Jun 30, 2012

Vietnam - Where to go to learn life skills?

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VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese parents and students now have many choices for the training courses on life skills. Well off families can send their children to overseas summer courses, while others can bring their children to domestic summer camps.

Big changes have happened in Vietnamese parents’ thoughts. Instead of trying to stuff in their children’s heads with as much as possible knowledge, they now want their children to learn life skills to get adapted to circumstances.

Especially, a lot of parents, who once studied and worked in developed economies and received the western education, believe that it would be better to teach children the method of thinking and the life skills, instead of too much knowledge, because knowledge is inexhaustible, and it’s is impossible to teach all the knowledge of the mankind.

Doan Thanh Huong in Hai Phong City said that her son has just returned from a summer course in Singapore which was organized by Apollo English Center. The boy was very excited about the trip, saying that he could practice English and participate in many interesting activities.

“I wish I could have stayed there for one month,” the boy said. The mother feels happy about the trip of the son, because she believes that summer is not the time for lessons, but the time for play.

Huong Thuy, Director of the Huong Thuy Trade Company in Hai Phong City, said she can update information about the girl’s trip to Singapore every day, and she feels happy about the interesting trip of the little girl.

Nhi, the girl, suffered the nosebleed twice, but this turned out to be not a big problem. The girl then received careful treatment from accompanied officers. Especially, Nhi was shown the way to stop bleeding and compress with cold water. Nhi was also advised to drink much water and reminded her to put a bucket of water in her room in the evening to ease the dryness of the air.
A lot of summer training courses have been organized by schools, life skill and youth education centers recently.

The Thien Hung Overseas Study Consultancy Firm has launched two overseas training programs, which cost 28 million dong and 47 million dong for the two-week courses in Singapore and Malaysia, respectively.

VUS has launched the programs on training life skills and English communication skills in Singapore. The service packages and the service fees vary, depending on the duration of the training courses.

The children to attend the one week course in Singapore, commenting from July 8, would have to pay 1650 dollars, while the two week course, from June 24, would cost 2650 dollars. Parents would have to pay 3650 dollars, or 77 million Vietnam dong, for the three week trips to Singapore (2 weeks) and then to Malaysia (one week).

77 million dong is really a too big sum of money for many parents in Vietnam, where those, who can earn 10 million dong a month would be listed as “high income earners.”

Therefore, the parents, who cannot afford expensive overseas training course, would choose domestic courses. Vu Quang Viet, a state agency officer, has registered a training course at Cleverkids education center in Hanoi for his son. The total fee for the training course, according to Viet, is 4.5 million dong, affordable to many parents.

The attendants would participate in sports activities, learning to swim, learn life skills such as using knives, helping parents do housework. They can also learn what to do in case of fire or flooding and visit the craft villages and historical sites in Hanoi.

Source: VTC


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Vietnam - Serious principle violations found in joint training programs

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VietNamNet Bridge – Government inspectors, after examining the joint training programs carried out from 2006 to 2010, discovered that 46.5 percent of the programs under the mode of in-service training were run without the permission of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).


The report by government inspectors showed that the most popular violations in joint training programs between Vietnamese universities and foreign partners were that the schools required additional tuitions for non-school hours, spontaneously set up enrolment fees and did not follow the accounting principles.

Prestigious schools also broke the laws

The notices about the enrolment plan of the VInh City University and Hanoi Open University completely did not comprise the information about the examination fees and the tuitions for training courses.

Meanwhile, the Hanoi University of Technology, when signing contracts on joint training programs, did not define the sums of money to be collected from students.

In the period from 2006 to 2010, MOET did not fix the concrete tuitions for joint training programs. As a result, Vietnamese schools spontaneously negotiated with the foreign partners on profit sharing, then decided the tuitions imposed on learners. This explains why the schools set up very high tuitions for some joint training programs.

The joint programs to train masters run by the Hanoi Economics University and a Dutch partner was considered the cheapest joint training course, where learners had to pay 3500 dollars. The highest tuition level was applied to the joint training program provided by the Hanoi Economics University, 13,500 dollars per training course. Meanwhile, the average level is between 8000 dollars and 10,000 dollars.

The government inspectors had found that 46.5 percent (195/419) of the programs under the mode of in-service training were still run even though they were not licensed by MOET. 54 out of 419 programs had the classrooms located in under-standard places, while five schools reportedly enrolled the number of students higher than the allowed level.

