Many farmers have kept cultivating fish in cages along some rivers notorious for mass fish deaths in the central city of Da Nang, although the local government had introduced an aquaculture ban earlier this year.
The central metropolis’ administration began prohibiting fish farming in the Co Co and Han Rivers after fish raised in cages along the waterways died in large numbers in mid-July last year, causing collective losses of billions of dong. (VND1 billion = US$43,000).
The People’s Committee in Ngu Hanh Son District, where the fish deaths happened, later suggested providing financial support to affected farmers.
However, the municipal government rejected this proposal and instead decided to forbid fish farming in the rivers as of January 2018.
Fish farming had first developed in Da Nang in a pilot program along the Co Co and Cam Le Rivers since 2000 but it was discouraged six years later, when authorities required farmers to remove fish cages from the two waterways by 2009.
Now 31 fish cages still exist in the portions of the Co Co and Han Rivers, crossing Ngu Hanh Son District, but they were not included in the original pilot program, a local official said.
At a recent meeting, farmers suggested planning a new area for them to continue keeping fish, but the authorities insisted there are no available places for the activity, according to the same official.
The fish farmers also called for financial help from the local government in having their costly cages dismantled and finding another means of livelihood, the official said, adding that the municipal administration has not taken any action to settle the issue.
Huynh Cu, deputy chairman of the Ngu Hanh Son People’s Committee, said farmers were already aware of the ban and encouraged to do a different job.
“But they have been unwilling to do so because they said they can find no other jobs,” he added.
Cu said that stopping the local fish farming was very difficult since the farmers avoided working with the authorities on multiple occasions.
A resident said it took a long time for the fish to be ready for harvest so farmers can repay large bank loans.
“We only wanted to discuss with the municipal administration the ban and its related problems,” he added.
The US newspaper Newsweek has listed Ha Long Bay of Vietnam among the Top 100 most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which include both natural and man-made wonders.
The US newspaper Newsweek lists Ha Long Bay of Vietnam among the Top 100 most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Ha Long Bay in the northeastern province of Quang Ninh was placed in the 14th position.
“Ha Long Bay, in the Gulf of Tonkin, includes some 1,600 islands and islets, forming a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars,” the Newsweek described.
“Because of their precipitous nature, most of the islands are uninhabited and unaffected by a human presence. The site’s outstanding scenic beauty is complemented by its great biological interest,” it said.
The Newsweek’s Top 100 most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sties have been picked out from the UNESCO list of over 1,000 protected places across the globe.
Ha Long Bay, a must-go place for those who spend holidays in Vietnam, which has been twice recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Ha Long Bay has been named one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
The heritage site has become a magnet drawing visitors to Quang Ninh. Last year, the province welcomed a total of 9.87 million tourists, including 4.28 million foreigners.
The province aims to attract over 12 million visitors this year, including 5 million foreigners.
Thirteen years since their first arrival in Vietnam, a couple from Ireland has now returned for a mission to help their adopted Vietnamese daughter search for her biological parents.
David and Suzanne Doran had their first child in 2001, and later became enthralled by the idea of adopting children.
They started attending adoption conferences, meeting with Irish families that had successfully adopted children from Vietnam, and completing all the paperwork for the major decision.
But it was not until four years later that the good news arrived: a Vietnamese infant who had been abandoned by her own mother after birth was a perfect match.
The baby girl, named Van, had been taken in by the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City after efforts to find her birth mother were in vain.
Van (R) plays with her younger sister Thien as they visit the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre
At six months old, Van was brought onto an Ireland-bound flight with her new parents and became an Irish citizen.
Years later, the family would welcome their youngest member, Thien, a Thai ethnic girl from the northern Vietnamese province of Lang Son.
“We knew we could love these children as our own, which we do,” Suzanne said.
“We just wanted to love them and take care of them and make sure they grow up [to become] happy and responsible adults,” she added.
Suzanne would teach herself how to wear ao dai, a traditional Vietnamese gown, which she would don to accompany her adoptive daughters to events organized by the Vietnamese community in Ireland.
She also learnt to cook Vietnamese dishes at home so that the girls would know the taste of food from their birth country.
Suzanne even made the effort to the take her adopted daughters to Vietnamese classes for them to learn their mother tongue.
Inside their house, music CDs, film DVDs, and picture books about Vietnam could be found everywhere as a reminder of the family’s strong connection to the Southeast Asian country.
Suzanne Doran (C) shows her adoptive daughter photos taken of her as a kid during their visit to the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre
By the age of 13, Van’s awareness of her Vietnamese roots had grown big enough so she finally asked to know her ‘real’ mother.
“We would find it a very positive thing that [our Vietnam-born daughters] wanted to know where they came from,” Suzanne said.
“Their mother and family are a part of them, and they’re also a part of their mother and family. That’s all part of their story,” she said.
The family has since visited Thien’s hometown in Lang Son Province and the orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City where Van was raised as an infant, activities that bonded them together more strongly than ever before.
Suzanne said it would be up to her kids to decide whether they wanted to live in Vietnam when they grow up, and that her job was only to help them approach the story of their life with happiness.
As she sat down for a conversation with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper at the Go Vap orphanage on an early July day, Van would give her mother hugs and kisses from time to time as if she understood the sacrifices her mother had made to raise her and her younger sister.
When asked whether she wanted to see her biological mother again, Van said she had always been aware of her Vietnamese origin, a fact that is respected by all members of the family.
“So I always want to see my biological parents to know where I come from, whether I have any siblings, and how my birth mother is doing,” Van said.
The 13-year-old girl said the visit to the orphanage where she once lived made her feel like she was already home and realize how lucky she was compared to other kids.
