As US and Vietnam get closer, rights concerns grow – Christian Science Monitor
April 24th, 2012
Five days of joint US-Vietnam naval exercises that started Monday in Vietnam are the latest signals of growing cooperation between the one-time enemies.
But as the US and Vietnam get close, Vietnam’s human rights record is raising questions among activists regarding whether the US is sufficiently vocal about political, economic, and free speech violations in Vietnam, a one-party state ruled by the Communist Party where all other political parties are banned.
Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch Phil Robertson says, “There is a real need for sustained US pressure on Vietnam to free political prisoners, respect freedom of expression and the vibrant blogosphere that is making Vietnam one of the fast growing users of the Internet in South East Asia, and repeal repressive laws that Hanoi uses to quash individuals and groups that the government doesn’t like.” (more…)
Inflation a concern as Vietnam’s small businesses struggle – The Diplomat
December 13th, 2011
Trang Hoang Yen (seated) checks over new t-shirt sample (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
http://the-diplomat.com/2011/12/13/vietnam-facing-economic-crisis/
HO CHI MINH CITY – With the streetlights warming to a low glow outside as dusk turns to dark, Trang Hoang Yen is still running t-shirts through a sewing machine as most of her staff leave for home.
“Normally we have a lot more workers, but the past year has been very hard for our sector,” she says, stopping work for a few minutes to talk.
Trang Hoang Yen’s small factory, on a side street in Ho Chi Minh City, has seen better days. Down from 30 to 14 staff year-on-year, she says the company’s input costs “have gone up, and production costs have doubled.” (more…)
Vietnam’s Problems, Promises – Asia Sentinel/RTÉ World Report
December 2nd, 2011
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4003&Itemid=214
radio report here - http://www.rte.ie/news/player.html?worldreport#programme=World%20Report
Lu Van Thinh at his bamboo farm in Thanh Hoa province (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Continuing growth is exceeded by stubborn inflation
HO CHI MINH CITY- With average per capital annual incomes of just over US$1,000, Vietnam is officially a lower-middle income country, and in Hanoi, the seat of government, and commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City – still popularly known as Saigon – property prices are on an upward curve and new building and property developments appear shoot up faster than new growth in Vietnam’s lush tropical rainforests.
The appearance is somewhat illusory. The country faces crushing inflation, forecast by Standard Chartered Bank at 19.7 percent in December, with an11.3 percent rise forecast for 2012. The dong is expected to continue to depreciate throughout the year given Vietnam’s US$8 billion current account deficit and low foreign currency reserves. (more…)
Burma’s Vietnam moment? – Christian Science Monitor
December 1st, 2011
At work inside a clothing factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM – A pivotal moment may have arrived for Burma (Myanmar), with the arrival on Wednesday of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the first time in over a half-century that such a senior American official has visited the country.
After her meeting on Thursday afternoon with Burma’s President Thein Sein, Secretary Clinton announced that the US is ready to improve relations and even indicated it could ease sanctions with Burma’s quasi-civilian government if the country continues with recent reforms. “These are beginning steps, and we are prepared to go further if reforms maintain momentum,” she said. (more…)
Ireland pushes education ties with Vietnam in bid to court student market – Irish Independent
November 28th, 2011
Ireland's Minister of State for Trade and Development Jan O'Sullivan and Vietnam's Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan sign education MOU in Hanoi on Monday (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Simon Roughneen in Hanoi – Ireland and Vietnam today launched a deal aimed at increasing the number of Vietnamese students taking third-level courses in Ireland.
Speaking in the Vietnamese capital on Monday morning, Minister of State for Trade And Development Jan O’Sullivan said that “Ireland sees our education linkages as central to the future of bilateral economic relations with Vietnam.”
Currently 40 Vietnamese are enrolled in Ireland’s universities, mostly funded by Irish Government scholarships. To compare, 6000 Vietnamese are studying in the UK, and elsewhere, tapping the Asian student market has created a multi-billion dollar industry within Australia’s third-level education system. Last year 25,000 Vietnamese were part of a total of 240,000 Asian students who enrolled in Australia, up from 180,000 in 2008. (more…)
New turns in South China Sea debate – The Irrawaddy
September 28th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22155
BANGKOK – The ongoing wrangle between China and a number of smaller neighbours over jurisdiction on the disputed South China Sea took a new turn yesterday with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III meeting Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Tokyo.
