Vietnam Insider - Page 1339 of 1523

The 10 Best Vietnam War Documentaries

Advertisements

One of the most controversial, consequential and divisive conflicts of our time, the Vietnam War (1955-1975) inspired untold numbers of films, songs and books. Here are the 10 best documentaries recommended by Piumi Rajapaksha on The Culture Trip about the war to help you try and understand what the Vietnamese people went thorough and how resilient they really are.

Winter Soldier (1972)

Winter Soldier is one of the first major documentaries about the Vietnam War, and was made before the war ended. It chronicles the Winter Soldier Investigation, a group of hearings that occurred in 1971, in which Vietnam veterans (including future senator and presidential candidate John Kerry) who opposed the war gathered in Detroit to testify against the atrocities they witnessed or committed against Vietnamese soldiers, unarmed civilians, children and prisoners of war. It is an essential record of what the folks who fought in the war went through and the nightmares the American servicemen had carried home with them.

Regret to Inform (1998)

This movie was made over a period of 10 years by filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn, whose husband was killed in action in the war. As a way of coming to grips with his death, she goes on a pilgrimage to the Vietnamese countryside where her husband was killed and explores the damage left behind from the conflict. She interviews widows in both Vietnam and America, asking them what it was like when they received the heartbreaking, life-altering news. This Oscar-nominated film honestly explores the meaning of war and loss on a human level, and the human damage left by a geopolitical dispute, long after it had ended.

The Vietnam War (2017)

A new addition to the ever-growing list of Vietnam War documentaries, The Vietnam war is a 10-part documentary directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, taking a total of 18 hours to tell the epic story of the Vietnam War as it had never been told on film before. It’s visceral, immersive and has graphically violent installments, exploring the human dimensions of war through testimonies of nearly 100 veterans and witnesses from all sides, photographs and archival footage. The film has been hailed as a hard-hitting, raw account of the war and the players involved.

Refugee near Hue | © Bruno Barbey/Flickr

Hearts and Minds (1974)

In 1965, US President Lyndon B Johnson said, “The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there,” as a way of justifying America’s ongoing war with Vietnam. By this he meant that the goal was to swat the “hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese away from the Soviet Union’s communist ideals. Daringly, Hearts and Minds unflinchingly confronted the US’ involvement in Vietnam at the height of the controversy that surrounded it.

This film came out a year before the end of the conflict, trying to win the hearts and minds of viewers over to the anti-war perspective. It uses a wealth of resources – juxtaposing interviews with military officials with newsreels to footage of brutal violence. Ultimately it got the job done, giving voice to the Vietnamese people caught in the conflict, those who were unseen and hidden within piles and piles of American propaganda.

Daughter from Da Nang (2002)

This emotionally devastating documentary follows one of the many orphans who were adopted by American families towards the end of the Vietnam War through Operation Baby Lift. Heidi Bub, the subject of the documentary, later found out that her birth mother was alive. Heidi, who became estranged from the mom who raised her, goes back to Vietnam in search of her roots.

When they are reunited, her birth mother seems numb with loss, and then loves her daughter so much that she clings like the humidity in Da Nang. But what seems like the cue for a happy ending is anything but, as Heidi and her relatives are caught in a confusing clash of culture, leaving Heidi suffocated, overwhelmed, and looking to get out of there much faster than initially planned.

Cu Chi (1990)

The Cu Chi tunnels are an elaborate system of underground tunnels built during French colonial times and then extended during the American presence, joining village to village, often passing beneath American bases. They played a huge role in Vietnam winning the war. It was said that if the Cu Chi system fell, Vietnam would’ve fallen as well.

Cu Chi is the story of what life was like underground, as troops and civilians cooked, ate, slept, went to school, entertained (dances, performances) and essentially lived their lives underground. The stories are told by those who lived the experience — a surgeon, an artist, an actress, an engineer and a few survivors of the guerrilla band who left the tunnels each night to fight against an enemy of vastly superior strength.

The My Lai Tapes (2008)

On March 16^th, 1968, one of the deadliest massacres in history happened on Vietnamese soil, in My Lai. There were 504 innocent villagers killed by US soldiers — children and women were raped, cattle were slaughtered, houses burned and crops destroyed. The only few courageous enough to stand up to orders and go against their own people, essentially stopping the massacre, were Hugh Thompson and his crew, Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn.

My Lai memorial | © Claudia Schillinger/Flickr

In this two-part series, Robert Hodierne, an American military journalist, pieces together through archival recordings and interviews with the victims and perpetrators the horror and barbarism that swept through the village. The My Lai Tapes are records not only of the atrocities that were committed, but also of the heroism that took place that day. They are essentially records of how war can bring out not only the worst in people, but also the absolute best.

Front Line (1979)

Front Line is an account of the Vietnam War as seen through the camera of Neil Davis, a news-cameraman who spent 11 years documenting the war with minimal regard for his own safety. He worked at the extreme front-line, capturing memorable images of the brutalities of war, and was the only Western journalist to film the fall of Saigon — when the north Vietnamese communist tank crashed through the presidential palace.