Irish couple Suzanne and David Doran take their three daughters to visit the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre
“I don’t know how I can share my luck with other kids,” she said.
On their journey to find Van’s biological parents continues, Suzanne said accompanying the girl was the least she and her husband could do to help their daughter.
“I know life is not a fairy tale that always ends happily ever after, and Van’s story is not that of a princess,” she said.
“I believe that a person, no matter where they grow up, should know their roots and where they come from so that they can know what to do, where to be and in which direction to head for in life,” said David Doran, the girl’s father.
OTT (over the top) is a term used to refer to applications and content such as audio and video that are provided on the Internet.
The most typical characteristic is that it serves in an optimal way the people’s entertainment needs with low service fees and many add-one.
In order to provide services at low service fees, OTT television companies have to spend big money on copyright, content production, technology and infrastructure.
Analysts said that FPT Play, Zing TV and VTVgo, the best known OTT TVs in Vietnam, are pouring ‘tons of money’ into investments and incurring losses of billions of dong each year.
OTT television companies have to compete fiercely with each other to obtain the copyright for hot content.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese users only want the content free of charge, while providers of pirated videos try every possible means to dodge the laws.
OTT service providers in Vietnam cannot satisfy all the requirements on copyright for content, because of many reasons.
Some OTT service providers have good telecommunication platforms, but they don’t have experience in content production. Other service providers come from content producing, but they either have dead applications or cannot develop multi-platforms.
VTV, the leader in content production, has had to diversify its content production models. It makes some programs itself, calls for investment from different sources to make others, and buys copyright from other content producers.
Most OTT TV customers don’t care if the programs they watch are copyrighted or pirated. Vietnamese have the habit of watching TV free of charge and demanding high quality of services.
This practice, plus the limited online payment methods (currently, payment can be made with credit cards, game cards or telecom cards), make it more challenging for OTT service providers.
There are no official statistics about the number of units that violate TV copyright and the losses caused by piracy. However, the representative of the Ministry of Information & Communication (MIC) affirmed that piracy on the internet had reached an ‘alarming rate’.
Nguyen Thanh Lam, director of the Department of Radio, Television and E-information, said at Telefilm 2018 that to prevent copyright infringement, it is necessary to restrict cash flow from advertisements.
For example, state agencies need to warn advertisers against cooperating with firms which commit copyright infringement.
Earlier this year, MIC ordered the pull-out of all ads posted on 50 websites, including many OTT TV websites with a high number of views, such as hayhaytv, hdviet and hdtivi.
Standard Chartered Bank expects Vietnam’s rapid growth of 7 percent year-on-year in 2018, higher than its previous forecast of 6.8 percent, with all domestic engines firing together.
Manufacturing and construction are likely to remain the fastest-growing sectors
The forecast is highlighted in the bank’s recently published Global Focus report for the third quarter of 2018 entitled “Fattening tail risks”.
“We are positive on Vietnam’s growth medium-term on strong manufacturing activity as FDI inflows to manufacturing remain strong. We believe that Vietnam will remain one of the fastest growing economies in Asia in 2018,” said Chidu Naryanan, Economist, Asia, Standard Chartered Bank.
According to the latest macro-economic research report, FDI inflows are set to remain high in 2018, led by manufacturing which makes up close to 50 percent of inflows.
Disbursed FDI rose to 6.75 billion USD in January-May, higher than the year-ago period.
The bank expects both registered and implemented FDI to be close to 15 billion USD in 2018, unchanged from the previous forecast.
Standard Chartered economists also forecast a mild trade surplus for the rest of the year on strong export growth and slowing import growth.
Electronics exports are likely to remain robust in 2018 on strong demand for components, particularly OLED displays used in mobile devices, and expected to grow by over 20 percent in 2018.
The report also suggests that the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is likely to remain accommodative in the near term to support growth, despite rate hikes from major central banks.
Standard Chartered Bank expects unchanged policy rates in 2018 and a mild devaluation of the Vietnamese currency, the dong (VND).
Specifically, the bank anticipates a mild move higher in USD/VND rate in the quarters ahead and revised up its USD/VND rate forecasts to 22,950 for the end of the third quarter 2018 and 23,000 for the year’s end.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered the Ministry of Public Security to open an investigation into the recent high school exam scandal in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang.
So far, Vu Trong Luong, Deputy Chief of the Examination and Quality Management Division under the provincial Department of Education and Training, has been arraigned for his part in the scandal.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) reported the shocking news at a press conference on July 17, while also confirming more than 300 test results of 114 students would be adjusted – Vietnamnews reports.
Following the abnormally high test results in the province, on July 14, an inspection team led by Mai Van Trinh, head of the Authority of Examination and Quality Management under MoET, started re-grading all students’ answer sheets.
The inspection revealed that, bar the literature test, all eight others which were taken as multiple-choice test showed signs of cheating.
A total of 102 maths test results were adjusted, as were 85 in physics, 56 in chemistry, 52 in English, eight in biology, eight in history and three in geography and 52 in English.
Several students ended up with results more than 20 marks higher than they should have received. Some even ended up 29.95 marks better off.
Nguyen Cao Khuong from the Ministry of Public Security said Luong was mainly responsible for scanning answer sheets into a computer then sending the database of results to the MoET.
He then took advantage of his position to download the database of tests to his personal computer.
According to the inspection team, from 12pm to 2.38pm on June 27, Luong was in charge of transferring two boxes of multiple choice answer sheets and a computer to the provincial Department of Education and Training. In only two hours, he broke the seal, pulled answer sheets out and altered answers.
