Party Central Committee wraps up 5th plenum

13:29' 15/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - The 10th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) wrapped up its 5th plenum in Hanoi on July 14. During the 10-day plenum, the Party Central Committee heard reports and discussed projects on ideological and theoretical work, the media, the promotion of Party inspection and supervision work; renewing the Party's leadership over operations regarding the political system; accelerating administrative reforms, raising the effectiveness of the State system and the government structure in the term of the 12th National Assembly. Members of the meeting were unanimous that ideological and theoretical work and the press are an important part in the Party's activities to build and strengthen the ideological foundation of the Party, gather the support from ordinary people and unite the people to successfully fulfill all tasks. The Party Central Committee said that in the future, both opportunities and challenges will face the country and the world, the ideological and theoretical work and the media should be renewed in terms of content and methodology. A mechanism is also needed to link ideological, theoretical work and the media with economic and cultural development, improvement of the people's living conditions and the promotion of people’s rights. The Party Central Committee went on to issue a resolution on "Ideological and theoretical work and the media to meet the new requirements". The plenum affirmed the need to promote inspections and supervisions in order to prevent political, ideological and ethical degradation, bureaucracy, corruption and wastefulness. The Party Central Committee issued a resolution on enhancing the Party’s inspection and supervision work. Party General Secretary Manh said that renewing the Party's leadership over the political system aims to maintain and enhance the role and the capacity of the Party's leadership over the State and the entire society, strengthen the relationship between the Party and its people, improve the efficiency of the State's management and the activities of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and other socio-political organisations, promote democracy and people's rights. The CPV CC issued a resolution on renewing the Party’s leadership over the operation of the political system. To meet all these tasks requirements, the Party leader said, it is necessary to increase the Party's leadership over the administrative reform and synchronously carry out administrative, legal and judicial reforms. The Party Central Committee adopted a resolution on promoting administrative reform and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the State apparatus. The CPV CC also considered the Government’s organisational structure during the 12th tenure of the National Assembly, made recommendations of leaders of State-owned agencies to the NA for election and approval and reviewed reports of the Political Bureau’s important works that have been solved since the fourth plenum of the Party Central Committee. (Source: Viet Nam Net)

New hope for WTO commitments

13:38' 15/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The decree guiding the implementation of Vietnam’s WTO commitments will be issued soon to clear new hindrances in the investment environment in Vietnam. Vietnam has been a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for half a year but the implementation of its commitments on business rights for foreign investors is not smooth yet. At the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) in Hanoi in May 2007, lawyer Fred Burke, head of the working group on production and distribution of VBF, said that many localities had refused to grant investment certificates to foreign investors, even in the fields of business that Vietnam committed to open immediately after becoming a member. Recent problems associated with the performance of investment commitments of Vietnam originate from a very old reason: a lack of guidance documents. In addition, some contents that Vietnam commits to implement are contrary to regulations in some laws which have not been amended yet. This has been embarrassing for some state agencies but they have done nothing but sit and wait for instructions. In this situation, the decree guiding the implementation of some commitments of Vietnam to the WTO will be issued in July or August and it is expected to help partly clear hindrances to facilitate the implementation of investors’ business. The third draft of this decree, which was made public by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, has been looked at by VBF. Thus, once the decree is issued and if it is carried out seriously, the implementation of WTO commitments of Vietnam will be very favourable. The biggest problem is the difference between some commitments and some current rules and this problem has been solved by the decree. The draft decree confirms: “All WTO commitments of Vietnam must be explained, applied and implemented not contrary to regulations at the commitment table on services, the WTO accession report and related documents. In case of differences between this decree and other commitment documents, the commitment documents will be applied.” The draft decree also abolishes regulations in the Vietnamese legal system that are contrary to the WTO accession report and the regulations in the decree. Some problems in the Enterprise Law 2005 will be also solved, such as the number of representatives required to organise a meeting, the form to approve decisions, and the authority to make decisions of the member council, shareholders meeting. At the same time, the draft decree also defines what a Vietnamese firm is and what a foreign-invested firm is based on the minimum ownership rate of 51% of capital or shares. This will help minimise confusion in case Vietnamese firms have shares owned by foreigners or vice versa. This is very meaningful for foreign investors, especially those operating in retailing. Because according to the draft decree, if they hold less than 51% of shares in a retailing company, their operations will not be restricted like foreign companies. At present, licencing agencies in provinces are embarrassed when they receive projects that register to operate in various fields which are opened at different levels, especially when foreign investors have purchased stocks of local firms doing business in different areas. For this issue, the draft decree stipulates the use of the regulations of the area that is restricted the most. If the investment conditions in the commitment table on services are less advantageous than in legal documents of Vietnam, the document with more favourable conditions will be applied. In addition, investment operations in all fields that are not mentioned in the commitment table on services, the Investment Law, Enterprise Law and other legal documents will be used. The draft decree also includes the list of areas that are restricted and foreign investors are not allowed to participate in and local enterprises operating in the fields which are not allowed to sell stocks to foreigners. However, the draft also confirms that foreign investors are allowed to buy shares and contribute capital in all the areas that Vietnamese laws don’t prohibit, even though they are not named in the WTO commitment table on services. This decree is expected to clear many hindrances which have been formed by the habit of “waiting for guidance” of state agencies. However, this will be only a temporary solution because it is unsuitable to the general legal rules. In principle, the decree has a lower legal value than law so it can’t nullify the contents defined by the law. Thus, the draft decree abolishing some contents of the laws, though they are contrary to WTO commitments of Vietnam, is not good. The decree needs to be upgraded into a law or all the current laws need to be amended to ensure the unification of the legal system of Vietnam and Vietnam’s WTO commitments. (Source: Viet Nam Net)