Reunification palace | © Sportz Fotos/Flickr

Whether he was simply interviewing young veterans about why they were fighting miles away from home, or crossing enemy lines to become their friends and gain insight into the Viet Cong perspective, David was the king of war correspondents.

Through Their Eyes (2010)

Agent Orange is a powerful herbicide containing the deadly chemical dioxin, that was used by the US military forces during the Vietnam war to eliminate forest cover and crops, exposing north Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops hidden in the foliage. It was later proven to cause serious health issues — including cancer, birth defects, rashes and severe psychological and neurological problems. This affected not only the Vietnamese, but also the US servicemen returning home and their families.

War Remnants Museum | © Jorge Láscar/Flickr

Through Their Eyes explores the devastating impact Agent Orange had long after the conflict ended. It follows a Vietnamese-American filmmaker as she travels from the north to the south of Vietnam, visiting families affected by the dioxin poisoning from the Agent Orange herbicide, as well as those knowledgeable on the topic and bettering the situation through their work. A great follow-up book is Bare Feet, Iron Will by James G. Zumwalt.

The Spy in the Hanoi Hilton (2015)

The Hanoi Hilton was the name given to Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi by the American prisoners of war held, tortured and killed inside. This is also where future senator, John McCain, was held.

In 1973, 591 of these POWs returned home from the Vietnam War. The Hanoi Hilton explores not only the harrowing tales of survival they brought back with them, but also a secret – a feat of incredible spy craft that had remained classified for decades. It follows the story of James Stockdale (1992 Vice Presidential candidate) and his fellow prisoners, and their clandestine communications with US intelligence that alerted the CIA about the horrors going on within the walls of the prison, which prompted a top-secret rescue mission.

State-owned banks suffer equity erosion

Advertisements

According to statistics from the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV), as of May, State-owned banks’ combined equity was VNĐ252.472 trillion (US$10.83 billion), down 0.86 per cent.

Other lenders’ equity was VNĐ315.340 trillion ($13.5 billion) after rising by 8.5 per cent, Vietnamnews reported.

Việt Nam has seven State-owned banks, the biggest of which are Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Agribank and BIDV.

Analysts attributed the State-owned banks’ negative equity growth to the fact they had to support three banks that the central bank had to buy out: Construction Bank, GPBank and Oceanbank.

In 2015, the SBV bought the banks and this year assigned the four biggest State-owned banks to restructure them to improve their liquidity and management.

A senior banking expert pointed out another reason that had caused the State-owned banks to achieve negative capital growth.

He said some banks including State-owned ones had to issued debt instruments like bonds and certificates of deposit to increase their tier II capital in recent years.

But Circular 36 requires that every year the issuers should amortise their bonds, resulting in negative capital growth. Thus, every year their capital will come down by 20 per cent of the value of their tier II capital if the bonds are for long term.

In this situation, issuing equity to local and foreign investors is considered by many analysts as the most effective way for State-owned banks to increase their capital.

However, some analysts pointed out not many local investors have resources to immediately invest trillions of đồng.

So the only way is to seek foreign investment instead, they said.

That begs the question, “Is it easy to attract foreign investment?”

State-owned lenders’ capital adequacy ratio (CAR) is only 9.39 per cent, which puts them in a risky situation when based on Basel norms, while private banks have a CAR of 11.34 per cent.

Analysts said the former need to quickly find a way to strengthen their capital because under Basel II norms, risky loans would reduce their equity further.

This would have an impact on the entire banking sector, analysts said.

Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Agribank and BIDV account for about half of the total assets and 40 per cent of all deposits and loans in the banking system.

This means if their capital is not increased, the whole system would be at risk, the analysts said.

Without increasing their capital, soon they would simply not be able to lend more, meaning they would fail in their task of keeping the economy’s financial wheels greased.

To avoid these risks, the Government should quickly divest from State-owned banks and instead allow private capital to replace it, the analysts said.

Runaway dollar: How can companies cope with exchange rate risks?

On August 14, Vietcombank decided to set its dollar buying rate at VNĐ23,287 and selling rate at VNĐ23,367 per dollar, reducing the Việt Nam đồng’s value by 17 đồng.

They represent the highest ever rates set by the bank for the greenback.

Techcombank too set record rates that day, buying and selling at VNĐ23,250 and VNĐ23,367, respectively.

Explaining the sudden fall in the đồng’s value against the dollar, analysts said the relentless rise in the US Federal Reserve’s dollar base rate under a roadmap and the sharp rise in interest rates on US bonds made the greenback stronger.

Recent global political and economic events, particularly the US-China trade war, have also caused pressure on Việt Nam’s foreign exchange rates.

The question many people are asking is what are companies doing to hedge against the exchange rate volatility which is expected to continue for some time.

The Minh Phú Seafood Corporation is one of many companies vulnerable to fluctuations in the dollar-đồng exchange rate.

It breeds, processes, preserves and trades aquatic products in Việt Nam and internationally; processes and trades fish powder and bio-fuel made from fish oil; trades goods, materials, machinery, and equipment for aquaculture; and invests and trades in infrastructure.

The company has to import a majority of its inputs like shrimp feed, packaging and processing additives.

So it has been badly affected by the exchange rate volatility.