The archive records at the Vinh University of Education did not have the list of candidates who attended the exams. Especially, the Economics University, an arm of the Hanoi National University allowed students to make minor thesis instead of dissertation.

Loosened management is the biggest problem

Deputy Government Chief Inspector Nguyen Van San has said that schools have been given autonomy in setting up their financial policies. However, as they have been only trying to attract as more students as possible, which helps increase the income, a lot of violations were made during the training.

Meanwhile, MOET did not set up timely and reasonable regulations on the management over joint training programs. It’s a pity that Vietnamese leading universities like the Hanoi Economics University, the Hanoi University of Technology, the HCM City Economics University and Da Nang University, have cooperated with less prestigious foreign partners.

According to Deputy Government Chief Inspector Nguyen Van San, MOET has been requested to inspect the international joint training program. The inspection report must be submitted to the government prior to December 31.

A lot of illegal joint training programs have been found, and some of them have been forced to stop operation.

Every time, when the frauds are discovered, MOET usually orders to stop enrolment, requests the trainers to reimburse tuitions to learners and asks its Examination and Accreditation Department not to recognize the degrees to be licensed by the programs. However, in most cases, it is learners, who are the biggest sufferers.

Source: NLD


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Vietnam - Foreign Trade University’s graduates refused by employers

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VietNamNet Bridge – A Hanoi based import-export company, when seeking candidates for some posts at the company, has specified that it would not accept the graduates of the Foreign Trade University (FTU), one of the most reputable schools in Vietnam.

In recent days, a small piece of ad about the recruitment plan of an import-export company has been forwarded by the community of students. The ad piece has stirred up the public because of the short notice that the company would not accept FTU graduates.
“Note: Because of some reasons, we do not employ the ones who graduate from FTU,” the ad piece reads.

Explaining the uncanny requirements on candidates, director of the company said that most of the FTU’s graduates are too fastidious about their jobs, therefore, they would not fit the company’s culture.

“They (FTU’s graduates) all think that they finish from a reputable school, therefore, they are more outstanding than others. Therefore, they always demand very high working conditions,” he explained.

“They want to sit at well equipped offices with air conditioners all day. When they go on business, they insist on staying at five star hotels,” he added.

Also according to the director, the managers of many other companies also share the same view that it would be better not to recruit FTU’s graduates, or they would cause a headache to the bosses with their overly high requirements.

Being a trade and forwarding service provider, the company usually needs probationers who take care for the works relating to the import-export, freight and forwarding activities. The company target fourth-year students and new graduates of the economic schools.

The candidates applied for the jobs at the company need to have the degrees at “good” levels or higher and clear profiles. Besides, they need to be “inquisitive” and “has high sense of responsibility.”

When asked about the pay to the probationers to be recruited, the director said that the wages would be equal to the average level on the labor market. In principle, the candidates would negotiate about the salaries and income with the employer.

A lot of FTU’s students have expressed their discontentment about the unbiased viewpoint of the employer.

“I know that many people think badly of FTU’s students after a school’s student made a statement that she would not take the job which brings the income of less than 1000 dollars. However, the students like her are just the minority,” Thanh Huyen, the second year student of the Finance & Banking Faculty of FTU said.

Huyen has affirmed that she and other students of the schools would be ready to take the jobs with modest pay, provided the jobs fit their capability and can help them get more experiences.

Meanwhile, other students of the school, who take pride of the FTU brand, have affirmed that they have every reason to be choosy about jobs.

Si Son, a former student of the school said that FTU’s students have the right to be conceited, because they really have deep knowledge and skills. Only the excellent students, who obtain good marks from the university entrance exams, to be eligible for studying at the school. Therefore, they should be recognized as the best students in Vietnam in their fields.

“The above said company refuses FTU’s students, but the other thousands of companies would be happy to employ FTU graduates,” Son noted.

The arguments about the “value” of FTU’s graduates have not come to an end. However, the preconception kept by employers would install barriers to the school’s graduates. A lecturer of the school, relating the story of a school’s graduate, who gave up a job after one month of working there and sent a message to the director, said that the move of the graduate would upset the company’s business plan. She fears that FTU’s graduates may not be accepted by the employer in the future.