Till now, no other individual has been found to be Luong’s accomplice. However, it seems impossible he could have altered all the answer sheets in the period as it took the inspection team of 10 people eight hours to do the same thing. “We are conducting further investigations,” said Khuong.
He added that the database of the 2017 national high school examination results was still on Luong’s computer, which he voluntarily handed to law enforcement.
Tran Duc Quy, Vice Chairman of the provincial Ha Giang People’s Committee, said they were unable to ensure the examination’s security.
“There are things we cannot control despite our efforts to tighten management. Our limited capacity created loopholes for the fraud to happen,” he said.
“However, we tried to re-grade and announce the real test results for examinees. Ha Giang province’s education sector, however, has learnt a salutary lesson,” he added.
Vu Van Su, Director of the provincial Department of Education and Training, said that they would take responsibility for the incident.
“We worked all night to reach the final conclusion and reveal the real result in the effort to regain the belief of Ha Giang’s people,” he said.
The national high school examination has been held for four years. The result is used to determine if a student graduates from high school and gets into their dream university or not.
Since 2017, the multi-choice form has been applied to all tests except for literature. In 2018, MoET tightened the exam’s security by stamping bags of answer sheets with signatures of supervisors and universities’ representatives.
“What happened in Ha Giang province was terrible but it does not mean we need to change the examination which is approved of by a lot of people. In the years to come, the ministry will come up with solutions to improve it,” said Trinh.
The last examination was taken by 5,400 Ha Giang students. In the top 11 students nationwide with highest scores, the province contributed three. Regarding the physics test, 65 students scored nine or higher, accounting for 67 percent. The abnormal result triggered social uproar.
Among the many interesting architectural sights on Ho Chi Minh City’s Nguyen Hue Walking Street, the cafe apartment at No.42 certainly stands out as one of the more unique. Let’s explore the cafes, workshops and boutique fashions of this famous Saigon landmark.
Changing times at the cafe apartment
Built in the mid 1960s, the apartment block at 42 Nguyen Hue has seen many changes. It once held American military officers and high ranking officials working for the South Vietnam government. After the Fall of Saigon, however, some of the apartments were given to shipyard workers. As the city developed and construction changed Nguyen Hue to what it is today – a center of tourism – the tenants began renting out their apartments. It was illegal, but people did it anyway, and that is why there are so many shops in this apartment building. Unfortunately, the law is pushing back. Notices of eviction for all the businesses make the news regularly. They’re still open, but nobody knows for how long.
Because this building was originally an apartment block, the layout isn’t what you would expect for normal commercial use. The entrance to the upper floors is on the left of Fahasa, a well-known chain of book stores. If you’re looking for maps, newspapers, magazines or a book to read, this is a good place to check out. There is staircase that will take you every floor, or you can pay a fee of 3,000vnd ($0.13 USD) to use the elevator. Most shops and cafes will refund the elevator fee on your bill. Parking is available next door at Lucky Plaza.
As you climb the floors, you’ll see signs and menus for the various cafes and shops. Each business faces Nguyen Hue Walking Street, but the entrances are on the backside of the building, where the staircase and elevator are. There is no set layout for the floors, so you may need to explore for a while before you find what you’re looking for. A good trick is to find the cafe or business you want to visit before you head into the building, while you’re still outside looking at it from the street. That way you’ll already have an idea of where to go.
There are over 30 business inside 42 Nguyen, as well as apartments for longtime residents. Tea and coffee addicts will find plenty of wonderful spots to watch the scenery on Nguyen Hue. We’ve included some of the more popular places below. Now, if you’re into fashion, then you’ll just have to explore on your own, because there are too many places and styles in this building to list them all – but that’s part of the fun.
Tea lovers should definitely head to Partea on the fourth floor. This English style tea house is popular among young Vietnamese because of their attention to detail and unique style. You’ll find all your favorite blends in stock, as well some wonderful new creations that you’ve probably never had before.
The Maker, which is on the third floor, is one of the more popular cafes in the building and sells itself as a creative workspace for office workers and digital nomads. With great food, drinks and even some quirky jewellery options, you really can’t go wrong spending a few relaxing hours in this welcoming cafe.
Another attractive option for artsy caffeine lovers in 42 Nguyen Hue is Saigon Ơi on the fifth floor. It has snacks, juices, salads and an earthy decor that makes you feel right at home. If the heat outside is getting to you, be sure to try one of their iced drinks to cool off as you enjoy the wonderful views from their balcony.
Vietnam government has ordered all vessels back to port and prepared evacuation plans in flood-prone northern provinces as tropical storm “Son Tinh” was expected to make landfall later on Wednesday, July 18.
According to a report on Reuter, Son Tinh, which soaked parts of the Philippines on Tuesday, had reached sustained wind speeds of up to 90 km (56 miles) per hour, the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said in a statement on Wednesday.
The storm was expected to dump up to 350 mm (13.8 inches) of heavy rains on Vietnam’s northern provinces and could trigger floods and landslides, the agency said.
“This is a fast-moving storm which is hitting the Gulf of Tonkin, an area full of vessels, fishing farms and tourist sites,” the government said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday night.
Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding due to its long coastline. Natural disasters – predominantly floods and landslides triggered by storms – killed 389 people in Vietnam last year, according to the General Statistics Office.
Last month heavy rains triggered flash floods and landslides which killed 24 people in the remote and mountainous northern provinces of Lai Chau and Ha Giang.
Son Tinh, which is among the first of about a dozen tropical storms and typhoons forecast to hit Vietnam this year, will not directly impact the country’s key coffee and rice production areas in central and southern Vietnam.