A company executive said though its costs have increased sharply as a result of the Vietnamese currency’s weakening against the dollar, it cannot increase prices if it wants to remain competitive in the global market.

Since the second quarter, some other major shrimp exporters like Indonesia and India have been having a good time because of a bumper crop and sharp depreciation of their currency, he said.

Minh Phú is under great pressure as it seeks to keep its prices unchanged while also improving quality to survive, he said.

He admitted that the company’s profit margins have dropped somewhat.

What about the fate of enterprises which have large foreign currency debts?

Among them is PetroVietnam Power Corporation (PV Power).

The company needs large sums of foreign currency to pay back the debts that it has already run up during the construction of its power plant.

Its debt-to-equity ratio now is 44 per cent.

The company’s difficulty is that its revenues, which come mainly from selling electricity, are in đồng.

This results in an obvious disadvantage when the Vietnamese currency loses ground against the greenback.

In the second half of this yea,r the company is expected to achieve VNĐ800 billion ($34.3 million) in profit after paying tax if the đồng depreciates by 2 per cent by year-end.

Industry insiders said every 1 per cent depreciation in the đồng would see PV Power’s profit decrease by about VNĐ88.4 billion.

The management of the PetroVietnam Cà Mau Fertiliser Joint Stock Company, which also has foreign currency debts, said the company would repay the debts before schedule.

This decision has helped it to significantly reduce the additional costs arising from the weakening of the đồng, it said.

Analysts said that global trade tensions, the high risks in a monetary war, the trade protectionism trend, and policy instability in many countries around the world are the main factors that raise the spectre of currency devaluation for developing countries like Việt Nam.

They said the currencies of Argentina, Turkey, India and China have plunged in recent times by between 10 and even 30 per cent.

Việt Nam’s đồng is likely to fall by 2 to 3 per cent this year, experts said.

Enterprises need to make careful plans to cope with exchange rate fluctuations and the possible changes in the local and global monetary markets to hedge their risks, they said

Man bit to death while stopping dogs fighting

Advertisements

According to Dtinews, a man in Hanoi was mauled and bitten to death while trying to stop two fighting dogs at his home.

Doctor Duong Ngoc Thang at the Vietnam-Germany Hospital in Hanoi said that a 49-year-old man had been rushed to hospital on August 19 with serious injuries to his neck.

“Despite intensive rescue efforts from doctors, he died shortly after due to serious injuries to the carotid artery and blood loss,” Thang said.

According to a report from the hospital, the man who was walking with a crutch after losing a leg in a traffic accident, tried to stop his two Berger dogs from fighting. He used the crutch to beat them and the two dogs suddenly turned to attack him.

The man received first aid at a hospital near his house before being sent to Vietnam Germany Hospital.

In July, an eight-month-old baby girl in Doi Can Street also died after being attacked by a Tibetan Mastiff raised at home.

Raising expensive imported dogs, including the Tibetan Mastiff and Bergers has recently become a trend in Vietnam, especially among wealthy families.

ASIAD 2018: Rowers win first gold medal for Vietnam

Advertisements

Vietnamese female rowing team brought the first gold medal to Vietnam on August 23 at the ongoing Asian Games (ASIAD) 2018 in Indonesia

The team, grouping Luong Thi Thao, Ho Thi Ly, Ta Thanh Huyen and Pham Thi Thao showed excellent performance at women’s lightweight quadruple sculls event with 7:01.11.

The Iranian team came second with 7:04.38.

This is a surprise but timely success of Vietnam after the failure of several golden hopes.

The achievement pushed Vietnam to the 13th position in the ASIAD 2018’s medal tally as of 12:30 on August 23.

Earlier on the day, wushu artist Bui Truong Giang obtained a silver medal for his performance in the men’s sanda 56 kg.

Source: VNA

Thai retailer Central to splash $500m on Vietnam expansion

Advertisements

Thai retail conglomerate Central Group will be spending $500 million on its Vietnamese operations over the next five years with plans to triple the number of its stores and shopping malls to as many as 750.

Adding to existing brands such as the Big C hypermarket and shopping mall it acquired in 2016, the company will add new retail formats to capture growing consumer demand for non-food items.

One of them is the LookKool gift shop which was launched in late 2017 but already has 26 stores. Targeting young people, the shop offers homeware to stationary, some of which are imported from Japan, starting from a selling price of under $1.

The company is also testing the viability of other brands such as cosmetics shop Hello Beauty and DIY store Home Mart.

“We are very strong in Vietnam in food business which is the primary need of consumers but we are also preparing for the future, for the needs the consumers are going to have after food,” Central Group Vietnam Chief Executive Philippe Broianigo told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday.

While Central’s portfolio of 240 stores covers a variety of sectors from supermarkets to fashion brands, sports and electronics, half of its sales comes from food. But the emerging middle class is starting to spend more on nonfood items and Central needs to prepare for the future, Broianigo said.

The three new specialized stores, which he calls “category killers,” were built specifically to cater to the Vietnamese consumer. Stores will open within Big C malls to draw in grocery shoppers and will soon expand to other venues.

According to the World Bank, Vietnam’s middle income class currently accounts for 13% of the population but is expected to rise to 36% by 2026. Its population is also increasing and set to reach 120 million by 2050, up from 95 million in 2017. In comparison, Thailand has an aging population of around 68 million, of which the middle class accounts for around 35%.

