Authors discuss blogs

16:11' 11/07/2007 (GMT+7)

The conference on literature blogs VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Writers’ Association’s HCM City branch has recently held a conference on blogs, which have been becoming a great channel for marketing works of literature. Attending the round-table conference were writers, bloggers as well as representatives of publishing houses. Though the theme was “increasing responsibilities and quality of literature blogs”, participants were too interested in the topic to stay close to the theme. According to writer Tran Quoc Toan, some writers are using blogs these days to market their own products. A good example is younger authoress Trang Ha, whose blog has become famous for its introductions of her translated as well as original works. Poet Cao Xuan Son said that the importance of blogs is that they are places where writers can gather readers’ feedback before sending their works to publishing houses. From such feedback, writers will be able to create works suitable to public tastes. Another advantage of blogs, according to Cao Xuan Son, is the absence of censorship. At present, bloggers, literary or otherwise, have quite a free reign with what they want to post on their blogs. Thus, not only young and Internet-savvy writers, but those of older generations are also exploring what their literature may have to do with blogs. But freedom may be as much an advantage as a shortcoming, said Hoang Dinh Giang, Head of the HCM City branch of the Vietnam Writers’ Association. He said that though it was a type of publishing, it lacked supervision, and this was causing certain negative effects. An example is that many literature blogs are used by people to call others bad names. Some introduce cheap and vulgar and low-quality writings which bloggers are thick-skinned enough to call literature. Most participants at the conference, however, agreed that it was next to impossible to manage blogs considering that 1 million new entries were being posted daily. According to writer Huynh Dung, this is the reason the Vietnam Writers’ Association should pay more attention to blog literature, discovering and encouraging writers with potential, and teaching all how to use blogs as a new medium for their creative works. (Source: SGGP, Viet Nam Net)

Let’s vote for Ha Long Bay!

16:21' 11/07/2007 (GMT+7)

Ha Long Bay. VietNamNet Bridge – After announcing seven artificial wonders of the world, organisers have launched a programme to vote for seven world natural wonders, including Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay. Go to www.natural7wonders.com to vote for Ha Long Bay. The voting processing is divided into two phases: nomination and voting. Readers can visit the above website to nominate natural landscapes as world natural wonders because the organisers want to collect opinions from all over the world before announcing the list of 21 bright ‘candidates’. After this phase is voting and the results will be announced on 8 August 2008. According to the organiser, NewOpenWorld organisation, the nominated sites must be natural landscapes not altered by humans. NewOpenWorld lists 15 categories to help people to easily define and select natural sites. Big forests, natural reserves can become world natural wonders. Under the list, besides Ha Long Bay, Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park in the central province of Quang Binh and Nha Trang Bay in the central province of Khanh Hoa are also potential candidates. Vietnam has many beautiful natural landscapes and this selection is a chance for you to put Vietnam on the world tourism map. NewOpenWorld is based in Switzerland and managed by Swiss billionaire Bernard Weber. Based on the viewpoint that six of seven wonders of the ancient world don’t exist anymore, Mr Weber established NewOpenWorld in 1999 to conduct campaigns to re-select world wonders. Some sites introduced by the organiser: Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland Baikal Sea, Russia Dinosaur Provincial Park, Canada Galapagos Island, Ecuador Geirangerfjord, Norway Grand Canyon, USA Great Barrier Reef, Australia Iguaçu Waterfalls, Argentina/Brazil Ha Long Bay, Vietnam Kilimanjaro, Tanzania Redwood National Park, USA Sagramatha Park, Nepal Serengeti Park, Tanzania (Source: Tuoi Tre Viet Nam Net)

When will Vietnam’s high-speed train start off?