A safety official at the Nghi Son refinery, not far from Son Tinh’s predicted path, said the refinery is bracing for the storm but has no plan to suspend its operations.
A former nurse celebrated her 80th birthday by cycling across Vietnam to raise money for charity and says she is already looking for her next challenge.
According to a report by Mark Elson on theforestreview.com, Jean Fitzpatrick from Tutshill has always loved an adventure, saying: “My husband and I went on a scuba diving holiday once and a year later we were diving instructors and rescue divers. We lived in Malta for a year and we rented out our house once to go round the world.
“After my husband, Bob, died last year I decided I needed to challenge myself. I’m involved with a project called Lend With Care for Care International. I help to support girls’ education and women’s entrepreneurship in poorer countries and I decided to join a fundraising bike ride. The intention was to cycle 340 miles across Vietnam.
“I was the oldest of the 14 riders and they were all much more experienced than I was. Three days in I was knocked off my bike by a moped in Hai Phong. I had severe bruising of my left arm, side, leg and foot and for two days I had to stay in the bus and follow the riders,” added the mother-of-three.
“I managed to gradually build up to cycling properly, but after a while we formed a ‘falling off club’ as I was not alone in it. After two days of monsoon rain we couldn’t even see the potholes, let alone avoid them,” she added.
“Along the way we visited villages where some of the entrepreneurs live. We were made very welcome and were able to see what some were doing with their loans. We got invited back to one village where they held a party for my 80th birthday. The women wore traditional dress and gave me presents and a huge flower arrangement – it was quite overwhelming.
“The country people still struggle with the danger of cluster bombs left from the war with America. It’s not uncommon to see adults and children missing a limb,” revealed Jean.
“I left Vietnam with a feeling that I want to return and learn more about the people, whom I’d sum up as optimistic, and to see more of the beautiful country.”
She said she learned that there is far more kindness in the world that we can imagine and that to challenge yourself to do something right out of your comfort zone – no matter what your age –helps you grow in confidence.
“It gives you the belief that life is worth the effort, whatever trials you may have to face,” added Jean.
“My friends said they had no doubt I’d do it and my family are already asking what’s next. I’m thinking about it and in the meantime I’ve given talks about my experience to a couple of local groups.”
Jean helped to raise £2,000 for Lend With Care. To find out more about the charity, visit www.lendwithcare.org
U.S. lawmakers urged Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. consider about complying with a Vietnam cybersecurity law that requires storing domestic users’ data in the country, if doing so allows the government to “improperly” seize the information.
According to a report by John Boudreau on Bloomberg, the Cyber Law of Vietnam, which goes into effect Jan. 1, also requires foreign internet companies to open local offices and bans the use of social networks to organize anti-state activities, spread false information or create difficulties for authorities.
“This broad and vaguely worded law would allow the communist authorities to access private data, spy on users, and further restrict the limited online speech freedoms enjoyed by Vietnamese citizens,” 17 bipartisan members of Congress said in a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg. A similar letter from senators is expected.
The measure passed last month has drawn rare dissent from some lawmakers, government leaders and tech groups in the Southeast Asian nation, who sent a petition to the legislature cautioning it would hurt the economy. Demonstrators have protested nationwide against the bill, saying it would limit free speech.
The letter urged Google and Facebook to raise the issue “at the highest levels” if Vietnam coerces them into aiding censorship, calling reports that the firms have complied in removing video and accounts “troubling.” They also asked that U.S. lawmakers and the State Department be told of requests for user data so they can “assess who is being targeted and why.”
Representatives of Google and Facebook, as well as Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments.
The law is “hurting the country’s reputation as a good place for the world to do business in,” Jeff Paine, managing director of the Asia Internet Coalition, which represents Facebook and Google, said in a statement.
25 kg of crystal methamphetamine and 52 cakes of heroin found by local police.
Relevant forces of Vietnam’s central Ha Tinh province on Tuesday detained three Lao men when they were transporting 25 kg of crystal methamphetamine and 52 cakes of heroin in a pickup truck.
The trio, aged 25, 35 and 51, reside in Laos’ central Khammouane province, the Ha Tinh police said on Wednesday, adding that they wanted to sell the drugs to Vietnamese traffickers in the two central provinces of Ha Tinh and Nghe An.
According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty. Enditem
Indonesia’s ride-hailing giant Go-Jek will conduct a five-day trial of two of its services, Go-Bike and Go-Send, in some districts of Ho Chi Minh City on July 18, local media reported.
In June, Go-Jek launched two locally founded companies in Vietnam (Go-Viet) and Thailand (GET) to mark the first wave of its international expansion. Both companies will be run by local founding management teams with Go-Jek providing expertise as well as technology and investment. Go-Viet will officially launch in Ho Chi Minh City in early September. Deal Street Asia reported.
After the testing, Go-Viet will be widely deployed in Ho Chi Minh City and quickly expanded to Hanoi as well as other provinces in the country. “Our strategy is to combine the world-class technology developed by GO-Jek, with the in-depth market knowledge and expertise of the local teams, to create local businesses that really understand consumers.
We believe that these in-country teams have the knowledge and experience to make the businesses in Vietnam and Thailand a huge success,” said Go-Jek CEO and founder Nadiem Makarim.
With the aim of becoming the largest multi-service platform in Vietnam, Go-Viet will start with the service of transport and goods delivery first, then food delivery, e-payment and other services, Nguyen Vu Duc, CEO of Go-Viet was quoted as saying by local media Cafe.vn.
In October last year, Go-Jek founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim announced plans for the startup to operate in four other member countries of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) but did not specify the targeted countries.
