State Bank of Vietnam to exercise adequate autonomy in the issuance of bills,” it stated. (Source: VIR)

Vietnam on ‘radar’ of US investors

10:11' 17/06/2007 (GMT+7)

Mr William Daley and VietNamNet Chief Editor Nguyen Anh Tuan. VietNamNet Bridge - Former Secretary of Commerce of President Bill Clinton’s administration, William Daley, said it was possible that the US’ direct investment in Vietnam would begin taking off within the next five years. Mr Daley, currently a Chairman of JP Morgan Chase, believes that US investment into Vietnam will rapidly increase because Vietnam is now ‘on the radar screens’ of US investors, including JP Morgan Chase. On his first visit to Vietnam, Mr Daley talked with VietNamNet Editor-in-chief Nguyen Anh Tuan about US-Vietnam relations on the occasion of the upcoming visit to the US by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet. Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet is about to officially visit the US in the next several days. In your opinion, what opportunities will this trip create for US-Vietnam relations? William Daley was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 8, 1948. He graduated with a B.A. from Loyola University Chicago, and an LL.B. (later amended to Juris Doctor) from John Marshall Law School. Except for a period from 1977 to 1980, during which time he sat on the Advisory Council of Economic Opportunity, Mr Daley practiced law privately with the firm Daley and George. He became associated with Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, where he was first vice chairman (1989-1990) and then president and chief operating officer (1990-1993). Mr Daley returned to the practice of law, as a partner with the firm Mayer, Brown & Platt from 1993 to 1997. In 1993, he served as special counsel to the President on issues related to the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In 1997, Mr Daley became Secretary of Commerce in the second administration of President Bill Clinton, and he remained in that post until July 2000, when he became chairman of Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign, where he was in charge of choosing a vice presidential nominee. In December 2001, he was appointed President of SBC Communications Inc. to help reform the company’s image. In May 2004, Daley was made Midwest Chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank One Corp. to oversee post-merger operations from Chicago. Mr Daley currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Boeing, Merck & Co., Inc, Boston Properties, Inc., and Loyola University Chicago. He also sits on the Council on Foreign Relations. The visit of a chief of state to another country is always a good chance to develop bilateral ties. So I think that the upcoming visit by President Nguyen Minh Triet is a wonderful opportunity for US leaders and people to understand more clearly about Vietnam. I know that Mr Triet will visit New York, Washington and Los Angeles, three important cities of America. However, as a Chicago citizen, I still hope that a Vietnamese leader will visit Chicago, which is called the “Heartland of America”. Mr Triet’s visit is an opportunity to talk about changes in Vietnam, especially an opportunity for Mr Triet to share his vision about Vietnam in the next 5 or 10 years, about the goals that Vietnam aims to achieve in the coming time. I also want to say that at those meetings, the two sides should aim for more profound and comprehensive awareness of trade issues between the two countries. The more trade exchanges, the more problems emerge. The only way to avoid trade conflicts is no goods exchange, but nobody likes this because international trade benefits all countries. In some aspects, commercial conflicts between Vietnam and the US are a sign of the increasing value of Vietnam-US economic ties. In a recent issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, some American researchers said that it was time for Vietnam and the US to build a better partnership. What do you think about this? I think President Bush and his administration have made positive contributions to the development of Vietnam-US relations. The government of any US president is always interested in ties with Vietnam and will make efforts to develop the ties widely and better. I believe in and am optimistic about this. About the development of Vietnam-US ties, I think that the two sides should try their best to expand the scope of relations, not only in economics and trade. We should not forget other fields with potential, such as education cooperation. Another thing is the role of the community of Vietnamese Americans. I’ve met many Vietnam Americans in different regions, in different circumstances and of different generations. The y oung see a new Vietnam with new ties. Cooperation in education, culture, tourism will be good ways to create sustainable connections. The upcoming trip by President Triet is expected to encourage US companies to invest more in Vietnam. Do you think so? I don’t think so. The strongest statements were made by the US government when the two countries normalised their relations, and the US supported Vietnam’s WTO accession. Big opportunities in Vietnam make Americans realise the activeness and the great potentials of the Vietnamese economy. On the way to the airport (Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi), you can feel it clearly and get a sense of the dynamics of the Vietnamese economy. The global community of businesses is very dynamic and I don’t think we (US investors) have to wait till the US government tells us about it. Many think that the US will be the largest investor in Vietnam. However, the US currently ranks sixth among foreign investors in Vietnam. What should Vietnam do to attract more investment from the US? I don’t know specific statistics but I can say that previously American companies focused their investment in China. For a long time, those projects didn’t yield profit, but recently they have begun to reap profit. US investors are seeking new opportunities, particularly in Asia, including Vietnam. I think Vietnam can be a destination for direct investment of the US because Vietnam is now appearing on the radar screens of US investors. I would not be surprised if five years from now the US’ direct investment in Vietnam was increasing rapidly. Perhaps the US will not be the top investor but its investment will surely increase. What should Vietnam do to compete with China in FDI attraction? I don’t think any country should directly compete with China. All nations look at the current situation and think that they must compete with China. However, governments must determine their own situations, competitive advantages and seek their own directions. Through Vietnam News, I know that the Vietnamese government is in the re-organisation and restructuring process in an effort to become more effective. I applaud those efforts by the Vietnamese government. That’s the big step that each government must perform to adapt and to send a message to the private sector that the government is serious about creating differences in legal aspects and to help the state machinery operate more effectively and to focus on dealing with the biggest issues. As a former government official, and now a businessman, do you see any differences in Vietnam? Actually, in the two positions, as an official of the White House and a businessman, I see many similar things. I want to emphasise that globalisation has changed the outlook of Americans and has made them pay more attention to Vietnam. Americans’ recognition of Vietnam’s vast potential and the possibilities of gaining more in the relations with Vietnam are shown through the US’ support for Vietnam’s accession to the WTO. I want to emphasise the meaning of this to enterprises. But as you know, there are many difficulties that accompany normal changes in countries. Some businessmen don’t properly evaluate or understand the value of those changes. We, JP Morgan Chase, with rich experience in Eastern Asian countries, are very pleased with the changes in Vietnam. Two months ago, JP Morgan Chase’s Chairman came to Vietnam to learn about these opportunities. We are in the process of infiltrating deeper into the Vietnamese market in the field of banking. We see many big opportunities. We are researching and considering the possibility of bringing financial resources into Vietnam. But we want to study very carefully to build a long-term and proper business strategy in Vietnam. But JP Morgan Chase has still not entered the Vietnamese market. What do you think about this fact? We are in the preparation phase and we are making great efforts. We want to do the right things. Vietnam’s WTO commitments have changed the banking system of Vietnam. We expect that those commitments will be executed well. I can’t confirm the specific time that JP Morgan Chase will enter Vietnam, but in fact, our leaders are seriously considering taking part in the Vietnamese market in the context of normal changes happening in Vietnam. We understand that everything is changing very quickly in Vietnam. And we want to be part of those changes and dynamics. What do you need from the market and the government of Vietnam to decide to enter the Vietnamese market? The most important thing is not what the Vietnamese government would do but what we could do and contribute in Vietnam. Of course, we also have to see what we could do in other places in the world. With what things are happening, I think Vietnam is on the right path. We want to be a long-term player in Vietnam. Note by Phuong Loan