VietNam Society: 8/15/10

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Display celebrates heroic Hanoi

An exhibition at the Ho Chi Minh Museum celebrates Hanoi's heroic struggle for independence, peace and reunification last century.

On display are more than 200 documents, pictures and objects, many of them for the first time, designed to give visitors an insight into the country's struggles during President Ho Chi Minh's life and the subsequent years that saw military victory against the US and the reunification of the country.

The exhibition is divided into three parts.

The first features famous quotations, and maps and pictures of old Hanoi that strive to capture the ancient city's elegance, refinement and beauty during its struggle for independence from colonial France .

Many documents and pictures celebrate the fearless determination of the people of Hanoi to overcome their colonial oppressors.

The second part of the exhibition covers the period during the American war of destruction against North Vietnam . It bids to depict Hanoi as the spiritual capital of the country.

Hanoi established itself as a centre of socialist construction while helping the rest of the country fight US forces.

The last part of the exhibition portrays Hanoi as the City for Peace, the titled bestowed by UNESCO.

In 1975, Vietnam gained total independence. Hanoi then set about healing the wounds of war. Pictures reflect the capital's socio-economic development and urban renewal.

A visitor from Germany said the exhibition had helped him see the war from a different perspective.

"I often see documents and pictures of the war in Vietnam through information sources of the US , but this is the first time I have seen the country and its capital through documents in Vietnam ," he said.

The National Archives Centre, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, the Party Central Committee's Archival Office and the Hanoi Central Archives have organised the exhibition to mark Hanoi 's 1,000th year.

The exhibition will run until October./.

Vietnam tackles drought impacts

Vietnam tackles drought impacts Nearly two months into the rainy season, the long-term effects of the drought have spurred the government to send rice and aid to the hardest-hit provinces.

On Tuesday (August 10), Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung instructed the Ministry of Finance to allocate 7,100 tons of stored rice for several cities and provinces in need.

The support was announced six days after an international stakeholders meeting held in Hanoi to discuss the shortages.

The meeting, held August 4, was convened to raise awareness about the drought’s impacts and to discuss several mitigation strategies. Participants in the event included representatives from the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Coordination Group for Natural Disasters and Emergencies and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

“With virtually no rainfall for seven months since September 2009, drought has affected the whole of Vietnam from the northern mountainous areas to the southern Mekong River Delta,” the United Nations said in a statement issued Tuesday.

“Consequently, fires have burned forests throughout the country and salt water intrusion in the Mekong River Delta area has penetrated up to more than 70 km from the coastline. The impact is widespread and is affecting all sectors of the Vietnamese economy and society, including agriculture, energy, irrigation, water supply, fishery and food production,” the statement said.

By July 2010, 87,158 hectares of rice, or 21.4 percent of the then-planted total area, had been affected by drought, the UN said.

Experts at the meeting floated the ideas of improved reservoir management, upgrading irrigation systems, and training farmers in growing drought-resistant crops and efficient farming and drought prevention techniques. They also urged further research on salt water intrusion into inland rivers and freshwater rice paddies.

Boycott fear forces river polluter payout

Consumers succeed where governments failed as Vedan capitulates on compensation demand

Products of Taiwanese-owned monosodium glutamate maker Vedan were taken off the shelves at a Saigon Co.op supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City. Officials said the boycott of Vedan’s products at local retailers has partly prompted the company to accept the compensation claims of afected farmers.

Taiwanese river polluter Vedan Vietnam has caved in to public anger and agreed to pay full compensation to affected farmers after playing hard to get for more than a year.

Nguyen Thai Lai, deputy minister of Natural Resources and Environment, informed the press on Monday (August 9) that the MSG maker has committed to paying farmers in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau compensation of VND45.7 billion (US$2.39 million) and VND53.6 billion ($2.8 million) respectively.

These are sums calculated by the Institute for Environment and Resources under direction from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and later approved by local governments.

At the time of the announcement, Vedan and authorities in the southern province Dong Nai hadn’t reached an agreement on the compensation, but two days later, the company offered the province nearly VND119.6 billion ($6.26 million) as estimated by the institute.

Dong Nai’s authorities have not commented on the offer thus far.

While authorities in other two localities committed their support to farmers, authorities in the most affected province, Dong Nai, were reticent about applying pressure on the company despite the prolonged damage it had willfully inflicted on the local environment.

The Dong Nai Farmers’ Association had, at one stage, declined to back affected farmers in filing a lawsuit against the company on the grounds they would find it difficult to prove the extent of damage suffered in court.

Farmers willing to go ahead with the lawsuit were backed by lawyers from HCMC who felt they had every chance of winning the lawsuit, and later by local lawyers as ordered by Dong Nai’s authorities.

Vedan Vietnam was caught in 2008 discharging untreated effluents directly into the Thi Vai River in Dong Nai Province through secret underground pipes. It had been doing this for 14 years, inflicting serious damage on the river system, fish farms as well as rice fields located on the banks of the river.

While it admitted its culpability, the company had balked at paying the compensation demanded by affected farmers in three localities. During the negotiations, it refused to accept the calculation of compensation with various arguments, despite repeated pleas by all the affected governments for a more reasonable settlement offer. On the farmer’s side, the initial demand for compensation was whittled down many times.