Apart from Indonesia and the Philippines, Southeast Asia comprises Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, East Timor and Myanmar. Vietnam would be the third market overall for Go-Jek as it already holds a stake in Bangladesh’s ride-sharing app Pathao.
Go-Jek’s competitor Grab, meanwhile, is continuing to expand its foothold in the region. By the end of June, it launched GrabPay mobile wallet with GrabPay Credits in Malaysia and is eyeing more partnerships with local service providers.
Nearly two dozen members of the U.S. Congress have written to the heads of Facebook and Google urging them not to comply with a new cybersecurity law in Vietnam, saying the legislation is in violation of international human rights standards and raises concerns under the country’s trade obligations.
In a letter dated July 12, and obtained Tuesday by RFA, 17 members of the House of Representatives called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to “live up to your stated missions to promote openness and connectivity,” and refuse to aid Vietnam’s government in its crackdown on free expression and advocacy.
“Facebook and Google have played an enormous role in Vietnam, enabling millions of Vietnamese to exchange information, stay in touch with families and friends overseas, and facilitate discussions and community participation not afforded offline,” said the letter, signed by Vietnam Caucus co-chairs Chris Smith, Alan Lowenthal and Zoe Lofgren, and 14 other legislators.
But the members of Congress suggested that the platforms the two companies had created for Vietnamese netizens “could all be at risk” amid the clampdown and said they were “deeply concerned” by the new cybersecurity law approved by Vietnam’s National Assembly on June 12.
“This broad and vaguely worded law would allow the communist authorities to access private data, spy on users, and further restrict the limited online freedoms of speech and expression enjoyed by Vietnamese citizens,” they wrote.
“It could also be a serious impediment on Vietnam’s economic potential and fundamentally impact foreign—particularly American—business in the country as internet companies are required to store data locally and disclose user data at the request of government authorities.”
The legislators called the new law “a blatant effort by the Vietnamese government to crack down on online expression” by enlisting the help of technology companies such as Facebook and Google, noting that it requires the removal of content within 24 hours of receiving a request from the Ministry of Public Security or the Ministry of Information and Communications.
“It is already being reported that your companies have removed video content and accounts after requests by the Vietnamese government, including accounts of users in California and Germany,” the letter said, referencing two areas with large ethnic Vietnamese populations.
The lawmakers asked for an explanation for the companies’ actions, adding that the censorship of the accounts of Vietnamese-Americans is “particularly concerning.”
The letter—a copy of which was also signed by U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Robert Menendez and Ron Wyden and sent to the two CEOs on Tuesday—urged Facebook and Google to refrain from storing user data in Vietnam, if doing so meant it was at risk of seizure by the Ministry of Public Security.
It also called for the companies to establish transparent guidelines with respect to content removal, publish the number of requests from Vietnam’s government for the removal of content and the number of times they complied, and to share with U.S. lawmakers and the State Department all requests for user data from the Vietnamese authorities, for the purpose of determining who is being targeted and why.
“If the Vietnamese government is coercing your companies to aid and abet censorship, this is an issue of concern that needs to be raised diplomatically and at the highest levels,” the letter said.
While the two companies have not immediately responded to the letter by U.S. lawmakers, Monika Bickert, the head of global policy management for Facebook, said Tuesday at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee that Facebook makes decisions on a case-by-case basis about whether it should comply with requests to remove content deemed “illegal” by local governments.
Responding to a question by committee chairman Bob Goodlatte about whether she was aware that, by complying with local law on content filtering, Facebook was “effectively censoring free speech in Vietnam,” Bickert said her company considers factors such as “human rights implications” when doing so and posts information about any request in its government transparency reports.
Facebook does not store user data in Vietnam, she added, and while the government there can make a legal request for data, “those requests … are very low, and we don’t comply with all of them.”
Other reactions
In a statement Tuesday, Duy Hoang, spokesman for unsanctioned Vietnamese pro-democracy party Viet Tan, welcomed the letters urging Facebook and Google to refrain from complying with the Vietnamese government’s cybersecurity law.
“Social media platforms—notably Facebook and YouTube—provide an opportunity for Vietnamese to both produce and access information that would likely be censored by the state,” Hoang said.
“Given the unprecedented pressure on American tech companies to not comply with a law that violates internationally recognized human rights, Congress is right to encourage Facebook and Google ‘to do the right thing,’” he added.
“Internet freedom is both a human rights and business issue.”
London-based rights group Amnesty International slammed Vietnam’s National Assembly in June after the rubber stamp parliament approved the law, saying that the decision “has potentially devastating consequences for freedom of expression in Vietnam.”
“In the country’s deeply repressive climate, the online space was a relative refuge where people could go to share ideas and opinions with less fear of censure by the authorities,” Clare Algar, Amnesty’s director of global operations, said at the time.
Noting that the new law can work only if foreign-based companies like Facebook and Google agree to demands by Vietnam to “hand over” private data, Algar urged tech firms to push back against requests for cooperation.
Authorities have long targeted activist writers and bloggers in an ongoing crackdown in one-party Communist Vietnam, where dissent is not allowed.
According to Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ 2018 World Press Freedom Index, Vietnam ranks 175th out of 180 countries, and currently jails 25 professional and citizen journalists.
Rights group Amnesty International estimates that at least 97 prisoners of conscience are currently held in Vietnam’s prisons, where many are subjected to torture or other ill-treatment.
Vietnam’s smoking hot economy and raging stock market have become Asia’s earliest casualties in U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, as the export-reliant nation counts both among its top trading partners.
The Vietnamese stock market, Asia’s top performer with 48 percent gains in 2017, is down by 25 percent from its record high in April as investors grow more nervous about the broader impact of trade tariffs on the global supply chain and its economy.
