Vietnam will stop issuing new licenses for the import of waste and crack down on illegal shipments as thousands of containers of paper, plastic and metal scrap build up at the country’s ports, raising concerns about the environment.
According to a report on Reuters, waste imports into Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries have risen significantly since the Chinese government banned the entry of several types of solid wastes from the beginning of this year, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The authorities need to “prevent waste from entering Vietnam to keep the country from becoming a dumping site, affecting the environment and people’s lives,” the government said in a statement late on Wednesday.
The surge in waste imports has caused congestion at several Vietnam ports, with around 6,000 containers now sitting at entry points that need to be handled, the ministry said in a statement earlier this week. The ministry did not say how much waste Vietnam has imported this year.
Waste-processing is a supplemental source of raw materials for Vietnam’s paper, plastic and steel industries.
“The demand for paper and plastic scraps as materials for production does exist, but this benefits only the processors, not the environment,” according to the government statement.
Malaysia’s government on Tuesday also revoked the import permits of 114 factories that process plastic waste, following local media reports of increased pollution in areas where the factories operated.
Malaysian Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said the factories affected will have three months to bring their operations up to speed with international environmental standards before they can reapply for the permits, according to a report by national newswire Bernama.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in Wednesday’s government statement that Vietnam will track down the owners of the containers piling up at its ports and launch criminal investigations into any illegal imports or violations of environment law.
Pollution is a political risk for Communist-ruled Vietnam, where nationwide protests have been held to save trees and against a steel firm accused of polluting the sea.
One of Vietnam’s worst environmental disasters happened in 2016, when a steel plant being developed by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Corp contaminated coastal waters and unleashed an outpouring of anger throughout the country.
An editorial published on Monday in The People’s Daily, a mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party, said the nation’s ban on solid waste imports will have a “temporary impact” on countries that have waste recycling industries, but that it will eventually lead to better global standards in the long run.
The editorial said China’s ban will help improve the country’s environment and “promote the universal international principle that producers of waste should be responsible for the whole life cycle of that waste.”
Reporting by Khanh Vu,
Additional reporting by Joseph Sipalan and David Stanway;
Editing by Tom Hogue
Two pilots were killed in Vietnam on Thursday, July 26, when their training jet crashed into thick jungle in heavy rains, police told the reporter from the central mountainous region where the accident occurred.
The pilots were on a training drill when their aircraft crashed around midday in Nghe An province, a local police officer told AFP.
“The two pilots were killed,” the officer said, refusing to be named.
He added that bad weather was hampering efforts to recover the victims’ remains.
“It’s not clear yet why it crashed,” the official said.
Images on state media showed a large plume of smoke rising from dense mountain jungles where the plane – a Russian-made Sukhoi SU-22 that belonged to Vietnam’s Air Defense Force – went down.
Though Vietnam has a strong civil aviation record, military aircraft accidents are relatively common.
It has seen a series of deadly accidents in recent years, with 14 people killed in four separate military crashes in 2016. Nineteen were killed in similar accidents in 2014.
Vietnam buys most of its military equipment from Russia, a Cold War-era ally which supplied weapons used to fight the Americans during the Vietnam War.
But it has sought to modernize its arsenal in recent years, turning to newer allies such as France and Germany to purchase equipment.
US President Donald Trump has urged its former foe to buy more military equipment from American manufacturers in a bid to close its yawning trade gap.
Ho Chi Minh City is known for boasting a thriving expat community. Upon perusing Facebook you can find dozens of groups designated for expats to communicate and give each other advice about living in the Southern Vietnamese metropolis.
According to a reportBy JK Hobson on Citypassguide, expats in Ho Chi Minh City enjoy a relatively high standard of living. I spoke with Suzie*, a 31-year-old Filipina woman who lived in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia for four years before moving to Ho Chi Minh City this year. I asked her how she felt about the standard of living she enjoys. “I get cheap massages! That’s important!”
It’s a simplistic statement, but one that speaks to a broader point. Often, people who move from western countries to Ho Chi Minh City enjoy a quality of life that they often could not afford back in their native homes. Conversely, they almost certainly would have difficulty enjoying a high standard of living if they were living in their native countries as migrant workers and not citizens. Do the differences in these experiences denote the distinctions between the phrases ‘expat’ and ‘immigrant’, or are there more complicated dynamics involved? If so, then what is the difference between an expat and an immigrant?
Image source: vivabcs.com.vn
Divergent Vocabulary
The term ‘expat’ has a generally positive connotation. It denotes class, wealth, privilege and even race. Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sympathizer, and more recently his collection of short stories, The Refugees, expounded on this point in the below video published on YouTube by Annenberg International. “It’s really interesting. I think that there are these different terms that we use to categorise people immigrants, refugees and expats. They all describe people who move across borders but they have different meanings that are attached to them.