“Vietnam’s market potential is much bigger than Thailand,” Broianigo said.

Vietnam’s retail sector has been expanding rapidly since it opened up to 100% foreign ownership in 2009 and companies from Thailand, South Korea and Japan have all made their entrance.

Central Group Vietnam was established in July 2011. It has made several investments since then, including a stake in electronics retailer Nguyen Kim and the acquisition of Big C. Sales have been growing by double digits to reach 44.8 billion baht ($1.3 billion) in 2017.

“We are very happy to have entered in the early stage,” Broianigo said. “In the next five years, it could be a bit more difficult to enter this market because of the [growing competition from] local companies.”

According to a report on Nikkei

‘Culture shocks’ jolt students returning to Vietnam

Advertisements

Many Vietnamese students are finding that their foreign degrees do not give them an automatic head start back home.

After four years of studying marketing at a university in the U.K., Pham Thi Thanh Huyen was looking forward, eagerly, to getting a dream job.

She’d worked hard to get an overseas degree and was ready to deploy her new knowledge and skills and reap its benefits.

However, the dream job has remained just that – a dream.

It took a year after returning for Huyen to eventually find a job at a bank, which pays her around VND10 million ($430) a month, just enough to cover basic living costs in the busy city of Hanoi, making the same money as peers who studied in the country.

“I find it hard to enjoy work as I’m only making enough to survive,” the 24-year-old said.

Huyen’s plight, and that of many others returning with foreign degrees, does not end with lower than expected pay packages.

They find that they there are other factors to finding jobs that they’d not considered before.

Many returnees find that the labor market in Vietnam doesn’t welcome them with special positions in companies. They come back to find that their foreign study has not added value to their resume.

“Most Vietnamese businesses don’t particularly prioritize recruiting returnees,” said Ngo Thi Ngoc Lan, regional director of Navigos Search, a leading provider of executive search services in Vietnam.

Applicants are recruited based on how well they suited the company, and not their studies abroad, Lan told VnExpress International.

For middle level management jobs, employers care more about how an individual solves a practical problem in the business than an overseas university degree she or he possesses, she added.

At Navigos, although many employees have studied in Europe, the U.S. and other Asian countries, “there is no special case when an employee was paid higher just because he or she studied abroad,” Lan said.

One of the reasons returnees struggle to find a suitable job in their own country is because they see themselves at a higher place than their local peers, Lan said.

In fact, an overseas degree can even become a disadvantage.

Some Vietnamese businesses don’t regard returnees highly because they usually demand a higher salary than they are worth, Lan added.

An applicant with a hospitality degree from Switzerland expects a salary from $600-$1,000 a month in Vietnam, but local hotels only employ them as waiters with a paycheck of $200-$300, she added.

Echoing Lan, Phan Truong Son, deputy director of a local technical company, said that his employees are paid according to their performance, not degrees.

Son rejected an applicant who came back from the U.S. a few months ago, because he asked for $1,000 a month while his capability was “not worth that much.”

A student who’s just graduated needs to start small with basic skills like writing an email, but many returnees are looking to jump right into strategic positions in the company and do bigger things, Son said.

“Their expectations are just too high,” he added.

A development gap

Another difficulty that returnees face in finding a right job is the underdevelopment of some industries in Vietnam compared to other parts of the world.

Foreign degree holders might see that things are done differently in Vietnam from what they learned overseas, said Kew Pham, a project manager at BMI, a U.K.-based organizer of international student fairs.

As their colleagues might be out of date with the latest inventions and trends, it can be a challenging work environment for talented returnees, she added.

For instance, derivatives, an investment tool that goes beyond simple stocks and bonds, “is a particular financial area that not many Vietnamese companies have stepped into,” said Nguyen Tri Hieu, an economist with over 30 years of banking experience in the U.S. and Vietnam.

For this reason, students who have majored in this area in other countries might find it very difficult to find a suitable job upon returning to the country, Hieu said.

However, the number of Vietnamese students going abroad has been increasing every year. Over 22,000 Vietnamese students attended colleges and universities in the U.S. last year, an increase for the 16th year in a row, according to the U.S.-based Institute of International Education.

In Japan, Vietnam was ranked second in the number of foreign students, which was over 61,000 last year, over thirteen times higher than 2011, according to the Japan Student Services Organization.

Vietnam sent over 130,000 students abroad in 2016, according to the Ministry of Education and Training.

There’s hope, too

But not all returnees find coming back to Vietnam a disappointing experience, said La Linh Nga, director of the Psycho-Pedagogy Research and Application Center in Hanoi (PPRAC).

Those who have set clear targets when studying abroad can find the transitioning process easy and even rewarding, said Nga, who often counsels these returnees.

Minh Giang, who returned to Vietnam from the U.K. two years ago, still finds the country “fun and exciting.”

He plans to open his own business soon, which was the plan even before he went abroad to study. In fact, it was the reason he went abroad in the first place.

Giang has not applied for a conventional job to climb up the corporate ladder, as he knew the work environment would not meet his expectations. But he remained upbeat.

