Central Vietnam highlighted for world heritage sites tour

10:07' 28/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - There are several of UNESCO’s designated world heritage sites attracting a large number of tourists from near and far in the historically and culturally rich central region of Vietnam. International and local tourists now can book a five-day, four-night or a four-day, three-night “central region’s heritage road tour” through local tourism agencies to explore many of the beautiful landscapes as well as world heritage sites in this region. A five-day and four-night tour by airplane departing from Ho Chi Minh City is designed with two different destinations for tourists to choose. The first one will take tourists to several tourism sites in Da Nang City, ancient Hoi An Town, Hue City and Quang Binh Province. Joining this tour, visitors will be transferred to the airport and flown to Da Nang. Upon arrival, tourists will visit Ngu Hanh Son, a group of five mountains representing the five basic elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth, in Da Nang City. Then, tourists can try to conquer one of the mountains of Ngu Hanh Son and visit the Linh Ung Pagoda, Huyen Khong and Tang Chon caves. At night, tourists will have some relaxation time to wander around Hoi An, just around 30km away from Da Nang and one of UNESCO’s designated world heritage sites, with famous stops such as the Japanese roofed bridge Lai Vien Kieu and Tan Ky ancient house. On the second day, tourists will go to Hue City to visit the palace of former royalty, which is also a World Heritage site, and take a tour of the Huong (Perfume) River by boat to view Trang Tien Bridge and listen to Hue’s traditional music and release colorful lanterns onto the river to wish for happiness and prosperity. Then they will visit the southern province of Quang Binh, where there are the historic sites of the Quang Tri Citadel, Ben Hai River and the Hien Luong Bridge, and the World Heritage site of Phong Nha Cave in the Ke Bang limestone mountain. Tourists will go back to Hue City at the end of the fourth day before returning to HCMC in the afternoon. The second type of the five-day, four-night tour will also take tourists to Da Nang City, Hue City and Hoi An Town, but excludes Quang Binh Province. Despite not stopping in Quang Binh Province, tourists will have more time exploring the beauty of the cities and the ancient town. They will depart from Ho Chi Minh City by airplane to Da Nang and spend the first day discovering the ancient town of Hoi An in the light of colorful lanterns. On the second day, tourists will visit My Son Sanctuary, the religious center for the capital of the Champa Kingdom in the 7th century in Quang Nam Province, about 69 kilometers southwest of Da Nang. Tourists will also explore Ngu Hanh Son on the third day and go to the tourism site of Son Tra Peninsula. The tour continues to Hue City with a stop at Hai Van Mountain Pass for tourists to take photographs and view the beautiful landscape of the Lang Co fishing village. At Hue City, tourists will visit the palace of former royalty, watch a dancing and singing performance of royal music and enjoy Hue’s specialties. For those who lack time, the four-day, three-night tour by airplane could be another option as it will take tourists from Ho Chi Minh City to the most famous landscapes and world heritage sites in Da Nang and Hue cities such as Ngu Hanh Son, Hoi An and the ancient royal palace in Hue City. A visit to Ngoc Island in Da Nang City added to the tour will give tourists a chance to explore a primeval forest and a beautiful beach with sea sports such as kayak racing and diving to observe the island’s coral. (Source: SGGP, Viet Nam Net)

Industrial equipment market: playing field for big bugs

10:06' 28/07/2007 (GMT+7)

Most specialised vehicles at coal mines use Bridgestone tyres. VietNamNet Bridge – Big names like Bridgestone, a provider of specialised tires, and Flygt, a provider of submersible pumps, mixer and fluid handling technology, are strongly ‘attacking’ the industrial equipment market of Vietnam. This market seems to be the playing field for big firms. According to the Ministry of Industry, the coal-bed in the Red River Delta may have deposits up to 200 billion tonnes and it is 10 billion tonnes for coal mines in the northern province of Quang Ninh. Along with coal, iron ore reserves in Vietnam are forecast to be 1.2 billion tonnes, including around 600 million tonnes at the Thach Khe Iron Mine and around 100 million tonnes at the Quy Sa Iron Mine. In addition, the cement market is booming with a series of new factories and many others that are raising their capacity while many others are being built. As a result, the market for industrial equipment has become a fertile land for providers of specialised mining equipment, like specialised tyre providers such as Japan’s Bridgestone and France’s Michelin, submersible pump providers such as Sweden’s Flygt and Japan’s Ebara, since local producers are unable to manufacture those products. This fact can be clearly seen at coal mines in Quang Ninh and stone exploiting sites of cement plants like Hoang Thach, But Son, Bim Son, Tam Diep and Hoang Mai. There, all specialised vehicles use Bridgestone tyres. With high-quality and reasonable prices, Bridgestone tyres don’t have rivals in Vietnam. Not only holding large market shares in coal mining and cement production industries, Bridgestone has also provided tyres for container trucks at seaports and entered industrial zones, which are mushrooming in Vietnam. Sharing this cake with Bridgestone is France’s Michelin and some smaller firms such as Yokohama and Toyo of Japan, DRF of India, Kumhoo and Hankook of the Republic of Korea. Besides tyres, another product that is provided for the mining industry is submersible pumps of Flygt. The major rival of Flygt in Vietnam is Ebara of Japan and some smaller ones such as Tsuzumi from Japan, Grundfos from Denmark and Ksb from Germany. Though Vietnam has some producers of high-capacity pumps their products can only be used for irrigation activities, not for mining operations. Kieu Duc Hung, an official of the Ha Tu Coal Joint Stock Company, said that only Flygt pumps, which are made from special materials, worked well in the environment of mines. Bridgestone and Flygt, despite competition from other firms, are leading providers of specialised tyres and submersible pumps in Vietnam thanks to their professional distributors. “With the booming of the industrial equipment market, smaller providers will seek ways to increase their market shares and this is an opportunity for Vietnamese clients. However, we will only choose providers that meet standards on quality and after-sales services,” said Nguyen Quang Sy, Deputy Director of the Hoang Thach Cement Company. (Source: TBKTVN, Viet Nam Net)