Source: VnExpress


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Vietnam - Universities losing billions of VND for entrance exams

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Many universities have incurred huge losses from holding entrance exams due to increasing prices leasing exam space along with higher wages for supervisors and examiners.

An official from the HCM City Admission Office, under the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) said, “This year there are a total of 604,281 students taking entrance exams held by 38 universities and 20 colleges.”

For the first exam session, there were 217,858 people who took exams in 189 testing locations. Saigon University had the largest number, with 24,000 taking the test.

The second exam session had 241,099 who took exams in 186 testing facilities. HCM City University of Agriculture and Forestry topped the list with 26,640 examinees.

The third exam session enlisted 172,324 examinees in 127 exam compounds.

Although the number of “virtual” examinees who register for several universities in a single exam session have decreased dramatically, the number of examinees has remained high enough to lead to financial problems.

Pham Thai Son, Head of the Education and Training Chamber, under University of Food Industry, said that the price to rent an exam room ranges from VND300,000-500,000 (USD14.3-23.9). They have 22,000 students registered to take exams, requiring about 500 rooms to be rented.

“We will lose about VND600 million (USD28,680) this session, and this doesn't include the fees we must pay for the people who mark the exams. At the end of this session we expect the losses to reach into the billions," he said.

The fee for taking exams remains at only VND67,000 (USD3.2) per student, and universities and colleges are reluctant to raise the fees for fear that they will lose promising students.

Some universities have expressed hope that MoET will step in with financial support to deal with this problem.

Dtnews, NLD



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Vietnam - Parents splashing out money to send children to foreign summer camps

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VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese parents now can spend thousands of dollars to buy the tours abroad for their children or send them to foreign summer camps, which they believe can help the children improve foreign language skills and become more dynamic.

Bui Hong Chuyen in Dong Da district said that she would go to bank today to withdraw money and pay 32 million dong to book a trip abroad for her daughter. The destination would be a summer camp in Singapore in late June.

Chuyen said that the summer camp gathers the students aged 12-17. Joining the program, the girl would be able to experience a practice period at a state owned school in Singapore with two learning subjects of math and English. Besides, the girl would also attend the lessons which help improve the skills of working in team and have the sightseeing tours.

“I believe that after returning from the one week camp, her English would be better and she would behave boldly in speech,” Chuyen said, adding that she could see the considerable improvement in the English skills of a neighboring boy, who also attended a foreign camp last year.

Meanwhile, the sum of money Do Ngoc Tuan in Cau Giay district has to spend to send his son to a summer camp in the US is double. 66.6 million dong is the package fee for the attendance at the camp which lasts from July 15 to August 4.

“I have never been to the US, but I really want my son to go there, where he can learn something useful from a developed country,” Tuan said.

“The most important goal of the trip is the opportunity to practice English. Besides, he can also see with his eyes the way of working and thinking of the US people,” he continued.

Sending children abroad to practice English and become dynamic has been in fashion in Vietnam. High income earners would not regret thousands of dollars to spend on the trips which they believe are useful for the children.

Nearly all children in big cities now attend foreign language courses, because their parents believe that they need to be prepared soon for their future jobs. A lot of parents organize private tutoring classes for their children, run by American and British teachers. In general, such courses are much more costly than the courses with Vietnamese teachers.

Vietnamese parents now understand that it would be better to have native speakers as the teachers for their children. Especially, going abroad to practice English has become the choice of many well-off families.

Having realized the high demand for going abroad to attend summer activities plans, a lot of institutions have been set up which specialize in designing and organizing outbound tours for students.

In HCM City, the Hoan My Tourism Company has launched specific outbound tours for families (parents and children). The tours have been designed in the way that can entertain children and students. The small tourists would have the opportunity to visit the famous destinations in the US, where they can entertain themselves.

The HCM City Youth Union has announced the summer camps “Sky 2012” with the two destinations in Vietnam and Singapore, reserved for the students aged 14-25. The summer camps aim to help practice English and other social practice skills, which encourage children’s creativeness.

A trip to the summer camp in Phan Thiet, Vietnam would cost 2.9 million dong, while a trip to Singapore on July 27-August 1 would cost 750 dollars, or 15 million dong.

Children also have another choice of participating in the 27th Songdowon international children summer camp in Wonsan and Pyongyang, which costs 1980 Euro.

Chau Giang


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Vietnam - Many universities lack well-qualified teachers

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VietNamNet Bridge – Many universities lack well-qualified teachers to ensure the quality of higher education, according to the Ministry of Education and Training's latest inspection.