“There are still a lot of opportunities in Vietnam, and with a positive attitude, returnees can find them.”

According to a report on VnEpress

Eximbank outlook is revised Stable from Negative by Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings

Advertisements

Vietnam’s Eximbank has been revised to Stable from Negative by Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings.

The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the bank will continue its restructuring efforts, characterized by selective loans growth and strict underwriting standards, over the next 12-18 months. the resilience of Eximbank’s financial profile has improved on the back of a solid rebound in profitability in 2016 and 2017, and the expected benefit from the restructuring of its business and risk management.

According to S&P Global Rating: “Eximbank’s new management team has reinvigorated the bank with a well-executed restructuring plan. The plan primarily realigns the bank to its
traditional strengths in trade financing and institutes stricter risk
management and cost controls.”

According to Mr.Yutaka Moriwaki – Head of Restructuring Project, Member of BODs:
“When we started restructuring plan called “New Eximbank” at the end of 2016, we did not have clear business strategy, efficient organization to support business development, nor fair and transparent HR system to motivate staffs. During the past two years, we have developed mid-term strategy to be a leading quality bank, while creating performance-oriented HR system, so that the all the bank managers and staffs share the same direction to improve our bank. We have also continued to transform organization both in head office and branch networks, so that we can better serve for our customer’s needs.

Even though we are still on the way to complete restructuring plan, we hope we can make Eximbank in a better shape in the near future, not only by reveleging our strength but also by enhancing corporate governance and risk management”

In addition, Mr.Nguyen Canh Vinh – Standing Deputy CEO:
“ The revision Stable from Negative by Standard & Poor’s reflected that Eximbank growth has been on track after hardship periods. With the new replacement of Corebanking in September, the customer service and risk management will be strengthened in order to get Eximbank back to be one of the top commercial banks in Vietnam”

Through 29 years operation since establishing, Eximbank is positioned as one of the financial institutions with strong growth in product development, trusted services, quality of infranstructure for Community services. In addition with solid growth strategy as transformation is a core factor, Eximbank is endlessly continuing to enhance competitive advantages and renovation & transformation is our long-term investment to create more benefits for corporate and retail customers and turn the expectation into reality for future.

What is the status of Vietnam’s electronics firms?

Advertisements

The domestic market is being dominated by foreign brands, but Vietnam-made products are still available, targeting low-income earners.

Do Thi Thuy Huong from the Vietnam Electronic Industries Association (VEIA) affirmed that the Vietnamese civilian electronics market is still full of potential in the eyes of foreign investors.

Vietnam not only has a high number of potential consumers with total population of 90 million, but also has the electronic and refrigeration engineering product consumption level expected to rise from the current 7.3 percent to 11.9 percent.

The development of Vietnam’s electronics industry heavily depends on multinational corporations, especially from South Korea and Japan, which make both finished products and electronic parts.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese manufacturers, including large enterprises, develop slowly and only hold a very small market share.

However, over the last five years, the improvement in average income per capita has had significant effect on household spending, especially on appliances. Analysts commented this may revive Vietnamese electronics brands and pave the way for them to develop if they can choose suitable market segments.

Asanzo is a typical example. The Vietnamese brand is one of four TV manufacturers holding the most market share, with annual revenue of trillions of dong.

Just four years after establishment, Asanzo became a well known brand. In 2017, It sold 710,000 TV products after selling 500,000 in 2016 and had revenue of nearly VND5 trillion. In rural areas, the Vietnamese brand covers 70 percent of the market.

Nevertheless, as chair of VEIA Luu Hoang Long commented, Vietnam’s electronics manufacturers encounter a lot of difficulties.

Most Vietnamese electronics enterprises are small and medium sized, and lack capital and resources to develop modern production lines.

As a result, they only do assembling from imported accessories, while the imports account for 77 percent of total value of products. The locally made content in products is very low.

Vietnamese manufacturers only develop old-fashioned products which bring low profits, and therefore, are uncompetitive compared with foreign invested enterprises.

An analyst said that in the past many Vietnamese enterprises only focused on assembling, and did not invest in R&D, technology and automation. They could not protect their brands, even though the domestic market is large.

Some Vietnamese brands such as Asanzo, Senko and Asia, however, still exist in the market and their products are available at supermarkets as well. However, the products bearing Vietnamese brands are listed as low-cost (less than VND1 million).

According to a report on Vietnamnet

Vingroup to build tech hub into AI, big data

Advertisements

Vingroup, Vietnam’s biggest private-sector company, said on Wednesday that it planned to expand into artificial intelligence, software and big data and set up a Silicon Valley-style tech hub in Hanoi.

The sprawling Vietnamese group, which is already involved in real estate, retail, agriculture, education, carmaking and mobile phones, announced it was creating VinTech, its newest business unit, at a ceremony in the Vietnamese capital. Vingroup said that it aimed to become “an international-standard technology-industry-service conglomerate” within 10 years.

The news came on the same day Vingroup said it would raise $400m through a preferential share issue to a unit of a South Korean insurance company.

Vingroup said that VinTech would specialise in developing AI products, software programmes and new-generation materials. It said that it had set up two new research institutions devoted to big data and high tech, as well as a technology investment fund focused on projects “that are applicable on a global scale”.