16:51' 11/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - Shuji Eghuchi, Director of the International Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Government of Japan, said that Japanese experts would join forces with Vietnamese ones this autumn to investigate the field for the implementation of the high-speed train project in Vietnam. Shuji Eghuchi, Director of the International Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Government of Japan Mr Eghuchi had a talk with Tuoi tre’s reporter on the high-speed train project in Vietnam. The following is a brief of the conversation. Japan once got involved in the building of the high-speed train in Taiwan. The BOT (build-operate-transfer) project was drawn up in the early 1990s, but Taiwanese people only began travelling on the high-speed train in early 2007, or 15 years after the project was kicked off. When do you think Vietnamese people will travel on Shinkansen? It depends on the Vietnamese side. Right in the spring of this year, our leading experts arrived in Vietnam for the preparation for the project. If everything goes as planned, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will join forces with Vietnamese side to make the field investigation, which will help draw up the general map on the transport system development in Vietnam. Shinkansen train We will have detailed parameters about the demand and capacity of the road, water and air transport systems, of the railway and high-speed railway. The most economic stretches of railway will be prioritised. In Japan, the high-speed train first appeared in 1964, but the railway linking directly to the centre of Tokyo was only be completed in 1991, because this was the most difficult stretch of railway, as it went through many residential quarters; the conditions for building were not favourable and the construction expenses were too high. How much do you think Vietnam will have to pay for the development of the train? As the partner of the project at the national scale, we hope that the National Assembly of Vietnam will soon enact the railway law, a legal basis for the running of the high-speed train in Vietnam. With such a law, investors will be able to choose owners, the managers and mechanism for operation. By that time, we will have an answer as far as costs. What are the advantages of the Shinkansen train? If comparing Shinkansen with European products, Shinkansen belongs to the same generation in terms of speed (300 km/h). A test conducted recently with the latest generation N700 of Shinkansen, which was put into operation on July 1, showed that Shinkansen can reach the top speed of 400km/h. If considering the expenses and the environmentally-friendly level, Shinkansen is more economical and friendlier, while it has small engines that do not make noise. N700 would be suitable for a stretch of railway less than 1,000 km, like HCM City-Nha Trang-Da Nang. The high-speed train would have many advantages over an airplane: lower fare (the railfare is just equal to 2/3 of airfare), low tardiness (6 seconds), and absolute safety (no accident so far with Shinkansen). (Source: Tuoi tre, Viet Nam Net)

Gold in demand in Vietnam: WGC

16:40' 11/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Albert Cheng, Managing Director in charge of Asia of the World Gold Council, in an interview given to Thuong mai newspaper, said that together with India and China, Vietnam was the market with the greatest potential in Asia. VietNamNet Bridge briefs the conversation between Mr Cheng and Thuong mai’s reporter. How do you assess Vietnam’s gold market? In terms of jewellery gold, the demand is not high in Vietnam and even lower than in many other places in the world. However, the demand for bar gold in the country is very high, second just after India. It is because in recent years, Vietnam’s economy has been developing rapidly, which has stimulated the demand for ingot gold consumption. In 2006 alone, Vietnam imported more than 70 tonnes of gold. Now Vietnam, India and China are the markets in Asia with the highest growth rates. What do you think are the reasons behind the constant gold price increases in the last four or five years? The gold price keeps rising because the supply cannot meet the demand, which is increasing rapidly, because the Asian economies are performing well, especially the markets I mentioned above. Meanwhile, the gold reserves in the world have diminished, and the difficulties in gold exploration make supplies short, not enough to meet the demand. Therefore, the gold price will see further increases in 2007 and 2008. You have said that the gold price would increase further. Why do you still say that it is most profitable and safest to make investment in gold? Gold is one of the best investment channels. Let me make a comparison with two other investment channels, securities and real estate. While you can buy gold with small sums of money, you can’t do that with real estate. You must have a certain amount of money to buy a house. Meanwhile, the liquidity of real properties is not as high as gold, and the real estate market is sometimes too hot, sometimes frozen. If you inject money in securities, you should have good understanding about the companies you are going to make investment in. With securities investment, you can either get fat profit or become penniless if the market falls down. Many people feel safe making deposits at banks. However, if the consumer price index (CPI) grows high, the real profit you can pocket is small. How would you comment about the fact that the central bank has allowed the operation of two gold bonded warehouses? It is a good decision and it will not harm Vietnam’s gold market. It will benefit consumers and banks. Though the gold in the bonded warehouses still belongs to foreign banks, it will take less time to import gold when Vietnam’s banks want it (12 hours instead of 48-72 hours as previously, when gold must be shipped from abroad). Consumers will be able to buy gold at the most reasonable prices and in the shortest time. The gold price unexpectedly increased sharply on July 9. The dollar devaluation and higher crude oil price both have pushed the gold price up. At the opening of the July 9 trading session, gold with spot delivery was traded at $654/oz, while the price soared to $660.5/oz in the afternoon of the same day. The deals for August deliveries were inked at $662.5/oz, the highest peak in the last three weeks. The price slightly decreased on July 10 to $660.3/oz, but stayed firm at high levels. The greenback value slightly decreased, with one dollar equivalent to Yen123.42. One euro is now equivalent to $1.3628, while one pound, $2.0147. Crude oil is being traded at over $72/barrel. On the domestic market, SJC bar gold has increased by VND50,000/tael, selling at VND12,890,000 and VND12,920,000 per tael in Hanoi and HCM City, respectively. (Source: Thuong mai, KT&DT Viet Nam Net)