‘Expats’ is the term that they use for people who move with wealth and privilege to different countries, and typically we use them to describe white people. Oftentimes, we don’t talk about Asian expats for example.”
Wikipedia defines an expat as “a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing.” This definition is non-race specific but, as is often the case, hidden meaning is coded within the language. City Pass Guide sat and talked about these differences with a diverse group of English-speaking foreigners in Saigon. Jason*, a second-generation Australian of Vietnamese descent talks about his family’s experience. “Guys like my dad and my uncles, when they came from Vietnam to Australia, even though they were highly skilled, they weren’t considered expats.”
A blog published by the Wall Street Journal came to a series of conclusions. “Some arrivals are described as expats, others as immigrants, and some simply as migrants. It depends on social class, country of origin and economic status. It’s strange to hear some people in Hong Kong described as expats, but not others. Anyone with roots in a western country is considered an expat … Filipino domestic helpers are just guests, even if they’ve been here for decades. Mandarin-speaking mainland Chinese are rarely regarded as expats … It’s a double standard woven into official policy.”
Double-Standards and Country Bashing
In comments made in front of the United States Congress, Donald Trump referred to African immigrants as people coming from “shithole countries”. His comments ignore the research showing that African immigrants to the United States are not only the most educated of all immigrant populations there, they are on average even better educated than people born in the US, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Still, these populations of African people working in the United States do not enjoy the distinction of being called ‘expats’, they are considered ‘immigrants’.
We live in a time where immigration and migrancy are at the forefront of mainstream discourse. In the United States, government agencies have taken measures to round-up people considered to be ‘undocumented immigrants’ and have been placing these people in cages, as they await further long-term imprisonment of deportation. Some of the detainees only months old are placed into ‘Tender Age’ facilities.
Image source: wallstreetenglish.edu.vn
Many say that in Great Britain, public concerns over immigration drove the infamous Brexit vote, which was a step towards separating the United Kingdom from the European Union. In late June, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the European country would be rolling back its open door policy for refugees as a political means of appeasing critics of the policy in the Baltic States.
In Vietnam, identity can provide or deprive one of benefits, whether the person in question is identified by skin color, or a passport from a particular place.
Vietnamese-Americans experience Vietnam differently from both their local Vietnamese counterparts, as well as their white American compatriots. Some English centres will hire non-native speaking teachers who are white, while refusing to hire non-white teachers from English-speaking countries, using the reasoning that parents of their students don’t think of non-whites as native speakers.
Distinctions Hide Discrimination
Clearly, not all foreigners are created equal, sometimes regardless of their country of origin. Even Americans of Vietnamese descent encounter trouble attaining work as English teachers because doubts are cast about their proficiency in English because of their geneology. Nomenclatural categorisations of people have ways of creating distinctions between them, the effects of which are experienced palpably and can lead to frustration and a loss of self-worth for those on the wrong side of the noun.
Some people might argue that the terms “expat and immigrant” are interchangeable and innocuous, but language is loaded with hidden meanings, and these categorisations have real-world consequences for people in the ways in which they uphold privilege for some while marginalising others.
The HCM City People’s Committee has issued regulations to ban trucks during rush hours in urban areas of the city in an effort to ease traffic congestion.
From August 1, light trucks will not be allowed to enter the city’s urban area during peak hours from 6am to 9am and from 4pm to 10pm – Vietnamnews reports.
Heavy trucks and container trucks will not be permitted to enter urban areas from 6am to 10pm
The urban area is bounded by the following routes: National Highway No 1A, Hà Nội Highway, Đồng Văn Cống Street, Mai Chí Thọ Street and Nguyễn Văn Linh Street.
The city’s People Committee, however, is considering granting licenses to allow certain vehicles to operate during these hours.
These include rescue trucks, dump trucks, some vehicles such as trucks that need to do repair work on electrical equipment, and heavy trucks for key construction projects.
In addition, light trucks and heavy trucks will be allowed to operate on ring roads without a time limit.
The People’s Committee has authorised the city’s Department of Transport to issue the licenses.
Under the regulation, individuals and organisations will be licensed within two days after the city’s Department of Transport receives their documents.
Ads auction
The city’s Department of Transport has approved an auction to seek bids for advertisements to be placed on city buses in a bid to raise revenue.
As many as 1,590 buses on 79 bus routes are calling for bids for advertising. This is the third time the city has officially opened bidding for advertising on public buses.
The auction will be divided into eight packages with expected advertising revenue of more than VNĐ177 billion ($7.6 million) a year.
Bidders will cast bids directly at the auction, with a reserve price of 10 per cent of the starting price.
The department’s Centre for Public Transport Management and Operations is in charge of organising the auction.
Public buses in HCM City carry about 306 million passengers a year.
Each year, the city traffic sector needs around VNĐ1 trillion ($43 million) in funds for bus subsidies.