“Investments in the two sectors will not only help Vingroup reach new heights, but also create a new tech-industry environment to boost Vietnam in the world’s technology ceremony,” said Nguyen Viet Quang, Vingroup’s deputy general director.

As well as its tech push, Vinagroup announced it would issue 84m convertible dividend preference shares to Hanwha Asset Management, a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha Life Insurance, in a private placement at Vnd110,976 ($4.76) per share. The shares will be restricted from trading for a year.

The company said that it had committed to employing 100,000 technology students within 10 years, and planned to build a tech hub in the Vietnamese capital modelled on Silicon Valley. Vingroup gave no details of the amount it planned to invest in the fund, or its foray into high tech.

The push into tech will mark the latest move into a new business area by a company that describes itself as a “cradle to grave” supplier of goods and services to Vietnam’s fast-growing economy, and is positioning itself as a partner of choice for foreign companies seeking to enter the market.

It will come at a time when the country’s communist rulers are seeking to promote “national champion” local producers in areas such as carmaking and pharmaceuticals.

Vingroup has over the past year listed Vincom Retail and Vinhomes, its retail and real estate arms, and embarked on a bold but risky move into car and scooter production through VinFast, its vehicle manufacturing division. Vinfast’s partners and vendors include General Motors, BMW and Siemens, with which Vingroup agreed earlier this month to produce electric buses.

Separately, Vingroup last month announced an agreement with the Spanish company BQ to produce smartphones under the Vsmart brand name.

“They are moving away from their original core business of real estate into a new core business of lifestyle,” said Fiachra Mac Cana, head of research at Ho Chi Minh City Securities. “Perhaps we need to look at comparative companies in countries like South Korea and Japan, where you have your classic chaebol with five or six businesses that is seen as a national champion.”

Vingroup was founded in 1993 under the name Techcom by Pham Nhat Vuong, a former geology student in Moscow, who developed what was to become Ukraine’s top instant noodle brand.

The company grew rich as Vietnam’s economy opened to the world, and Forbes lists his net worth as $6.7bn, making him the country’s richest man.

According to a report on Financial Times

Facebook and Twitter remove accounts linked to Russia and Iran campaigns

Advertisements

Facebook and Twitter say they have suspended or removed accounts linked to Iran and Russia over “inauthentic” or “manipulating” behaviour.

More than 650 Facebook pages and groups were said to have been identified as “misleading”, according to founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

Meanwhile Twitter said it suspended 284 accounts with apparent links to Iran.

It comes a day after Microsoft said it had thwarted Russian cyber-attacks against US conservative groups.

On Tuesday, Facebook said it had discovered multiple accounts that displayed “inauthentic behaviour” linked to campaigns that originated in Iran and Russia following investigations that spanned “many months”.

“We ban this kind of behaviour because we want people to be able to trust the connections they make,” the company said in a statement.

Although the investigation was still in progress, the social media network added, the campaign appeared to be targeting people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, the UK and the US.

How were accounts traced?

The social media companies acted on a tip from cyber security firm FireEye, which revealed what it said were a number of accounts promoting Iranian propaganda.

Facebook then reportedly linked the accounts – including 76 Instagram pages – to Iranian state media, according to the company statement.

It added that further “misleading behaviour” was also traced to Russia, but that the activity did not appear to be linked to the Iranian campaign it had uncovered.

Some of the campaigns, which date back to 2011, featured content about Middle East politics in Arabic and Farsi. The accounts also shared content about politics in the UK and the US in English, Facebook said.

Other accounts that linked to sources previously identified by the US government as Russian military intelligence services were also removed from the site.

The company added that it had shared the findings of its investigations with the US and UK governments.

Twitter, meanwhile, said its analysis of numerous accounts pointed towards “co-ordinated manipulation”.

On Monday, Microsoft said Russian hackers had tried to steal data from political organisations, including the International Republican Institute and the Hudson Institute think tanks.

However the software company said these attempts had been thwarted after its security staff won control of six net domains mimicking their websites.

Microsoft said the Fancy Bear hacking group had been behind the attacks.

Microsoft’s action comes a month after the US charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking computer networks used by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.

Source: BBC

Vietnam to jail two American subversives for 14 years

Advertisements

A court has found two Vietnamese Americans and ten Vietnamese citizens guilty of trying to overthrow “the people’s administration.”

According to Vnexpress’s report, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on Wednesday sentenced Nguyen James Han, a 49-year-old man with dual American-Vietnamese citizenship, and Phan Angel, a 62-year-old American national of Vietnamese origin, to 14 years in prison followed by immediate deportation.

Phan Angel, a 62-year-old American national of Vietnamese origin. Photo by Huu Khoa

The indictment said the defendants were members of the “Provisional National Government of Vietnam,” an organization founded by Dao Minh Quan in the U.S., which aims to overthrow the Vietnamese government through violence and acts of terrorism.The court also sentenced the duo’s 10 Vietnamese accomplices to 5-11 years in prison and 2-3 years of probation on the same charges.

Due to limited education, lack of legal knowledge and being exposed to bad information, the defendants had formed one-sided views and had blind faith in the organization’s promises of titles and other recognitions, the court heard.

