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