Due to a lack of revenue, transport firms have decreased their number of daily trips on many bus routes.
The Saigon Central Post Office is one of the most iconic tourist destinations in Ho Chi Minh City, with charming colonial architecture and ornate decorations forming the backdrop for newlywed photo-shoots, school trips, and city tours. Moreover, it is a beautiful remnant of Vietnam’s complicated past. If you’re looking to mail a postcard home or simply admire the architecture of a bygone era, this is definitely the place to do it. Explore it via a review by Katie Kalmusky on The Culture Trip:
Design and construction of Saigon Central Post Office
The Saigon Central Post Office was constructed from 1886-1891 and depicts classic elements of Gothic, Renaissance and French colonial design. While some mistakenly credit Gustave Eiffel, the famed designer of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it was actually designed by French architect Alfred Foulhoux.
The post office features a unique, bright yellow exterior framed with white trim. Curved windows are elegantly framed with green shutters and a large clock is featured prominently at the building’s main entrance. The stunning, spacious interior has tall, domed ceilings with metal arches and a gorgeous patterned tile floor. There are two painted maps inside the office – Lignes télégraphiques du Sud Vietnamet du Cambodge 1892 (Telegraphic lines of southern Vietnam and Cambodia 1892) depicts the postal route from southern Vietnam to Cambodia, and on the right side of the building is Saigon et ses environs, 1892 (Saigon and its surroundings), a local map.
European nostalgia
Tourists walking inside the Saigon Central Post Office will feel as though they’ve been temporarily whisked out of Asia and transported to a 20th century European train station.
The post office features polished old-school phone booths, original oil paintings on the walls, wooden countertops along the sides, old glue pots to place stamps on envelopes, and areas to write a letter to a loved one. The only landmark inside the building that betrays its true location is the large portrait of Ho Chi Minh at the end of the hall.
The Saigon Central Post Office is a wonderful place to marvel at extraordinary colonial architecture. The city has meticulously maintained this exquisite building and it is still in full operation. The office offers full postal services and also sells an array of postcards and stamps, making excellent souvenirs to bring back home.
A local icon at the post office
At the end of a wooden table inside the post office sits Mr. Duong Van Ngo, a man who has been recognized by the Vietnam Guinness Book of Records for 27 years spent writing letters for those who cannot write for themselves. The 87-year-old writer is reportedly fluent in both English and French and continues to write letters every day despite his advanced age. He starts his working day at 8 a.m and ends at 3 p.m, writing several letters per day while charging 50 cents per page. Mr. Duong has become an icon at the post office over the past several years.
All Vietnamese citizens residing in areas affected by the collapse of the Xe Pian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam in Laos are unharmed, Vo Van Mung, Chairman of the Association of Overseas Vietnamese in Attapeu province, said quoting a report by local authorities.
The hydropower dam burst at 8:00pm on July 23, causing flash floods in 10 low-lying villages and completely isolating Sanamxay district.
Mung said his association called on Vietnamese expatriates in Attapeu province to aid the displaced residents of the submerged villages – Vietnamnet reports.
He added that the association has so far raised nearly 50 million VND (over 2,100 USD) for the victims.
Food aid has so far reached victims by helicopter. The only path to these villages is completely inaccessible at the moment as it is crosses 46 individual streams, with water levels still dangerously high. In the morning of July 25, local authorities began to build a temporary bridge on the path to facilitate food supply efforts.
According to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Laos, the Mekong River Commission said their statistical analysis showed that the collapse of the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam will not affect Vietnamese territory.
The hydropower plant, which has a capacity of 410MW, is being constructed by the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Power Company (PNPC) – a joint venture between SK E&C, Korea Western Power, Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding, and Lao Holding State Enterprise.
Estimated to cost 1.02 billion USD, it is the first build-operate-transfer (BOT) project to be undertaken by Korean companies in Laos.
On July 24, Thailand’s Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Pcl., issued a press release announcing that unexpected heavy rains caused the dam to collapse. High volumes of rainwater fractured the dam and caused a deluge in the downstream area of Xe-Pian River, it said.
Vietnamese manufacturer to debut two Pininfarina-designed vehicles.
With the help of famed design firm Pininfarina, startup automaker VinFast is hoping to make history at the 2018 Paris auto show this fall. With plans to unveil a sedan and an SUV in France, VinFast claims it will be the first volume automotive manufacturer in Vietnam as well as the first Vietnamese automaker to participate in a major international auto show. Caranddriver.com reported.
VinFast broke ground in September 2017 on an 828-acre facility in the northern Vietnam city of Hai Phong, a preliminary step, it said, toward building a manufacturing plant from scratch. The company said it has aggregated talent from multiple established companies and is sourcing European design, engineering, and production technology partners. The first two vehicles that will be shown at Paris in the fall were designed by Pininfarina, which itself is now owned by India’s Mahindra & Mahindra.