They distorted the Party and the State’s policies, brought the organization’s members to Vietnam and recruited locals to carry out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration, the indictment said.

It said that in February 2017, Phan and Nguyen returned to Vietnam with plans to sabotage the country’s celebration of its Reunification Day on April 30 and the International Workers’ Day on May 1.

Nguyen James Han, a 49-year-old man with dual American-Vietnamese citizenship. Photo by Huu Khoa

Phan was found to have contacted a number of the organization’s members in Vietnam to carry out disruptive protests, preparing spray paints and 4,000 pamphlets for these events.

The group also allegedly planned to break into broadcasting stations to broadcast propaganda for Quan.

However, Vietnamese authorities successfully neutralized all of the organization’s plans and arrested the 12 defendants between April 19 and May 17 2017.

In total, the group only managed to gather about 100 signatures in support of Quan, investigators said.

At the trial on Wednesday, 11 of the 12 defendants admitted to their crimes and asked for leniency, while Phan denied the charges.

The court concluded that the defendants’ crimes were “especially serious” as they violated Vietnam’s national security, political security, social order and safety and went against the country’s national interests, meriting strict punishment.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security in January classified the “Provisional National Government of Vietnam” as a terrorist organization. It has been accused of being behind a petrol bomb attack that burnt 320 motorbikes at a police warehouse in Dong Nai Province in April 2017, as well as a failed terror attack on Tan Son Nhat Airport later that month.

The HCMC court had last December sentenced 15 Vietnamese to 5-16 years in prison for the two terror attacks.

Vietnamese authorities have also issued international arrest warrants against Quan and six others, all of whom are living in the U.S. or Canada.

By Lan Ngoc

Homestay services boom in tourist destinations

Advertisements

Homestay services have been booming in some tourist destinations in Vietnam, pushing up local land prices.

Nguyễn Văn Bình in HCM City and some of his friends have recently come to Đà Lạt City in the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng tổ buy land for homestay business. However, they were really shocked at land prices which are three times higher than a year ago, Dtinews reported.

Pham Minh Trang who has a 3,000 square-metre site near Prenn Pass some 10 kilometres from Da Lat City, said that she bought the land plot for just VND1.3 billion (USD59,000) a year ago, but now the prices have increased to VND3 billion (USD136,363).

The homestay business has also mushroomed in many localities in the Mekong Delta region. Over the past recent months, Tran Hoang Thang from HCM City has often come to Long An, Tien Giang and Vinh Long provinces at weekend to find land for building homestays.

Thang said that one month ago, a 7,000 square-metre land plot at Tan Phong Commune, Cai Lay District was priced at VND2.8 billion (USD127,272), but now, the prices has increased to VND4.2 billion.

According to a land broker in Cai Lay District, more people have come to the locality to buy land for homestays since the end of 2017. Local land prices have increased from VND1.2 billion to VND2 billion per 1,000 square metres.

Hai Nhi, a tour guide from a tourist firm in Tien Giang Province, said that many people are flocking to Cai Be Town and Cai Lay District to buy land near floating markets for homestay businesses. Local residents have started this business trend.

Mekong Rustic Homestay in Cai Lay District or Nam Thi Homestay in Cai Be Town have attracted lots of visitors. Room prices there are often higher than two or three star hotels.

Phan Thi Man Chi, owner of the Nam Thi Homestay, said that she could earn VND20 million a month from the service. The average price of each room is VND900,000-1 million per night.

Phan Cong Chanh, General Director of Phu Vinh Group which is investing in homestay facilities in Long An Province, said that investors need to carefully consider homestay projects.

It is very important to select suitable places so that visitors can easily experience life of local people. For instance, in the south western region, homestay facilities must be near rivers and fruit gardens. In Da Lat, they must be near tea hills or flower gardens, Chanh added.

He also noted the significance of choosing homestay managers who need to clearly understand about tourism and local people’s lifestyles as well as have good foreign language skills.

Investors also have to pay attention to legal issues related to land plots used for homestay construction, he highlighted.

Chinese potatoes faked as Da Lat farm produce

Advertisements

Police in Da Lat City in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong have found Chinese potatoes repackaged as Da Lat farm produce.
The case was detected following a police check at a stall owned by Doan Thi Che, 56, at Da Lat farm produce market on August 21.

At the police station, Che said that a group of workers at her stall used a machine to wash Chinese potatoes. Each time, the machine can serve around 100 kilos of potatoes for some 3-4 minutes, depending on potato size.

After being washed, potatoes will be covered with earth from the Central Highlands region and then packaged into bags and labelled with stamps issued by the market management board.

Some traders even take an additional step: putting some red dirt inside the bags before sealing them. The “dirt coating” phase receives close attention is to ensure the dirt stays on the potatoes during transportation.

The potatoes must remain wet, while the dirt must be completely dry during the mixing process.

Wholesalers aren’t concerned about the fraud at all.

Bags of red dirt are openly placed at several potato booths and some even dry the dirt on the street, with no pretence of hiding anything.

According to Che, the work was required by the traders who claimed that potatoes with red dust could be easily sold.