A bay of scenic islets

15:29' 26/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The hidden beauty of the islets in Nha Phu has been discovered and it calls travelers from near and far to come to immerse themselves in the quiet bay of the central coast in Khanh Hoa Province. Crossing the sea on Nha Phu Bay in Khanh Hoa Province. Recent months have seen groups of holidaymakers traveling by boat to the bay and spending the whole day swimming in the sea and leisurely lying on the white-sand beaches. There, they can rest under the shade of Casuarina trees and listen to the pleasant sound of waves gently clapping against the shore. Gentle breezes also welcome vacationers aboard the primeval islets of the bay, which is part of Nha Trang Bay, one of the world’s most beautiful bays. The islets mark Nha Phu on the map of attractive tourist destinations in Vietnam. The trees and long pristine beaches of the islets make Nha Phu worth visiting. Thi Islet features an L-shaped beach, which is an ideal place for groups of visitors to play games and then enjoy fresh seafood from the bay. Many visitors have described the islet as a “paradise on earth” because of its tranquility and natural charms. To enjoy seafood from the ocean, visitors must book an organized package tour from Long Phu, the local tour operator, or travel firms in HCMC such as Vietmark and Ben Thanh Tourist. An organized tour package offers holidaymakers an opportunity to experience a memorable buffet lunch on Thi Islet. Fresh seafood, fish, meat and vegetables are placed on bamboo tables, whose poles are the feet of trees, for vacationers to make their selections that are then grilled or fried to taste over burning charcoal. Nha Phu also comprises Lang, Ro and other islets whose offerings can please different groups of vacationers. These islets are not too far from one another so they form a good area for team games. Nha Phu Bay is only approachable by boat. A boat trip from Da Chong Wharf in Nha Trang to the bay takes about 20 minutes or more so vacationers can visit it in a day. Nearly 20 kilometers north of Nha Trang, Nha Phu is also the home of Thi Farm where ostriches and deer are raised, and it also contains mango and dragon fruit orchards. A little farther from Thi Islet is Orchid Spring Park, where visitors can find many orchid varieties and scenic springs as well as beaches, the forest and the sea. This islet is said to have been the home of the Cham people hundreds of years ago. (Source: SGT, Viet Nam Net)

Classical music concert to tour five cities

15:57' 26/07/2007 (GMT+7)

Conductor Tetsuji Honna in a concert VietNamNet Bridge – A symphony concert titled Toyota Concert Through Vietnam will be performed in five big cities, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Hue, Nha Trang and HCM City, starting on July 29. Led by Japanese conductor Tetsuji Honna, the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra will perform familiar romantic works by German composer Felix Mendelssohn such as excerpts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Violin Concerto in E minor and Symphony No. 4. Besides conductor Tetsuji Honna, another Japanese name to appear in the concert is renowned violinist Ai Okumura. Tomorrow, July 26, Okumura will be in Vietnam for practice with the orchestra. Ticket prices will be unusually reasonable for a classical musical concert. According to Artist of Merit Hoang Quan, Director of the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra, tickets in Hanoi and HCM City will range from one to two hundred thousand dong each. In Nha Trang, Hai Phong and Hue, ticket prices will be much cheaper: around VND30,000/ticket. All revenues from ticket sales will be donated to music and art schools to support disadvantaged students in the cities where the orchestra will perform. The Toyota concert will take place at the Hanoi Opera House on July 29; the Hai Phong Opera House on July 31; the Thua Thien-Hue Centre of Culture and Information on August 5; the Khanh Hoa Cultural Centre on August 9; and the HCM City Opera House on August 12. Son Ha, Viet Nam Net

Unsafe seafood exports: no solutions?