Additionally, General Motors recently announced a partnership between Chevrolet and VinFast. VinFast will have exclusive rights to distribute Chevys in Vietnam and will take ownership of the existing General Motors factory in Hanoi. That factory will then build a GM-licensed “all-new global small car” to be sold under the VinFast name.
After debuting the concepts in Paris, VinFast plans to produce real-world drivable VINs . . . fast. The company hopes to have the vehicles on the road in Vietnam by September 2019. It’s also developing other vehicles and plans to export to other markets in the future.
On a recent weekday afternoon in Ho Chi Minh City, the passengers bouncing along on one of the city’s green buses breathed in mouthfuls of carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and other chemicals that add to Vietnam’s notorious pollution.
The toxic smoke did not come from the bus itself, but from the man driving it — one hand supporting the wheel, the other holding a cigarette.
Vietnam bans smoking on public transit, but that does not stop some of the bus drivers from lighting up on a daily basis. Amid this loose compliance and enforcement of tobacco rules, as well as an increase in overall smoking in the country, the government is looking at another policy option: taxes.
The Ministry of Health has recommended tacking on a levy of 2,000 Vietnam dong (9 cents) to each pack of cigarettes.
Cheap cigarettes
While incomes in Vietnam have gone up in recent years, cigarette prices have been slower to rise, making the tobacco product relatively more affordable than before. For example, per capita income jumped 370 percent in 2005 and 2006, but cigarettes cost just 120 percent more in that period, the government’s Vietnam News Agency reported.
A young motorcyclist stops to buy a pack of cigarettes from a street-side vendor in Hanoi, May 12, 1999.
Supporters of higher tobacco taxes say that’s why the Southeast Asian country must do more to help people kick the habit.
“To quit smoking is not easy,” Luong Ngoc Khue, director of the Tobacco Control Fund at the health ministry, said on national broadcaster VTV. “However, sanctions in Vietnam have not reached the level hoped. In other countries, there are strict penalties. But in Vietnam, enforcement is difficult, even though we have the laws.”
Restaurants, bars and clubs are a case in point.
Authorities prohibit smoking in these and other public places, but business owners continue to provide ashtrays to customers.
40,000 deaths
This flouting of the law contributes to the 40,000 tobacco-linked deaths that Vietnam sees each year, the World Health Organization estimates.
A single pack can cost about 10 times less in Vietnam than it does in nearby Singapore.
The defiance of the law underscores how hard it has been for Hanoi to curb the country’s nicotine addiction. The government has tried other ways to influence public behavior, including a ban on tobacco sales to those under 18 years of age; no sales near hospitals and schools; not allowing industry advertising; and the introduction of graphic health warnings on labels.
There have even been groups of young campaigners donning blue shirts and biking through the Vietnamese streets to raise awareness, a common form of public service announcements in the country.
‘Tobacco breaks hearts’
Worldwide, nearly a third of deaths stemming from heart problems are connected to smoking, the WHO said.
A cigarette seller, right, waits for customers by Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, June 27, 2017.
“In Vietnam and other places, many people might be aware that smoking can harm their health, particularly associating smoking with lung cancer and respiratory diseases. Many smokers and nonsmokers alike, however, still lack awareness of the impact of smoking on heart health,” said Kidong Park, the WHO representative in Vietnam, explaining why the agency chose the “Tobacco Breaks Hearts” theme for this year’s anti-smoking efforts.
The WHO also warned that tobacco hurts economies through the cost to public health and lost workforce productivity.
TPP and tobacco
If nothing changes, Vietnam could see an increase in smoking.
Vietnam is one of 11 countries that remained in the Trans-Pacific Partnership after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the trade deal in 2017. The World Bank said in a 92-page report in March that the tobacco industry will be one of the big beneficiaries of TPP tariff reductions, along with the food, beverage and agriculture sectors.
While the U.S. is not in the TPP, it is still benefiting from trade growth. The U.S. exported $10 million worth of tobacco to Vietnam in 2016, an increase of more than 250 percent compared with shipments in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Last year, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance criticized the U.S. embassy in Hanoi for including the Philip Morris tobacco company in a trade mission with the Vietnamese prime minister.
“It is unfortunate that although the U.S. is only one of two countries in the world [Britain is the other country] that has good laws to prohibit their diplomatic missions from being used to promote tobacco, a tobacco company can still meet with a country’s top leadership through an event promoted by the U.S. embassy,” SEATCA said.
In the mountains above Da Nang, Vietnam sits a unique piece of bridge design. Winding its way around a 150-meter course lined with flowers, a golden bridge shimmers against the Ba Na Hills, supported by a pair of giant hands.
The Golden Bridge opened to visitors in early June, in the tourist retreat of Thien Thai Garden. The bridge sits 1,400 meters above sea level, an altitude which creates the illusion of a silk strip hiding in the clouds above Da Nang.