Chinese potatoes are often bought at VND7,000 per kilo, but when being disguised as the Da Lat produce, they are priced at up to VND20,000 per kilo in the market.

The police seized the potato washing machine and around a tonne of potatoes from Che’s stall.

Che has run the stall for years but doesn’t have a business licence.

Source: Dtinews

Teacher shortage leaves hundreds of kids at home in Ha Tinh

Advertisements

Hundreds of toddlers have been unable to enroll at public kindergartens in Hà Tĩnh Province this school year due to a serious shortage of teachers.

Nguyễn Văn Tư from Thạch Linh Ward in Hà Tĩnh City woke her three-year-old grandson up earlier than usual to get ready for the first day at kindergarten on Monday. After they arrived at Thạch Linh kindergarten, they were dumbfounded to learn that there were no seats for the boy in any of the classes.

“While kids the same age as my grandson were taken to their classes, my grandson had to leave with many other kids,” Tư told online newspaper Dân Trí.

“The kindergarten explained that the number of enrolled students had been cut because of a teacher shortage.”

The family later found out that Thạch Linh kindergarten opened just 10 classes this year, of which two classes were available for 50 three-year-olds. The number of three-year-old children in the ward, meanwhile, stood at 127, meaning that 77 children were unable to attend.

The same issue was reported at Tân Giang kindergarten in the city’s Tân Giang Ward when the enrollment quota for three-year-olds was just 16 despite 59 kids living in the area.

Kindergartens in the Kỳ Anh Township which is located about 60km to the south of Hà Tĩnh City were also struggling with complaints from parents whose kids were refused a spot in class.

“It has been tense for us for the last few days. The parents took the kids to enroll but we couldn’t receive them because we didn’t have enough teachers,” Hoa Mai kindergarten principal Phùng Thị Anh told online newspaper Infonet.

Before this school year, kindergartens in Hà Tĩnh had yearly contracts with teachers to guarantee there were sufficient teachers for all children, Anh said. Salaries for the teachers were paid by the parents, but a decision issued by the Hà Tĩnh Department of Education and Training in October last year changed everything. The decision No 1449 completely banned the collection of money from parents to pay for contracted teachers.

“We are not allowed to do that anymore so there is nothing we can do but to end contracts with the teachers. That also means we lack teachers to teach the kids,” she said.

Anh said that there were 100 three-year-old toddlers in Kỳ Anh who could not attend her kindergarten this year.

“And it also happens in other kindergartens across Kỳ Anh Township. Each is short of around 10 to 12 teachers,” she added.

Hà Tĩnh City Education and Training Division deputy head Trần Thị Thúy Nga said that such enrollment chaos was expected when the decision in question came into effect.

Explaining why most of the rejected kids were three years old, Nga said that the kindergartens gave the utmost priority to five-year-old children to better prepare them for primary school next year, followed by four-year-olds. Enrollment of kids of three and younger would depend on the kindergartens’ infrastructure and number of teachers.

And because of a severe shortage of teachers this school year, there are currently 300 more than the enrollment quota, Nga said.

“Taking the kids to private kindergartens will be more than many families can afford. So far the division has asked the municipal education department and the People’s Committee for solutions,” she said.

Source: VNS

Which way for Vietnam’s farm produce?

Advertisements

More farm-produce rescue campaigns will be needed because agricultural production is still fragmented and unplanned, according to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang.

Thang said that investors in the agriculture sector are mostly small enterprises. Since the production is not optimally organized, farmers cannot earn much money from their hard work.

When they have a bountiful crop, farm produce prices fall dramatically because of oversupply. The prices go up when they have a poor crop, and have nothing to sell.

Farm-produce rescue campaigns are launched to call on people to consume more products to help ease farmers’ losses. To ease farmers’ difficulties, distributors sold products at no profit and subsidized transport, display and advertisement costs.

The problem is blamed on poor marketing.

Up to 70 percent of Vietnam’s farm produce is exported to China. Chinese merchants understand Vietnam’s agricultural products. They know when to collect products and what to buy. Thus, Vietnamese farmers tend to look forward to selling farm produce to merchants. As a result, the quality and export markets have not grown as expected.

Duong Van Chin, director of the Dinh Thanh Agriculture Research Center, disagreed with the view. He affirmed that Vietnamese farmers are not as passive as described, and can grow any crop.

However, their problem is that they don’t know where to sell products and how domestic and foreign markets perform.

“This is not the fault of farmers. Selling farm produce is the job of merchants and enterprises,” Chin said.

The expert went on to say that the linkage between farmers and enterprises in Vietnam is still weak. Very few Vietnamese enterprises make professional investments in farm produce.

They don’t think of sending staff to the fields or helping farmers select seeds, cultivate and harvest. They only focus on collecting products and selling for profit.

In the past, Vietnamese farmers did not want to join cooperatives. They want separate land plots to cultivate crops and sell produce themselves.

As a result, the products created by many farmers were very different. It is difficult to find homogeneous products to satisfy orders from import countries.

He stressed that rescue campaigns are just a temporary solution. To solve the existing problems, Vietnam needs to organize large-scale production.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable exports are expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2020, with fruits accounting for $3.6 billion.

Source: VNN