Without mentioning China, PM Noda told reporters after the summit that both countries would increase “cooperation between coastguards and defense-related authorities”. According to a joint statement issued after the meeting, both countries “confirmed that freedom of navigation, unimpeded commerce, and compliance with established international law including the UNCLOS (the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea) and the peaceful settlement of disputes serve the interests of the two countries and the whole region”. (more…)
Cables shed light as more Catholics arrested – National Catholic Register
September 19th, 2011
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/vietnamese-catholics-plight/
St.Joseph Cathedral in Hanoi (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Leaked U.S. embassy cables reveal power struggle between communist government and the Holy See as more believers are arrested on vague charges.
Weeks after the arrest and jailing of 12 Catholics in Vietnam for allegedly “attempting to overthrow the government,” it has emerged that American officials believe that Catholics who disagree with the communist regime are being “thrown under the popemobile.”
The lurid image headlined one of a tranche of recently leaked diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. According to the same document, dated Nov. 25, 2009, then-Holy See under secretary for Relations With States Archbishop Pietro Parolin (now the Holy See representative in Venezuela) “sharply criticized” former Hanoi Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet over his handling of land-rights disputes with city officials — remarks which U.S. officials speculated contributed to the archbishop’s subsequent resignation.
In 2008, Hanoi’s Thai Ha Church was the scene of 15,000-strong prayer vigils to try to save the church grounds — the former residence of the papal nuncio — from confiscation by the state. However, the meetings were forcibly broken up by police and security forces in the form of state-sponsored gangs, with most of the church grounds subsequently transformed into a public park. (more…)
Territorial Hissings – The Irrawaddy
June 6th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21433
BANGKOK—A rare public protest held on Sunday in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi illustrates how seriously the country’s government takes what it describes as Chinese violations of its sovereignty.
On Sunday morning in Hanoi, hundreds of protesters gathered for half an hour outside the Chinese Embassy, not far from a landmark statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, in the center of the capital. Some apparently came after rallying calls made on social networking sites such as Facebook, despite the latter being officially blocked in Vietnam. After being turned back by police, some of the gathering paraded through city’s streets as far as Hoan Kiem Lake near the old town, chanting anti-Chinese slogans and carrying placards in Vietnamese and English with slogans such as “Protesting Against China Causing Trouble.” In Ho Chi Minh City, the sprawling commercial capital in the south, demonstrators converged on the Chinese consulate on Sunday. (more…)
Promises and pitfalls with investing in Vietnam – Sunday Business Post/RTÉ World Report
May 29th, 2011
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0529/worldreport.html#
James Galvin and developer Chau Luu work on Cork Jazz festival iPhone app (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
By Simon Roughneen in Ho Chi Minh City. By the end of 2012 James Galvin hopes to employ 150 staff at Glandore Systems’ Vietnam operation. This will almost double the current 90 web developers working at the company’s office, a 40 minute drive from the centre of Ho Chi Minh City through frenetic motorcycle-addled traffic.
With headquarters in Cork, the company’s operation in the city known informally as Saigon focuses on software development, including iPad/iPhone applications. Part of the attraction is Vietnam’s low salary structure, with an experienced developer paid US$600 month at Glandore – above the local average according to James Galvin. “Unlike most European-based software operations, we can maintain enough staff to be able to to respond quickly to new opportunities and avoid being overstretched”, he added.
Speaking last week at the Ireland-Southeast Asia Business Seminar, Nguyen Trung Tin of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee said that the trade and investment relationship between Ireland and Vietnam is low, when weighed against the potential links between the two countries. (more…)
Land Activists Face Prison in Vietnam – Asia Sentinel
May 28th, 2011
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3221&Itemid=188
Board games in Saigon. Vietnam's dissidents play a much more dangerous game with the country's Government (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Ho Chi Minh City – Late on a Tuesday evening, sitting four floors up in a Ho Chi Minh City cafe overlooking the city’s landmark opera house, a worried man who used the pseudonym Long had the look of someone who thought he was being watched.
“I drove around the city for 45 minutes before heading here,” he said, hunched over and leaning forward on his seat in a restaurant that was almost empty. Looking around edgily, he said softly, “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being followed.”
At the heart of Long’s problems, and that of his fellow members of a Mennonite Church offshoot, is what they deem to be unfair land seizures that are then turned over to major companies for development by the Vietnamese government. The state maintains sole ownership of land and confiscation in the name of economic development is a continuing irritation. Landowners frequently complain about unfair compensation and criticize the laws on land use, which they say are often abused by corrupt local officials. (more…)