It has been revealed that 20 per cent of inspected universities failed to meet regulations on the number of teachers and their qualifications.

In particular, seven universities had less than 50 official teachers each. HCM City's Van Hien University and Information Technology College exhibited the most serious violations by staffing only one teacher for up to 90 students.

Meanwhile, the ministry's regulations state that each university needs to ensure one official teacher for 25 students.

Nguyen Huy Bang, the ministry's chief inspector said these universities were asked to stop recruiting new students until they are equipped with enough qualified teachers.

He said the relevant authorities would continue making regular inspections to eradicate the situation.

The universities' leaders said it was difficult for them to recruit enough well-qualified teachers.

Nguyen Manh Hung, headmaster of Nguyen Tat Thanh University said they had the goal of employing 150 more teachers with Ph.Ds and Master's degrees. However, this goal was hard to accomplish with so few human resources.

Nguyen Dung, headmaster of Van Lang University said the university is in the same situation; they lack 80 teachers. However, as it is impossible for them to employ only teachers with Master's degree, they recruit ones with Bachelor's degrees and request that they continue their studies.

These headmasters agree that with the large number of teachers holding bachelor's degrees only, the quality of education at universities is impossible to be ensured.

The statistics of the ministry show that 51 per cent of teachers at universities hold a Bachelor's degree, 35 per cent hold a Master's degree and 14 per cent with a Ph.D.

Professor Ngo Van Le of the ministry said a lack of teachers with Ph.Ds and Master's degrees has forced universities to employ people with Bachelor's degrees to teach their students who are pursuing the same degree. So, the quality of education is in question.

Moreover, teachers with Ph.Ds or Master's degree are in high demand, which lead them to take on extra lectures in many universities. This also affects the quality of teaching and studying.

To settle this, the ministry has worked out a strategic plan of human resource development toward 2020 in which they will focus on improving the quality of teachers so that 58,000 teachers with Masters' degrees and 29,000 others with Ph.Ds can be trained to meet the demand of universities and colleges nationwide.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News


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Vietnam - The race for state-owned high schools put parents under pressure

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VietNamNet Bridge – Secondary school graduates finished the high school entrance exams on June 21-22 already. However, the students and their parents are still in the state of anxious suspense. As for many parents, entering state owned schools is the only choice for their children.

The high school entrance exam is considered the second toughest and most important exam for students, just to the university entrance exam. Since the number of state owned schools is limited, students have to compete with each other to scramble for the seats there. In Hanoi and HCM City, the existing state owned high schools only can receive 70 percent of secondary school graduates, while the other 30 percent would have to go to people-founded schools or continuation schools.

Children take exams, parents suffer anxiety

That explains why not only students, but their parents also have to prepare well for the exam.

In Hanoi, nearly 80,000 students attended the exam, but only 70 percent of them would be enrolled in state owned schools.

The thinking of many parents is that the entrance exam to high school is an all-out exam. The parents do not want their children to go to people founded schools, because most of the schools are believed to have bad schooling environments. Meanwhile, prestigious people founded schools always require high tuitions which is unaffordable to many families.

Therefore, students need to pass the exam to enter state owned schools, which do not set overly high tuitions and can provide good education environment.

Most of students said they have to attend private tutoring classes to prepare for the entrance exam.

Ha, a parent in Dong Da district, who was seen waiting to pick up her daughter from the tutoring class at 9.30 pm, said that this was the third learning shift of the girl of the day.

“She went to an English class in the morning, then to literature class in the afternoon, and now at a math lesson,” she said.

“My daughter now has to prepare thoroughly for the exam. If you do not go to private tutoring class, you would have no opportunity to pass the exam, especially the exam to high school for the gifted,” Ha said.

She went on to say that she has put off everything to spend time to bring the daughter to classes and pick her up from school.

“The most important thing for us now is education of the daughter, not the business,” she explained.

Meanwhile, the parents from well off families from other provinces have also brought their children to the exam preparation centers in Hanoi, believing that the centers in big cities would be more helpful than in rural areas.

The Doan Ket High School in Hai Ba Trung district plans to enroll 800 students who registered to study at the school as their first choice. Tran Hung Dao School would receive 900 students as their first choice and 2800 students as their second choice (The students, who do not obtain enough exam marks to enter some high schools, would be able to register to study at other schools, if they can satisfy the requirements of the other schools).