17:17' 26/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – How to minimise exports of seafood with antibiotics remains an unanswerable question, though management authorities have taken a lot of measures to control the quality of exports. Manyl batches of food exported to the US have been rejected by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently. In the latest news, on July 19, the FDA seized all consignments of crab from Vietnam for the same reason: chloramphenicol. This substance, found in the imports, is prohibited by US laws on food processing. Seafood material uncontrollable HCM City-based Hai Nam Company has not exported crab to the US for three years, though, according to the company’s Director, Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, crab exports can bring the highest profit among export items to the US market. Yet, Hai Nam has just found its name on the list of the companies that cannot get customs clearance for their crab meat without examination which has been made public by the FDA. FDA has also announced it had rejected 240 batches of food imports from Vietnam in the first six months of the year due to problems of food hygiene, returning the imports to the country. Most of the rejected imports were frozen seafood, both preliminarily treated and already processed. According to Mrs Sac, exports to the US are processed from materials collected from fishermen, and are always infected with chloramphenicol because material collectors for preliminary treatment like using the substance to keep the material fresh. The owner of another enterprise which was also named on the newly declared list of FDA said that FDA did not miss his case, though the exports were made two years ago. He said that appearance on the FDA’s list would severely damage the prestige of enterprises, making it more difficult for the enterprises to export goods, because nearly all countries which imported seafood from Vietnam referred to the FDA’s website. Inspected already, but… still has antibiotics Under current laws, seafood products must be supervised and examined by the National Fisheries Quality Assurance and Veterinary Directorate (Nafiqaved) before shipping. Though Nafiqaved inspected the exports already, and exporters had to pay $30/container for the inspection, the FDA still found antibiotic residues in the seafood. How? According to Mrs Sac, the inspectors just took samples at random, while a consignment of seafood may include products processed from different sources of material. In some cases, the inspections carried out by different inspection centres gives different results. Where will the rejected batches of seafood go? According to Huynh Thi Thanh Giang, Deputy Director General of the An Giang Seafood Import-Export Company, the rejected seafood cannot be consumed domestically. She said that the rejected products must be recycled or have their purposes changed. The only way for enterprises to minimise losses when products are discovered as containing antibiotics, according to Mrs Giang, is to look for easier-to-please markets. (Source: SGTT, Viet Nam Net)

Export plan for 2007 can be fulfilled?

17:23' 26/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Exports in the first six months of the year were not as successful as expected, which has raised a question about whether or not the ambitious export plan for 2007 can be fulfilled. Deputy Minister of Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien on July 24 expressed his concern about export performance in the second half of the year at a conference on exports. Exports up, but worries exist According to Pham The Dung, Director of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Trade, though exports in the first half of the year increased by 20% over the same period of last year ($22.54bil in turnover) the figure was still lower than expected. A lot of efforts are needed for the remaining months of the year to reach the targeted export turnover of $48bil. Mr Dung acknowledged that it proved to be a very difficult task to fulfill, especially as exports of key items might not be satisfactory. Except coffee, apparel, footwear, seafood and plastics, which maintained stable export growth, other key export items had low export volume in the first half of the year. For example, Vietnam exported 2.3mil tonnes of rice ($732mil), down by 5% in price and 18% in quantity. Rubber exports brought $527mil in turnover, down by 4% over the same period of last year, while Vietnam previously planned to increase the export turnover of this product by 7%. Vietnam exported 7.7mil tonnes of crude oil in the first six months, a decrease of 6.7% in volume, while the country has to export 17.5mil tonnes in 2007 to fulfill the plan in turnover. The quality of exports – a big problem Officials from the Ministry of Trade (MoT) stressed that the quality of exports remained a big problem. If drastic measures are not taken, Vietnam may lose its export markets. The Ministry has asked the Government and the Ministry of Finance to budget for the works of inspecting export products. Regarding apparel exports, Mr Bien said that MoT was trying to do what it could to minimise the bad impacts of the US’s programme on Vietnam’s apparel imports monitoring. Mr Bien said that MoT would strengthen the supervision and control over the origin of exports. In the immediate time, MoT will not allow temporary import for re-export later, a move aiming to prevent fraud in the declaration of product origin. The proposal by MoT has been accepted by the Government. According to Huynh Minh Hue, Deputy Secretary General of the Vietnam Food Association, there are many reasons behind the decreases in rice exports. Exporters now have to pay more for transport fees (up by 40% compared to 2006) and for storage fees, as many exporters cannot charter ships for carrying rice. Mr Hue said that though rice exports could go for good prices, at $290/tonne on average, $39-40/tonne higher than during the same period last year, profit remained modest. Pepper exporters are also facing big difficulties, as the export volume decreased by 31.1%, though the export price was triple last year. American and European countries are now limiting importing pepper from Vietnam because they think that Vietnam-made pepper is too expensive. Ambitious plan can be fulfilled? Mr Bien said that the fulfillment of the export plan would rely on the export of key items, including coffee, apparel and seafood. High hopes are still put on rice and crude oil, which had ‘problems’ recently. Experts said that the export prices of these products always go up in the last months of the year. Wooden products, electronic accessories, and plastics are also forecast to maintain high growth rates. Apparel exports are believed will bring the highest turnover, at $7.3-7.5bil. Currently, the average turnover of apparel exports remains above the ideal level, at $600mil/month. Mr Huy said that enterprises would have a lot of pressure as they would have to ensure both export growth and the quality of exports. Van Thanh Huy, Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, has also expressed his concern about exports in the second half of the year. The industry has fulfilled 92% of the yearly export plan, and only has to export 300,000 more to fulfill the plan of 1.2mil tonnes and $1.5bil in turnover. However, Mr Huy said it would be a big difficulty to ensure the quality of exports. Especially, quality is a big problem for seafood exports. The EU, US and Japan are now inspecting imports from Vietnam very carefully, and if the problem of unsafe exports cannot be settled, Vietnam may lose the export markets. Russia has also created difficulties for Vietnamese exporters as an inspection delegation will arrive in Vietnam to make the final inspection tour of seafood processing establishments, a necessary procedure for considering if it will allow Vietnam to resume exports to the market. In the immediate time, the state will spend VND50bil ($3.12mil) to buy five machines which can examine the quality of seafood. This is hoped will help bring $2.1bil in turnover from seafood exports in the second half of the year. (Source: Tuoi tre, Viet Nam Net)