The bridge’s 150-meter length is divided into eight spans. Along each perimeter is a line of Lobelia Chrysanthemum flowers, adding a further layer of color to the gold balustrades. The giant pair of hands has been finished with a weathered effect, creating the illusion of age and antiquity.
According to The Spaces, the scheme is reportedly part of a $2 billion project to entice tourists to the area. Although a designer has not been linked to the realized structure, renderings of the scheme have previously been created by TA Landscape Architecture.
While undoubtedly distinctive, the Golden Bridge is not alone in the architectural typology of oversized objects. Further examples including giant ducks, dogs, and dinosaurs can be found in our roundup of weird and wonderful architectural novelties.
A 150-m-long bridge nestled in the hills of Da Nang, Vietnam, appears as if it were being held up by a pair of giant hands.
Located 1,400m above sea level in the Ba Na Hills, the Golden Bridge contains a display of purple Lobelia Chrysanthemums running in parallel to the public walkway. Joe Quirke reports on Global Construction Review.
A 150-m-long bridge nestled in the hills of Da Nang, Vietnam, appears as if it were being held up by a pair of giant hands.
It is unknown who the official architect of the project was, but landscaping was carried out by TA Corporation.
The ribbon-like bridge is part of a $2bn investment to attract more tourists to Vietnam and offers panoramic views of the Annamese Mountains.
The project joins a themed French village, cable car and waxwork museum in the area.
Nguyen Duy Hung founded and runs Saigon Securities (SSI), by market share and market value the biggest brokerage firm in Vietnam. He also has used M&A to build Pan Group, a holding company tapping into Vietnam’s expanding agriculture businesses.
According to a report by Nguyen Lan Anh on Forbes, in Vietnam, financial services, including banking, insurance, investment and stock brokerage, continue to grow fast from a low base. One of Vietnam’s first three brokerages, SSI was founded in 1999 with $420,000 in registered capital. It now controls close to a fifth of its sector and last year reported nearly $130 million in revenues and $50 million net profit.
Riding on the growth of the stock exchange of Vietnam, which has a total market capitalization near $150 billion, SSI added an asset-management firm, which hopes to invest some of its nearly $800 million in domestic startups.
Nguyen, the eldest of four siblings, won a scholarship in 1980 to study in what was then East Germany. While there he turned his attention to trading goods between the two countries. One summer, he brought a dozen suitcases full of photographic paper back to Vietnam. The bulk of it didn’t get through customs. Nguyen was disciplined and couldn’t finish his overseas studies. No matter. With a local degree, he began connecting foreign direct investors through a business he called Pan Pacific and, when Vietnam’s capital market opened up, set up SSI in 1999.
But Nguyen, now 58, wasn’t satisfied just being an investment middleman. Five years ago he started ramping up the remnant of Pan Pacific to create a circle in agriculture that he calls “Farm–Food–Family.” Under the new name Pan Group, it raised nearly $100 million and took majority stakes in a dozen small and medium-size enterprises that either provide seeds or produce harvests. These range from rice to cashew nuts, seafood and flowers.
More than 40% of Vietnam’s workforce remains in agriculture. Most of the output comes from individual farmers rather than organized, sizable businesses. In the last few years, Vietnam has started seeing corporate investment. CP Group of Thailand has the biggest share in Vietnam’s animal feed market.
Vietnamese entrepreneurs see opportunities here, especially with government incentives in the form of favorable loan rates. But scaling up often requires acquiring precious land. Nguyen sees a chance to align small companies into a farm-business ecosystem. Revenues at Pan Group, which he also chairs, last year grew 47% to $177 million, and he says they can approach $400 million this year.
“Vietnam, with 90 million people, is a big market. All of what we are doing is aimed at providing to the domestic market,” he says. Neighboring China is also a potential market, but only if Vietnam can provide produce that is seasonally unavailable there. A priority for Pan in any case is a better distribution system.
Meanwhile, back at SSI, his firm has advised and underwritten major deals in Vietnam recently, including the listing of Vincom Retail and Vinhomes from the local giant Vingroup. SSI also raised $230 million for steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, helped sell a state stake in Vinamilk and brought forward smaller IPOs.
Hung’s 15% stake in SSI and 25% in Pan Group put his net worth at $116 million. Unlike most tycoons in Vietnam, who would rather stay low-profile, Hung doesn’t shy away from expressing his opinions publicly. He often posts on his personal Facebook page.
Displaced residents arriving by boat in floodwaters in Attapeu province on Jul 24 after a dam collapsed. (Photo: AFP / Attapeu Today)
ATTAPEU: The Laotian prime minister said on Wednesday (Jul 25) 131 people are still missing two days after a dam collapse swamped several villages in the country’s south, killing at least 26 people – Channelnewsasia reports.
In a rare televised press conference by the leader of the secretive communist country, Thongloun Sisoulith gave the most specific figure so far for the number unaccounted for.