Vietnam’s “frontier” stock market, with a capitalisation of around $125 billion, has been a hot favourite of investors because of the government’s privatisation plans and market reforms as well as hopes it would soon be classified by index provider MSCI as a mainstream emerging market.
As investors sold shares to hedge against the risk of Chinese export products such as textiles and furniture being dumped in neighbouring markets such as Vietnam, declining share values have led to margin calls in the heavily leveraged and relatively expensive market, spurring further selling.
“Sentiment has been very negative over the past days, with investors worrying most about the possible negative impact of the trade war. They are concerned that foreign investors will withdraw from the Vietnamese market,” said a stock broker at Saigon Securities Inc, adding many of his clients had sold shares because of the need to top up their margin lending accounts.
China was Vietnam’s largest trading partner last year. The Southeast Asian country relies heavily on China for materials and equipment for its labour-intensive manufacturing. Meanwhile, the United States is its largest export market.
Vietnam runs a huge trade deficit with China and enjoys a trade surplus with the United States, which Trump has been unhappy about, and that has raised fears the United States may also slap tariffs on the small country.
DONG SLIDES TOO
Its nearly pegged currency, the dong, has fallen as much as 1.6 percent against the dollar since February, when Trump kicked off tariffs — initially on a wide range of products such as solar panels, aluminium and steel and subsequently targeting tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports.
The dong’s decline fuelled speculation the central bank could devalue it to keep it fairly valued as emerging market currencies also succumbed to trade war concerns as well as capital outflows from higher U.S. interest rates.
“Investors seem focused on potential dong devaluation due to pressures created by the yuan devaluation, flowing from the U.S.-China trade war,” said Barry Weisblatt, head of research at Viet Capital Securities.
The yuan has fallen around 4 percent since mid-June when Trump and China announced their tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion worth of imports on each side. As the first of those tariffs took effect, Trump said the United States would impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
Nguyen The Minh, the head of research at Yuanta Securities Vietnam, expects the stock index, now trading around 905 points, could fall as far as 830 in the worst case scenario as the trade war escalates.
The top 20 blue-chip companies, which account for more than two-thirds of stock market capitalisation, are the favourites of foreign fund managers, rendering the market vulnerable to any selling by such overseas investors, Minh said.
He estimates that as of early July margin lending had already declined by as much as 45 percent since April, when the stock market peaked at a record high of 1,211.34 points.
Vietnam stocks are also comparatively more expensive than stocks in Asia, with a price-to-earnings multiple of around 15.2 based on 12-month forward earnings estimates, Thomson Reuters data showed as of Friday.
“My account is almost burnt and I have lost all the gains made last year and have had to cut margins,” said Hanoi-based trader Nguyen Manh Cuong.
Foreigners have been net sellers of nearly $70 million of stocks on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange this month, though they were net buyers of $1.48 billion in the first half of the year.
Kevin Snowball, chief executive officer of PXP Vietnam Asset Management, said investor capitulation in Vietnam’s markets was a case of their throwing the baby out with the bathwater, since the country was fundamentally very strong, with first-half growth at its fastest pace in eight years and export growth in double digits.
He sees the recent sell-off as a buying opportunity, noting that although it was technically a frontier market in terms of its stage of economic development, it was “being lumped in with the (emerging market) asset class as investors run for the hills.”
By Khanh Vu, Mai Nguyen
Additional reporting by Patturaja Murugaboopathy in BENGALURU;
Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Jacqueline Wong
The word blockchain is on everyone’s lips right now. Although you might not really understand what “blockchain” means, chances are you’ve heard people talk about it (a lot).
According to a report by Bill Hess, Founder of PixelPrivacy, some people believe it will change our world for the better, and it will replace the banks that we currently know – or similar extravagant things.
Although the blockchain came to the general public’s attention when the crypto market absolutely exploded, the majority of the people still don’t understand how it works, what it’s used for or what all the fuss is about.
In this guide, I’ll answer all of your questions in regards to the blockchain, nodes, the ledger(s) and the security of the blockchain. The goal is to explain the blockchain in plain English, so anyone can understand it.
Note: In this guide, I’ll be explaining how the concept of the blockchain works – I won’t be explaining how the blockchain technology is implemented in detail, as that’s beyond the scope of this article.
Let’s get started.
What Is the Concept of Blockchain?
First, it’s important to understand two different, basic terms.
1. Bitcoin (a digital currency)
It’s important to understand that Bitcoin is not a blockchain. This is something that has many people confused. Bitcoin is merely a digital currency based on the blockchain technology.
2. Blockchain
Blockchain is the technology that enables the movement of digital assets – Bitcoin, for example – from one individual person to another individual.
So, what is the concept of the blockchain, exactly?
To get a better understanding, let’s look at an example of an existing problem that the blockchain attempts to solve. I’m talking about transferring money.
Imagine I (Bill) want to send money to my friend Jenny. Traditionally, this is done through a trusted third party (bank or credit card company) between us.
For the sake of the example, let’s say that I live in New York, while Jenny lives in London.
When I want to send some money to Jenny, I ask the third party to send it to her. In return, the third party will identify Jenny and her bank account.
When that’s completed, the third party will transfer the money to Jenny’s personal account, while also taking a small transaction fee.
This process typically takes 3-5 days. Some banks process such requests faster than others, but it takes some time.
Now, the entire concept behind the blockchain technology focuses on the elimination of that trusted third party, the middle man.
In addition, the blockchain aims to complete this process much faster than the current system – almost instantly!