Vietnam lacking ticketing staff for commercial airline industry

16:47' 25/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – A recent survey by the Air Service and Travel Company TransViet showed that Vietnam needed 400 more reservation and ticketing staff serving the commercial airline industry every year to meet the aviation growth rate of 20% per annum. A training course The survey has pointed out that Vietnam seriously lacks reservation and ticketing staffs for air travel, and this has made companies scramble for staffs, while the quality of the labour force is low. Mai Trung Thanh, Training Director of TransViet, said that the number of students trained for reservation and ticketing(booking tickets, issuing tickets, calculating airfares) remains very modest. In Vietnam, the Aviation Institute is the only place that trains labourers for this sector. However, the institute is located in the south of the country, and mainly serves Vietnam Airlines. The number of graduated students every year cannot meet the demand of the market. There are 520 travel agents in Hanoi and HCM City, and 40 international airlines which have offices in Vietnam. Mr Thanh said the survey showed that 70% of agents have only a half of trained staffs, while the other staffs learn right at work. Vietnam Airlines has its own programme on training booking employees with 4 training courses every year (920-25 trainees every course). However, the trainees are just enough for Vietnam Airlines only. The air carrier only provides free training to 1-2 persons for every booking agent, while others have to pay the fee of VND6mil ($375) for the course. TransViet, which acts as the general agent for big airlines, like United Airlines (US), British Airways, All Nippon Airways (Japan), also trains staffs itself: senior staffs show juniors the things they have to do. The serious lack of reservation and ticketing staffs has forced air carriers to scramble for staffs. The carriers have to offer higher pay in order to lure staffs from other airlines. “All airlines try to attract staffs by offering high salaries when they enter Vietnam,” said Mr Thanh. The biggest problem with the scrambling is the bad quality of ticketing staffs, because the regular shift of working places does not give enough time to staffs to get experience. According to Mr Thanh, the number of contracts Vietnamese booking officials can cover a year is just a half of the contracts covered by Thai and 1/3 of Singaporean officials. The Head of United Airlines’ Representative Office in Vietnam, Joe Mannix, said frankly that the general capability of ticketing staffs in Vietnam was okay, but they still did not have deep understanding about their work. Meanwhile, Vietnamese staffs do not have deep knowledge about international standards. He said that the skill that was most necessary for ticketing staffs was English speaking. Moreover, Vietnamese staffs should become more active and take initiative in their works. Pham Thi Thuy, Director of the Training Centre under the Aviation Institute, said that students now had to go to HCM City to be trained, and most of them stayed in the city after the training; therefore, northern airlines are still seriously lacking staffs. The biggest problem in training ticketing staffs is the lack of practice-fostering environments. Moreover, it takes $4,000 on average to send a teacher abroad to follow training courses and get the certificate from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Nguyen Hai, Chairman and Director General of TransViet, said that TransViet would join forces with Amadeus and United Airlines to launch a 3-month training course for booking employees. Mr Hai also revealed that TransViet would provide courses for tour operators and air agents, hoping to provide qualified staffs for the airlines operating in Vietnam. Ha Yen, Viet Nam Net