Earlier official reports spoke of hundreds missing in Attapeu province.
“One hundred and thirty one people have been reported missing,” he said, adding all of them were Lao nationals.
Survivors have questioned why they got little warning of the deluge, which inundated several villages across a vast area with several meters of flood water.
Two South Korean contractors said they had reported damage a day before parts of the Xe-Namnoy dam gave way Monday and unleashed a wall of water.
Thai consular official Chana Miencharoen, at the scene of the relief effort told AFP that by late afternoon Wednesday 26 bodies had been recovered.
“Seventeen others are injured and in hospital,” he said, adding roof-level floodwater was hampering rescue efforts in a remote area of the poor and landlocked Southeast Asian country.
Information trickled slowly out of Laos as the publicity-shy country tried to get to grips with the disaster.
The Vientiane Times reported that 3,000 were in need of rescue as of Wednesday afternoon, taking shelter in trees and on rooftops.
Footage on Laos television showed people huddled on roofs awaiting rescue as muddy water swirled menacingly just below them, with the army and local volunteers leading the rescue effort.
Questions began to emerge over the collapse, with some of the displaced saying they were warned to leave their homes only hours before disaster struck.
“It happened quickly, we had little time to prepare ourselves,” Joo Hinla, 68, from one of the worst-hit villages of Ban Hin Lath, told AFP from a warehouse crammed with over 700 displaced people in a neighbouring province.
“All of the houses in my village are under water. Four of my family are missing, we don’t know about their fate yet.”
Hundreds of other displaced people, including women, children and the elderly, sat on the floor nearby surrounded by plastic bags crammed with meagre belongings.
THE DAMMING OF LAOS
Laos, poor but blessed with abundant natural resources, aims to become the “Battery of Asia” allowing dozens of foreign-funded dam projects across its network of rivers.
But fears over the environmental impact of the projects, which export most of their electricity to neighbouring Thailand and China, go virtually unvoiced inside the tightly controlled country.
People use a makeshift ferry to cross the swollen Xe Khong river due to flash flooding in Sanamxai, Attapeu province, on Jul 25, 2018. (Photo: AFP/Nhac Nguyen)
Villagers across the country have been moved, some several times, to make way for dams whose benefits are mainly enjoyed outside of the country, campaigners say.
Once complete, around 90 percent of the electricity generated by the Xe-Namnoy dam was destined for Thailand.
The remote flooded area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged or completely washed away.
South Korea was sending a relief team to the area, President Moon Jae-in’s spokesman said Wednesday in Seoul.
“Our government must actively take part in on-site relief efforts without delay as our companies were involved in the construction of the dam,” Moon was quoted as saying.
QUESTIONS OVER WARNING
Two South Korean companies involved in the $1.2 billion project said damage was reported a day before the dam collapsed following heavy monsoon rain.
SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered that the upper part of the structure had washed away at around 9:00 pm on Sunday.
“We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating villagers downstream,” it said in a statement.
Repair work was hampered by rain which had damaged roads, it said. Early on Monday water was discharged from the Xe-Namnoy dam – one of the two main dams in the project – to try to relieve pressure on the auxiliary structure.
The government was warned about further damage to the dam at around noon, prompting an official evacuation order for villagers downstream, and the structure collapsed a few hours later, it said.
Dam operator Korea Western Power Co. said one of the auxiliary dams – “Saddle D” – broke under heavy rain.
But according to a timeline the firm provided in a report to a South Korean lawmaker and obtained by AFP, it said “11 centimetres of subsidence was found at the centre of the dam” as early as Friday.
Emergency repair equipment could not be used as the subsidence worsened.
“It remains unclear what caused the dam to subside in some places and develop cracks,” a Korea Western Power spokesman told AFP.
The 410 megawatt capacity plant was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019.
People in many places in the world, including Vietnam, will be able to witness the longest total lunar eclipse on July 28, 2018 (or the 15th day of the sixth lunar month).
Accordingly, this remarkable natural phenomenon will begin at midnight of June 27, when the Moon enters its shadow, and will last until 6:30am of June 28, with the total eclipse extending from 3:21am to 4:13 am.
As commented by the National Center for Hydro Meteorological Forecasting, a successful observation of this rare lunar eclipse, along with the blood moon, requires the absolutely clear sky. Unfortunately, not all areas in the nation are able to satisfy it.
Weather forecast shows that the Northern and North-central provinces will have moderately to heavy rain on the night of July 17, which means the sky will be quite cloudy. Therefore, it is extremely hard for interested people to observe the moon from midnight to 6:30am.
It is, however, expected that citizens of the areas from the central province of Thua Thien – Hue southwards are able to see this curious phenomenon if there will be no rain here.
Vietnam is developing digital banking, but vulnerabilities in cybersecurity remain a barrier to growth.