In principle, the students, who want to study at a school at their second choice, would have the exam marks higher by 1.5 marks at least than the school’s required marks, to be eligible for studying at the school. Therefore, a lot of parents decided to choose the “safe option”, i.e. that they register to attend the exams to medium-class schools, which do not require overly high exam results.

Source: KT&DT


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Vietnam - More misconduct at National University revealed

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After receiving a complaint from the Vietnam National University’s Centre for Educational Technology and Career Development (ETC) that the inspection should not be focus on their finances but education management, the Government Inspectorate sent their respond on June 21.

According to the approved inspection plan at 11 education facilities, they also have to review the facilities' revenue and expenditure, which are an important part of their management.

"Inspectorate Nguyen Manh Cuong had violated the regulation by receiving gifts from ETC's deputy head. He was suspended." said the correspondence. "Asides from that we have carried out the inspection in accordance to the law and didn't cause any disturbance to the organisations under inspection."

It also said that the inspectorate had a meeting with Vietnam National University, leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training on January 4 to announce the result. And on January 18, it had a meeting with leaders of both Vietnam National University and ETC.

The inspection team accepted the explanation and used it for their reports. To reach their final conclusions, the inspectorate had meeting with the Ministry of Education and Training, the police, the Supreme Court and Government Office.

On June 8, the Government Inspectorate reported the results to the Prime Minister, who is expected to make a statement on the issue.

Widespread misconduct in the National University’s affiliated programmes were revealed on press. The ETC had skipped many required procedures in their programmes such as allowing students to graduate without needing to do a thesis.

However, their financial inspection revealed more wrongdoings. The ETC finance report showed that it paid VND177.8 billion (8.6 million) for Griggs University to do 70% of the work though in reality, Griggs only did 30%. ETC did not transfer the whole money to Griggs but to another unknown account in Singapore which might be related to Nguyen Quang Hoa Binh, the head of ETC.

ETC also violated the laws when making a full payment for the service companies they own despite the fact that many contract terms hadn't been fulfilled.

However, Vice Chairman of the National University in Hanoi, Vu Minh Giang condemned the the report, saying it contained inaccurate and confusing conclusions. He said because this was an affiliated programme, it followed foreign school regulations.

The school's representative claimed that the inspectorate did not have the authority to investigate their financial situation.

Dtnews


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Vietnam - Students are the biggest victims of illegal joint training programs

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VietNamNet Bridge – Joint training programs have been booming. The watchdog agencies say they are not powerful enough to control all the programs. As a result, students do not know from who they should entreat help in case they become the victims of unlicensed programs.

Legal or illegal programs?

Two days ago, the government inspectors proposed the Prime Minister to instruct the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) not to recognize the degrees granted to the 2000 learners who finished the joint training program between the Hanoi National University and a foreign partner.

This was one of the numerous problematic joint training programs run by Vietnamese schools in cooperation with foreign partners. Every time, when the frauds are discovered, MOET usually orders to stop enrolment, requests the trainers to reimburse tuitions to learners and asks its Examination and Accreditation Department not to recognize the degrees to be licensed by the programs.

In most cases, it is learners, who are the biggest sufferers. Therefore, they have been told to be cautious when selecting the training programs to follow.

However, the problem is that learners cannot find out if the programs are legal or illegal, once the schools still exist and the ad pieces about the training programs still can appear on mass media.

Vo Thi Thao Linh, a learner of Raffles International Training Center, said that she sought the information about international schools in Vietnam before she decided to register to study at the center.

“I read on Internet that this is the biggest education group in the region which has 38 junior colleges and universities in 14 countries. If MOET does not recognize the degree, this would be a big disadvantage for us,” Linh said.

Linh, like other learners, all have affirmed that they could not recognize unlicensed programs in Vietnam. The chair of the advisory board of Raffles in Vietnam was the former Deputy Minister of Education and Training. As such, no one could imagine that this was an unlicensed program.

Learners need to protect themselves instead of expecting help

When asked what learners need to do to find out if these or those programs are licensed or unlicensed, Nguyen Xuan Vang, a senior official of MOET, said learners need to learn thoroughly about the programs they intend to follow.

“They (learners) can seek information about joint training programs on the official website of the ministry. If they still have some doubts, they should contact licensed agencies for advices,” Vang said.