Culture trader

13:27' 15/07/2007 (GMT+7)

Huu Ngoc VietNamNet Bridge – At 90, Vietnam-Sweden Cultural Fund Chairman Huu Ngoc is still leading an active life: walking 10 km to his small office to do the work he calls culture export and import. “I’m now reviewing my whole life,” said culture expert Huu Ngoc one day. He is certainly doing a lot of reviewing these days since he intends to publish all the Vietnamese essays he has written for many years past in a collection that may well be over 1,000 pages. As for what he has written in English and French, they have already been published and warmly received. Wandering through Vietnamese Culture, the 1,100-page collection of his English essays written for Vietnam News’ Sunday edition for the last 13 years, is an acclaimed publication. It won the Vietnam Publishing Association’s gold prize last year and has gone through 5 editions and been used as a reference work at many American colleges. And his 1,200-page French collection titled À la découverte de la culture Vietnamienne is also on his bookshelf now. Huu Ngoc likes to be called a culture trader, a bridge connecting Vietnamese culture and that of the world. Asked what products of Vietnamese culture he had exported the most, the trader said they were the differences between the Vietnamese and Chinese cultures. ”I’ve cited much evidence just to prove that though Vietnam was influenced by China, she still has her own unique identity. Vietnam is Vietnam from the history of her name to her cultural symbol, the Dong Son bronze drum, which is different from the symbol of Chinese culture, the bronze cauldron,” said he. In his eyes, Vietnamese culture, and all cultures for that matter, are constantly changing, interacting with and learning from each other and this is what makes them vibrant and beautiful. “Even our ao dai (traditional dress), which is considered by many to be the very traditional feature of our culture, came from an effort to imitate French fashion,” Huu Ngoc said. As for imports, he said French culture was particularly appealing and closely related to Vietnamese culture. Colonialism aside, French culture offered many positive things including a scientific western way of thinking. What about Sweden or the Vietnam-Sweden Cultural Fund? According to its chairman, the fund has sponsored about 2,000 cultural projects in Vietnam over the past 15 years. Of these, the most effective is the effort to revive 10 water puppetry villages in the Red River Delta region. Other projects serve diverse purposes ranging from helping to preserve southern folk opera and music to familiarising local people with democracy and quintessential works of Vietnamese, French or American culture. At present, the Vietnam-Sweden Cultural Fund is trying to preserve historical honour-conferring documents at 500 localities nationwide, since as Huu Ngoc said, one vision of the fund was to preserve old things as the first step towards constructing new ones. (Source: Viet Nam Net)