Le Manh Hung, head of the IT Department, said commercial banks have been developing modern banking services on the IT platform. As a result, the number of clients making transactions at banks has decreased significantly.
A survey by IDG Vietnam in 2017 found that e-banking solutions have been more commonly used and appreciated thanks to their convenience and time savings. Eighty-one percent of clients used e-banking solutions in 2017, while it was 21 percent in 2015.
Techcombank and VIB now allow clients to remit money via social networks (Facebook and Zalo) and withdraw cash from ATMs without cards. Meanwhile, VP Bank is utilizing IBM’s data analyzing technology to synchronize data and support customers’ behavior analysis.
Vulnerabilities
Credit institutions are the favorite targets of cybercriminals. Most recently, the website of Vietcombank had problems for 15 minutes on April 13.
The data compromise can be the result of extensive cryptographic sharing, use of a faulty USB, access to an informal website, or failure to update systems regularly.
Ralph Haupter, president of Microsoft Asia, pointed out that carelessness and inattention were the reasons behind 85 percent of cases of data loss, not intentional attacks by cybercriminals.
He said the biggest threat to Asia’s cybersecurity is permissiveness.
Negligence and loose security are factors that pave the way for hackers to penetrate businesses’ systems, even though businesses spend big money on technologies and security.
The latest report from Microsoft showed that many emerging economies in Asia are facing risks of being infected with malware, or similar threats. Vietnam is among the countries in high danger of malware.
Cybersecurity
An analyst said that in most cases, the victims suffering heavily from cyberattacks cannot recover because of two reasons. First, they incur heavy financial loss. Second, they cannot restore customer confidence.
Meanwhile, Pham The Truong, CEO of Microsoft Vietnam, warned that there would be more sophisticated cyberattacks on individuals, businesses and nations, and hackers would operate in a more professional way.
Vulnerabilities of the management systems will continue to be the targets of attacks, resulting in heavy losses.
In addition, the threat to mobile devices will increase. Hackers will target mobile devices when users use wi-fi for free. They will steal personal information, distribute malicious codes, and track users’ network activities.
Truong predicted that finance & banking would be among the sectors to be attacked the most. IoT devices may serve as tracks that lead to cyberattacks.
Since 2014, one of the world’s largest cave systems has been under threat from developers planning to construct a cable car that would carry thousands of tourists every day.
Some are pointing out that this could also irreparably damage the area’s primary forests. A movement to stop the cable car reaching the area known as Son Doong cave spearheaded by Vietnamese environmentalist Huong Le has gained traction over the last 3.5 years. Huong has been involved in efforts to garner what is now up to over 170,000 signatures on a petition against the proposed development.
The caves in question, which feature some of the world’s largest stalactites and cave pearls, are truly remarkable. Located in a UNESCO’s World Heritage site called Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Son Doong cave is so large it contains a fast-flowing, subterranean river, two jungles, a beach that visitors can camp on overnight, and seven endemic species that don’t exist anywhere else in the world. It has the largest cross section of any cave – twice that of its nearest rival – and is tall enough to fit in a 40-story building.
Tetracoral fossils within the cave. (Photo courtesy Professor Phuong Ta)
Currently, a sustainable eco-tour brings fewer than 800 people to Son Doong annually. In comparison, the proposed cable car would bring about 1,000 people every hour, a shift that would threaten the pristine ecosystems within the cave.
Many also fear the construction needed for the cable cars would damage forest near the entrance and put pressure on the cave’s fragile roof, potentially triggering further dolines, which is when the roof of the caves collapses due to limestone erosion.
Cave Pearls within the rimstone system. (Photo courtesy Professor Phuong Ta)
Vietnamese real estate company Sun Group initially proposed construction of a cable car in 2014, but scrapped the plans entirely, Huong believes, due to public support for the petition. In the summer of 2017, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved a new plan to build a cable car into nearby En Cave (the world’s third largest), this time headed by Vietnamese real estate giants FLC Group. Since then, the company has kept quiet about their plans for the project.
Efforts to stop the cable car, however, have been gathering pace. And in a nation where, historically, the Communist Party of Vietnam has not supported organized expression of collective identity, social media has, to an extent, provided a platform for civil society movements to form.
Huong Le’s Save Son Doong Facebook page, for example, has gained hundreds of thousands of followers. It propelled her to a speaker’s spot at a TEDx event that I attended in Hanoi this June. Her brave, spirited speech, which covered not only the caves, but also the issue of political transparency in Vietnam, drew tears from the audience, wild applause, and a standing ovation.
Large rimstone system near the second doline. (Photo courtesy Professor Phuong Ta)
Huong works full-time at Saigon’s Fulbright University as an admissions officer and dedicates her free time to the Save Son Doong campaign. Her efforts earned her a place on Forbes Vietnam’s 30 under 30 list earlier this year, a scholarship to study in the US and even a chance to speak to Barack Obama during his state visit to Vietnam in 2016. Obama later declared in his address to the nation that Son Doong Cave should be preserved for future generations.