However, analysts have commented that this is an impossible mission. The website cannot update information, because many joint training programs have been licensed by other competent agencies, not MOET.

Spent money and got worse

The Decision No. 77 dated December 20, 2007, stipulates that the degrees granted by unlicensed training programs must not be recognized in Vietnam.

As such, even though learners are not fault in following illegal programs, they would still have to bear the consequences. Their study results are not recognized, while in many cases, they cannot get the tuition backs, even though MOET always requests schools to reimburse money.

When asked if MOET would make intervention in the cases, where the schools refuse to reimburse money to learners, Nguyen Huy Bang, Chief Inspector of MOET said that this is the civil liability between the training centers and learners; therefore, learners have the right to claim for money back.

Source: Lao dong


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Vietnam - Disaster management gets the nod

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VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has approved a US$180 million disaster management project.

The World Bank will contribute $150 million towards the total, with the rest coming from Viet Nam, the ministry said.

The project aims to strengthen response to and recovery from natural disasters, as well as schemes to mitigate the effects of landslides, typhoons and sea-level rise in a bid to minimise human and property losses in the central coastal provinces.

The programme will run until 2017.

The project will also strive to improve weather forecasts and disaster warning systems at the national Hydro-meteorological Centre's regional branches, while disseminating accurate information promptly to the public to give people more time to respond to natural disasters.

The money will also be used to trial a new way of collecting and analysing meteorological data.

MARD said that through medium and small scale investment in infrastructure, the project will mitigate disaster risks in the Ca, Ma, Vu Gia-Thu Bon and Tra Khuc-Tra Bong river basins.

In its first phase, the project will be carried out in the central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Nam and Binh Dinh.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News


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Vietnam - High income earners also have to live in pollution

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VietNamNet Bridge – Spending billions of dong to buy villas at high grade residential quarters, but thousands of households at five residential quarters in districts 8 and Binh Chanh in HCM City still have to live in serious pollution.

Spending multi-billion dong to receive bad odors

The Binh Hung waste water treatment plant, which was built in an aim to keep the environment clean, turns out to be the environment polluter. The plant gives terrible smell, threatening the daily life of thousands of households.

In fact, local residents have been living together with the pollution over the last year already. One year ago, they lodged complaints about the terrible smell to local authorities. However, no improvement has been made so far, while the Binh Hung waste water treatment plant has not taken any actions to settle the problem.

As the pollution has become unbearably serious, more than 100 households flocked to the Binh Hung plant on June 26 to express their protest, causing big noise in the area.

Ngo Thien Kim, who lives at Dai Phuc residential quarter, said that she spent billions of dong to buy land, villas and houses here to be able to enjoy good landscape and breathe fresh air, not to receive the terrible smell.

“No one could imagine before that a waste water treatment plant would be located next to the residential quarters. The thing that you meet first every day when you get up is the terrible odor,” she said.

Nguyen Thanh Son, a local resident, complained that he always suffers headache because of the terrible smell. Meanwhile, children and old people, who stay at home all the day, are the biggest sufferers.

The residential quarter project developers have also complained that their business has been performing badly because of the waste water treatment plant. A lot of people contacted the investors to buy apartments or villas here, but they have left after hearing about the smell.

The air pollution in the area has badly affected the business of real estate developers. Real estate developers have to spend multi-billion of dong to build modern infrastructure and provide modern material facilities to attract people. However, their investments prove to be in vain.

Temporary solution applied, long term solution not found

On May 31, Ly Tho Dac, Deputy Director of MTV Water Drainage Company in HCM City, sent a document to the city’s authorities and relevant branches, defending the Binh Hung plant in the case of discharging bad odor to the environment.

According to Dac, Binh Hung plant is a part of the project on improving the water environment in HCM City, which is in charge of treating the waste water from four districts of the city with the total population of 425,000 people.

Dac said that the company has been using some bio-products to ease the terrible smell, but this has not helped much. It is now the rainy season, when the air temperature levels inside and outside the plant are different, paving the way for the arising polluted air to escape to the environment.

He also said that the input organic substance content has been increasing, thus leading to the higher organic substance content in the mud generated after the water processing. This is also a reason behind the increase of the bad odor.

The waste water treatment plant has promised to apply some temporary measures to minimize the bad odor. However, the promise has not satisfied local residents, who said that this is just a temporary solution, while they need long term solution.