Finally, the blockchain attempts to do this process at a much lower rate (very low transaction fees).
Let’s take a look at how the blockchain technology addresses this money transfer problem. There are various different principles/concepts involved.
“A company’s set of numbered accounts for its accounting records. The ledger provides a complete record of financial transactions over the life of the company.
The ledger holds account information that is needed to prepare financial statements and includes accounts for assets, liabilities, owners’ equity, revenues and expenses.”
Simply put, the ledger is where a “chain” of transactions are linked to one another, creating a record of financial transactions.
The term “Open Ledger” means that anyone can join the network of the ledger, and all transactions are stored in one ledger. The network saves all the transaction data in one centralized ledger (storage).
A “Distributed Ledger” is essentially the same as an “Open Ledger” in that both are accessible to anyone. The main difference here is that a distributed ledger is decentralized, meaning that everyone in the network owns a “copy” of the ledger on a node.
A “node” is another word for a device that every participant in the network possesses, which contains a copy of the open ledger.
You can use the term “node” as shorthand for a participant in the chain of the distributed ledger. So, the examples below contain 4 “nodes.”
Open Ledger
In order to give you a crystal-clear understanding of this concept, I’ll first illustrate it with an example.
For instance, imagine that there’s a network of 4 individuals: Bill, Jenny, Mark and Justin. Every individual in this network wants to send and receive money to/from one another.
At the original formation of this network, I (Bill) have $20. The concept of an open ledger and how it’s implemented in this situation works like the following.
Imagine that there are a couple of transactions made between these 4 individuals.
Bill transfers $10 to Jenny
Jenny transfers $5 to Justin
Justin transfers $3 to Mark
Every transaction is registered and linked to the already-existing transactions in the open ledger. That means that, in this example, there are 4 transaction links in the chain of the open ledger, which tells which transaction is made and to whom.
The chain of transactions in a open ledger are open to the public and for anyone to access and see. That means that everyone in the network can identify where the money is and how much money every individual has.
In addition, every individual in the network of the open ledger can decide whether a transaction in the chain is valid or invalid.
Let’s go back to the example above, where I owned $20 at the genesis of the network (the start of the chain) and I transferred $10 to Jenny (so, I have $10 left). But now, I attempt to send another $15 to Mark.
As a result, everyone on the network is able to identify this transaction as an invalid transaction, since I’m short $5. Therefore, this transaction won’t be added to the chain of transactions in the open ledger.
Distributed Ledger
One of the most important goals of the blockchain technology is to create a decentralized solution. The concept of a decentralized chain of connections is called the “distributed ledger.”
In other words, every individual (node) in the network will receive a copy of the ledger. That means that I will hold a copy of the ledger in my node, as will Jenny, Justin and Mark.
When the ledger is distributed across the network, every person in the network holds the chain of events (transactions) in their node, which means that the centralized “open” ledger is replaced by the decentralized solution.
At this point, the goal to eliminate the previously-mentioned centralized “trusted third party” has been accomplished.
However, by doing so, a new problem was created, because we now have 4 different copies of the ledger in the network of transactions. It’s crucial that every individual (participant) in the network owns a properly synchronized version, so every node contains the same copy of the ledger.
To solve this issue, let’s continue by looking at another principle of blockchain technology.
Mining
So, you now know that the distributed ledger is an open network which is accessible to everyone. The copy of the ledger is distributed across all the nodes (participants) within the network of the ledger.
But how are new transactions validated within a network?
For the sake of the example, let’s pretend that I want to move $10 to Jenny. When I make this transaction, I will automatically share and publish my “intended” transaction to the network.
As a result, every participant in the network will be notified of this intended transaction and will see that I want to move $10 to Jenny. Because my transaction has not been validated yet, it’s still an unvalidated transaction, which means that it’s not recorded in the ledger yet.
In order to get a transaction validated so that it’s recorded in the ledger, another principle is needed: “mining.” The principle of mining means solving calculations.
Miners (who do the mining) in, for example, Bitcoins, are special nodes. The node of every miner is able to hold the ledger (because it’s public).
For instance, imagine that both Mark and Justin are miners in this particular ledger. Miners execute a very important task. All the miners in a ledger compete with each other, so Mark and Justin will be miner competitors here.
Mark and Justin (the miners) will compete to become the first to take my unvalidated transaction to Jenny, validate the transaction and then add it into the chain of the ledger.
The miner that does this the fastest (first) receives a financial reward, like a prize. In this case, because it was an example of Bitcoin miners, the financial reward will be Bitcoin.
The concept of how bitcoins are generated is extremely complex, and beyond the scope of this article. All that you need to know is that, very simply, the financial reward of bitcoins is generated through the computational process of validating the transaction, not through Jenny or Bill paying the miners bitcoins.
So, what are the rules for Mark and Justin to beat the competition and get a financial reward?
The miner has to do 2 things in order to take the intended transaction and put it into the ledger.
Step #1 – Validate the new transaction
Validating the new transaction is relatively simple because the information in the ledger is openly accessible, so the miner can instantly calculate whether I have sufficient funds in order to complete the transfer to Jenny.
Step #2 – Find a special “key”
In order to lock the new transaction in the chain of the ledger, the miner has to find a special key that will enable this process. The key itself is random.
Therefore, Mark and Justin need to use computational power in order to search for this random key, which takes time. By doing so, the miner will use the mathematical abilities of a computer to repeatedly guess new keys until the computer finds the first key that matches the random puzzle.
Again, if Mark is able to do that first, he will get the financial reward.
When this process is completed, Mark has to synchronize the distributed ledger across the entire network.
How Are “Ledgers” Synchronized Across the Network?