The core message of Huong’s TEDx speech was the importance of protecting the fragile ecosystems within the cave. Between 2 and 4 million years old, the caves have been untouched by human hands for millennia and, as a result, pristine ecosystems have thrived within.
With two dolines already puncturing the roof, light has been able to enter, creating some of the largest areas of intact primary forest anywhere in Vietnam and an impressively high level of biodiversity: over 800 vertebrate species have been recorded in the area, including 154 mammals, 117 reptiles, 58 amphibians, 314 birds, and 170 fish.
Sand Towers inside Son Doong Cave. (Photo courtesy Professor Phuong Ta)
Phuong Tạ, head of Hanoi University’s ecology department and the first scientist allowed to explore and study the caves, has been instrumental in inspiring and informing Huong. “Each cave is a separate world, an individual ecosystem,” Phuong said. “Each one has a different temperature, humidity and air quality. All of this creates an ecosystem in which only a few animals can adapt and survive.”
Phuong stresses that there are unique creatures in the cave such as arthropods, blind fish, rare myriapoda centipedes and white translucent shrimp that can only thrive in an environment that’s disconnected from the outside world. He also found cave pearls the size of baseballs, which is unheard of anywhere else in the world, along with rimstones, tetra coral fossils and 70m (230 feet) stalagmites. But if more light, noise, or even “human breath” finds its way inside, he says, the ecosystem could be “severely affected.”
When the cable car plans shifted to En Cave, Phuong drafter a letter to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asserting the right of local people to resist the cable car. According to the letter, which Mongabay gained access to, “Even if they get to En Cave it’s in the centre of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, and the tropical forest ecosystem there should be protected. If the cable car gets there the forest will definitely be ruined.” The Vietnamese government responded noting receipt of the letter, but made no further contact.
A rimstone system on a stalactite inside Son Doong Cave. (Photo courtesy Professor Phuong Ta)
Despite the lack of response, efforts like Phuong’s may be the only way to save the caves. When Huong first explored Son Doong Cave, she met British Cave Expert Howard Limbert, the man who dedicated 18 years of his life to discovering the cave, and he explained the importance of Vietnamese intervention.
During the trek, Limbert spoke to Huong at length. “I was the only Vietnamese in the group. He shared with me the news about the cable car, and that was the very first time I heard of it. That was July 2014. I think what moved me the most was that he said he regretted discovering this place.” Huong noted in her TEDx talk that Limbert broke down in tears as he spoke of his regret.
“Obviously this cave means a lot to this man,” she said. “He dedicated so much of his life to discovering it, and then he felt hopeless. But he carried on saying we still have hope, but the people who can actually make changes must be Vietnamese people. As a foreigner, he can only provide advice, not actually advocate for changes.”’
Cave Pearls within the rimstone system. (Photo courtesy Professor Phuong Ta)
It was this talk that lit a fire in Huong, and she hasn’t ceased campaigning since. Limbert, meanwhile, has found himself at the vanguard of eco-tourism in Vietnam. Oxalis, the adventure tour company he works for, now employs 550 people from Quang Binh Province, some of whom used to be involved in illegal logging and hunting in the area.
For Limbert, the connection between employment and conservation couldn’t be clearer. By providing jobs to locals, he says, the temptation to get involved in illegal, environmentally damaging activities is taken away. “There’s no hunting now,” he said, “there’s no logging of rare woods. We’re seeing far more animals appearing in the area where we run tours.”
Tetracoral fossils within the cave. (Photo courtesy Professor Phuong Ta)
Every action has a consequence, however, and Phuong notes that, even with small, eco-friendly tours, there is evidence of environmental wear and tear in the caves. “Five years ago I visited Son Doong for the first time,” he said. “Recently, I went in again, and I saw that the system of cave pearls has faded, its quality worsened and become drier.” If more people come in, he says, this deterioration would continue, although he is yet to complete his latest round of scientific analysis.
For Huong Le, the need to campaign and protect the caves and the forests within them remains as urgent as ever. Rampant development continues to blight Vietnamese landscapes; this year, an enormous casino will open on Phu Quoc Island, while the pollution of Ha Long Bay demonstrates what happens when nature is sacrificed for tourism. Nobody wants Son Doong to be the next regret.
“The more signatures we have [on our petition], the more likes on Facebook, it helps send a message directly to the cable car company,” she said. “It used to be Sun Group, and the reason they pulled out of the project is because of our followers. The easy thing people in Vietnam and around the world can do right away would be to sign the petition and follow us on Facebook. Talk about it, share it, and raise your voice.”
Banner image: A butterfly in the forest outside Son Doong Cave (Courtesty Professor Phuong Ta).