Source: Lao dong


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Vietnam - Most Vietnamese hospitals without wastewater treatment facility

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According to the Ministry of Health, 56 percent of hospitals in Vietnam do not have wastewater treatment systems while 70 percent of their current facilities do not even meet with national quality standards.

At present, Vietnam has 13,500 hospitals and health clinics that collectively discharge about 350 tons of solid waste and more than   150,000 cubic meters of wastewater a day.

Only 50 percent of the hospitals in Vietnam actually collect and recycle solid waste, while 73 percent of district and provincial hospitals do not even have the basic facilities to burn toxic waste.

As a result, the Ministry of Health has planned to implement a nationwide project for waste treatment in hospitals at a total investment of US$155 million.

The project is expected to complete by 2017, under which it will   build solid waste and wastewater treatment systems in at least 150 central and local hospitals. Training of human resources to operate these waste treatment facilities will also be provided as part of the project.

SGGP


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Vietnam - More Vietnamese millionaires, but income gap widens

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The number of U.S. dollar millionaires in Vietnam as bright spots in the economy in last year’s first half increased by 33% from the previous year’s same period, but the dark side is that the rich-poor gap remains wide, according to the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM).

In a report on income gap reduction, CIEM cited results of a survey conducted by the wealth management firm Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and the consulting firm Capgemini on U.S. dollar millionaires in Asia in the first half of last year.

According to official statistics of the Vietnam Stock Exchange, the number of U.S. dollar millionaire in Vietnam amounted to nearly 170 last year, with 100 richest people on the stock exchange holding assets worth over US$2 million each and two people meeting requirements of the US$100-million club.

“This is a good and encouraging signal after 20 years of renovation,” said CIEM in its report.

However, CIEM also cited a report of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs issued last year, saying that the number of poor households nationwide was one million, up 50% under the new poverty standards and accounting for 20% of the population.

This contrary picture reflects the economic growth going in line with negative effects, in which the income gap has become wider. In other words, according to the World Bank, the disparity between the rich and the poor in Vietnam has changed from being relatively small in 2002 to increasingly wider between groups.

The income differential between cities and regions has also turned clearer. Specifically, the average income per capital was around US$1,850 in Hanoi, US$3,000 in HCMC and US$2,350 in Can Tho last year.

Besides, the figure in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province in 2010 reached US$5,800, five times higher than the country’s average income at that time. While HCMC and Hanoi only set the income per capital targets of some US$4,800 and US$3,300 respectively in 2015, the target set by Ba Ria-Vung Tau is US$11,500, and even US$15,000 if inclusive of crude oil.

On the contrary, the income of poor provinces is very low, with only around US$900 per capita per year in Nam Dinh Province, over US$700 in Bac Kan Province, over US$400 in Quang Ngai and less than US$300 in Ha Giang Province.

SGT


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Vietnam - Dirty tricks played in “bidding war” to scramble for jobs

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VietNamNet Bridge – The “contractor-investor’s war,” where involved parties play dirty ruses leads to the lack of transparency in bidding and causes a big waste of resources. The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) believes that once e-bidding mechanism is applied, the problem would be settled.

The “bogus investor”

A new model of inviting for bid, called the “he-cries-wine-and-sells-vinegar bidding,” has appeared, putting authentic tenderers at a disadvantage. A businessman related that in many cases, the projects’ investors, when posting the information on mass media to call for bid, provided the addresses which did not exist.

The investor of the project on building the technical infrastructure system for the new urban area development in Hoai Duc district in Hanoi, for example, showed the wrong address and contact numbers.

Tenderers were told to buy bidding documents at the head office of an architecture design consultancy and investment company, headquartered in Chuc Son town of Chuong My district in Hanoi. However, since the address and telephone number did not exist, tenderers had to spend time to go to every corner in Chuc Son town to look for the right addresses until the announced time for selling bidding documents finished.

The bogus address was really a trap for tenderers.

In another case, a contractor in Hanoi finally successfully bought the bidding documents for a project after he had to overcome a lot of difficulties put by the investor. However, he did not grab the chance to join the bid, simply because he was too late. He bought the bidding documents at the time when the bid was nearly to close, and he did not have enough time to prepare for the bid.

According to the contractor, this was the project on building the 4th-class rural road network in a commune in Dien Bien province.