So, let’s continue with the example that we created in the previous section.
The question you might have now is:
How could each node be synchronized to have the same record of transactions?
This is an essential principle of the blockchain technology, because this will solve the problem of how to have the same copy of the ledger on every node in the network.
Mark was able to solve the puzzle first and was therefore able to add the transaction to the chain in his ledger. Now, Mark has to publish the solution that he found to the entire network.
That means that he’s telling Justin, Jenny and I that he solved the puzzle and validated the transaction (the transaction that I wanted to send to Jenny).
When Mark updates us about that, he will also provide the lock (a key) that will enable the rest of us (participants on this network) to take the transaction and add it into our own ledgers.
So, Justin (miner) will add this transaction to his ledger, because there’s no point anymore in trying to resolve this transaction, since it has been solved by Mark already, who got the financial reward. Justin will search for another transaction to work on (and solve) in order to get a financial reward for that.
As a result, the transaction will also be added the chain of transactions in Jenny’s and my ledger. Jenny will receive the $10 that I initially proposed to transfer to her in the network, too, because everyone in the network has agreed that this transaction is valid.
At this point, all of the distributed ledgers in the network are updated and contain the exact same chain of transactions.
The “Blocks” in the “Chain”
Since you now have a better understanding of the basic concept of the blockchain, it’s time to dive a little deeper in order to get a better understanding of the “blocks” in the “chain.”
The blockchain is – you guessed it – a chain of blocks.
Each block in the chain contains some specific data.
Data
The type of data stored in a block depends on the type of blockchain. For example, a block in the Bitcoin blockchain stores information such as the number of bitcoins in the block, who sent the bitcoins and who received them.
If the blockchain belongs to another cryptocurrency like Ethereum, the block contains information about Ethereum instead of Bitcoin.
A hash is always unique – it contains a string of random letters and numbers. The unique string basically holds the information of what content is stored in the block.
When a block is created, the unique hash that belongs to the block is then calculated. When something in the block changes – for example, if the number of bitcoins goes down by 2 – the hash will also change.
That means that when the hash changes, it’s no longer part of the same block. So, a new block is created.
Hash of the Previous Block
Every newly-created block also contains the unique hash string of the previous block. That way, all the blocks are connected to each other.
As you can see in the example, every block is connected to the previous block by stating the hash of that block.
The first block doesn’t contain a previous hash, simply because there wasn’t a block before that. The name of the first block in the chain is also called the “Genesis block.”
Security & Blockchain
If someone tries to interfere with an already-existing block or change something in the block, the hash will change. That means that all of the following blocks will become invalid because they contained a different hash than the newly-generated hash, because a change was made.
In order to solve the issue of the other blocks becoming invalid, all the other block hashes must be calculated again.
To counter that vulnerability, there’s a piece of data involved called “proof of work,” which basically slows down the creation of new blocks. The difficulty for miners to create new blocks is controlled so that the time required to solve a calculation and to create a new block is possible only every 10 minutes.
That means that if you were to interfere with or change one block in the chain, you would need to recalculate all the following blocks in the chain, 1 per 10 minutes – which is way too time-consuming and expensive.
Another layer of security is a “Peer-to-peer (P2P) network.” The existence of a P2P network ensures that the blockchain is distributed across a large network, instead of being stored in one single entity.
As you learned before, this is an open and public network that anyone can join. When you enter a network, you’ll receive a copy of the blockchain.
When a new block is created (see image below), it will be sent to the node of all the participants in the network.
Then, each node of every participant in the network will check the new block and identify whether it’s a valid block. If it checks out, each node will add the new block to its own blockchain.
If all the different nodes of the participants in the network contain the exact same blockchain, it means there’s a general agreement that this is the official blockchain, and invalid blocks will be denied from being added to the blockchain.
When it comes to security, if you wanted to tamper with the blockchain, you would need to change all the blocks within the blockchain, recalculate all of the hashes, alter the proof of work, and on top of that, you’d need to take control of more than 50% of the P2P network.
If not, your modifications on the blockchain wouldn’t be accepted by everyone else in the network.
Obviously, this would be pretty much impossible to execute, which means that the security of blockchains is incredibly good.
Simplified Summary of the Blockchain Technology
The first thing that we learned is that blockchain and Bitcoin are two different things. Additionally, we’ve learned that blockchain technology is based on a few basic principles.
The distributed ledger is an open network that is public to everyone.
Every participant in the network can validate transactions.
The ledger is distributed and exists in many different nodes on the network (this removes the involvement of a trusted third party).
The concept of miners and the role of miners are to validate transactions within the ledger by solving calculations.
Miners are special nodes in a network. The task of the miner is to validate “intended” transactions, solve the puzzle and publish/share it to the network so everyone can add the new transaction to the chain in their ledger.
Miners try to solve these mathematical puzzles. This ensures that everyone in the network collectively agrees that this is the next chain in the official ledger that everyone in the network should use.
We’ve also learned that every block in a blockchain contains 3 types of data.
Data
Hash
Hash of the previous block
Of course, what’s stored in every block depends on the blockchain, but a simple example would be that in the Bitcoin blockchain, every block stores information about bitcoins.
We also learned that every block contains a unique string of random letters and numbers which is called a “hash.” The hash holds information about the block, so once a piece of information in a block changes, so does the hash.
In order connect the blocks with each other, every block holds the hash string of the previous block. Only the first block, at the “genesis” of the chain, does not contain the hash of a previous block, simply because it was the first block in the chain.
In sum, the implementation of blockchain is incredibly detailed and complex, but my explanation of the concepts and ideas – in plain english – should already answer a lot of your questions.