Projects’ investors play a lot of trickeries to put big difficulties to block authentic contractors’ way and give the opportunities to the contractors they want.

A lot of investors put sky-high and unattainable requirements on contractors in order to keep contractors far away from the bidding.

The investor, who called for the bid on the procurement of 200 sickbeds for a hospital, set unreasonable financial requirements on tenderers. The candidates needed to have the average turnover in 2008, 2009 and 2010 at 50 billion dong and higher. Meanwhile, the value of the bid package was just 900 million dong.

Projects’ investors also taste bitterness

In other cases, a lot of investors also “reaped bitter fruits” when “cunning” tenderers played dirty with them. In general, the investors were young and inexperienced enough.

The investor of the project on expanding the clean water supply system in TN commune is a typical example. The investor posted the invitation for bid on mass media, clearly showing the deadline for the issuing of bidding documents. However, the investor only received two tender documents when the deadline came. Therefore, the investor decided to extend the deadline, while the notice about the extension was also posted on mass media.

Only one more set of tender documents was sent. Of the three tenders, only X Company could satisfy the requirements of the investors. One of the other two did not have the required financial capability, while problems found in the tending prices offered by the other tenderer.

The story here is that X company kept other contractors away, while hiring the other two to act as the “chessmen” to sacrifice to help X obtain the bid package.

Hai Dang


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Vietnam - Investors can see M&A opportunities from SOE equitization

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VietNamNet Bridge – The restart of the State owned enterprises (SOEs) equitization process has been seen by experts as the golden opportunity for the merger and acquisition (M&A) market.

The government has decided to refresh the SOE equitization process which once reached a deadlock due to the sharp falls of the stock prices. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has recently announced the plan to restructure 889 SOEs in 2011-2015, of which 367 enterprises would be equitized, while the other 532 enterprises would be either put for assignment, sale, contracting, leasing or dissolution.

Also according to MOF, 93 SOEs have registered to carry out the equitization right in 2012, including the 22 SOEs belonging to ministries, 33 SOEs under economic groups and general corporations, and 33 local enterprises.

The list of the SOEs includes the big names that foreign investors have been eyeing, such as Vinatex, a textile and garment group, Binh Son petrochemical refinery, Viglacera, a building material manufacturer, or Lilama – the machine installation and construction corporation.

Prior to that, the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group Vinashin offered to transfer its stakes in 32 companies in different fields, from investment funds, gas, tourism, porcelain to oil rig manufacturing.

Thirteen subsidiaries and the land assets at four other subsidiaries of the shipbuilding groups have also been put on sale.

The land properties include 318,000 square meters in waters area for aquaculture in Quang Binh and Thua Thien-Hue provinces; the land plot for education establishments and the new urban areas in Da Nang City and Quang Nam province.

This is a part of the program on restructuring enterprises of the big economic groups with 200 subsidiaries. Under the program, Vinashin would retain 15 subsidiaries, two joint ventures, one associated company by 2013

The restructuring process at Vinashin, plus the equitization of a series of SOEs, are the goals of many investors.

According to Pham Tuan Anh, Deputy Director of the SOE Renovation Department, there were nearly 6000 SOEs in 2001, while the figure has dropped to 1309, while 60 percent of which would have to go equitized in the time to come.

“The equitization process would be sped up, which would serve as a great opportunity for investors to make merger and acquisition deals,” Tuan said.

Andy Ho. Managing Director of VinaCapital, the investment fund which has invested in four SOEs, including Vinamilk (dairy producer), Phu My Fertilizer, Lam Thao Fertilizer and Phuoc Hoa rubber, has said that the equitization process in Vietnam, an indispensable activity in a developing market of Vietnam, has entered the final stage.

He believes that the liquidity in the stock market would increase, thus pushing up merger and acquisition affairs. He can see a high possibility of SOEs making IPO (initial public offering) in the next three years.

The list of attractive enterprises, according to Andy Ho, includes Vinatex, Vietnam Airlines, Vinafood 1 and Satra. Especially, the equitization of MobiFone, a big telecom corporation with the turnover of 2.1 billion dollars and pretax profit of 286 million dollars, has become very attractive in the eyes of investors.

The government of Vietnam has been urged to speed up the equitization of SOEs as an effort to restructure the state owned economic sector which is enjoying most of the national resources, but still cannot bring the desired effects.

Source: TBKTSG


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YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com