It said it was not solely responsible for the pollution, that the calculations of damage were groundless, and that its own findings indicated much lower levels of damage.

However, Vedan has become “clearly aware” of its responsibilities to pay compensation to farmers affected by its polluting the Thi Vai River, Lai said at the press briefing.

The company has also realized that it is facing a high risk of being boycotted in Vietnam and that thousands of farmers were currently filing lawsuits against it, Lai said.

The Saigon Co.op and Big C supermarket chains announced last week that they had stopped selling Vedan products.

“Vedan’s leaders want to end the case and don’t want farmers to bring it to court,” Lai said.

“We hope that Vedan Company will continue operating efficiently and for the long-term in Vietnam on condition that it properly compensates affected farmers for what it caused,” he added.

In an interview with press agencies after the meeting, Vedan Vietnam General Director Yang Kun Hsiang said they will pay 50 percent of the compensation within one week of signing an agreement with authorities in HCMC and Ba RiaVung Tau, and the other 50 percent will be paid next January.

Hsiang made the same proposal in a written offer of compensation sent to Dong Nai People’s Committee on Wednesday.

Hsiang said his company hadn’t agreed to pay compensation as claimed at first because they needed time to verify the conclusions reached by the Institute for Environment and Resources.

Vedan had maintained earlier that the conclusions were illogical and made counter offers that were rejected as too low by farmers and authorities.

The company initially offered VND7 billion to Dong Nai, then raised it to VND15 billion and later to VND30 billion. The offer to Ba Ria-Vung Tau started as low as VND6 billion, and was later raised to VND10 billion, while HCMC was offered VND7 billion at first, and VND12 and VND16 billion later.

It’s not over

However, Vedan’s latest move doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be freed from legal procedures.

Tran Van Cuong, vice director of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said local authorities cannot say whether affected farmers will withdraw their lawsuit after Vedan’s capitulation.

Nguyen Van Phung, chairman of HCMC Farmers’ Association said that while waiting for compensation agreements to be signed, affected farmers in Can Gio District will continue with their lawsuits.

“Our viewpoint is that everything will only end after Vedan pays the compensation,” he said. “I believe that when Vedan agrees to pay, Can Gio farmers will not want to file lawsuits.”

Nguyen Duc, chairman of Dong Nai Bar Association, also said its lawyers will continue helping local farmers complete procedures to file lawsuits against Vedan.

Ex-official faces bribery charge in Japanese graft case

Ex-official faces bribery charge in Japanese graft case Vietnamese investigators are seeking bribery charges against a former senior official in a scandalous graft case related to a Japanese ODA-funded project, an official said Thursday.

Huynh Ngoc Si, former head of the East-West Highway in Ho Chi Minh City, accepted US$262,000 in bribes from Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International (PCI) in 2003 to help the company win contracts under the project, according to Pham Quy Ngo, chief of the Ministry of Public Security’s Police General Department.

Vietnam began looking into the case in December, 2008 after four former PCI executives said they gave Si $2.6 million in bribes in a quid pro quo bid to secure contracts.

According to Tuoi Tre newspaper, Si will face further charges, once the Ministry of Public Security concluded on further allegations from former PCI executives’ that they bribed him on six additional occaisions--apart from the alleged $262,000.

Investigators in Vietnam are currently awaiting more information from Japanese authorities with whom they are cooperating on the case, it said.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s investigators sought the charge against Si, because the deadline for the investigation has ended, according to the news source.

The accusations were made on November 11, 2008 as PCI leaders stood trial in Tokyo for violations of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, which prohibits the bribing of foreign government officials.

Japan later prosecuted the officials for offering $820,000 in bribes.

The scandal led Tokyo to temporarily suspend official development assistance (ODA) loans to Vietnam in December the same year. They resumed in February.

However, it was only after 3,050 pages of materials received from the Japanese agency were translated that authorities placed Si under investigation in January.

Si, former vice director of HCMC Department of Transport is now serving six-year jail term for “abuse of power” for illegally leasing office space to PCI from August 2001 and November 2002 and pocketing VND1.2 billion (current $62,959) from the agreement.

In September 2009, Si was sentanced to three years in jail.

Following an appeal heard by the HCMC Supreme People’s Court in March, Si's sentence was doubled.

Si’s subordinate Le Qua was sentenced to five years in prison on the same charges.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Farmers to drop lawsuits following Vedan payout agreement

Farmers to drop lawsuits following Vedan payout agreement Farmers in Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province said they will drop their lawsuits against the MSG manufacturer, Vedan Vietnam, if the river-polluter fully follows-through with its compensation committments.

On Monday, Vedan agreed to compensate farmers in Can Gio a total of VND45.7 billion (US$2.39 million) for damages caused by its fourteen year pollution of the Thi Vai River.

For the past year, the Taiwanese-owned manufacturer has turned down the district’s compensation requests and made meager counter-offers to affected farmers.

On Friday, representatives from the Can Gio District Farmers Association in HCMC signed an agreement to postpone litigation on the condition that Vedan pays out 50 percent of the sums promised within the next week.

The second half of the compensation will be paid by January 14, 2011; the money will be guaranteed by the Bangkok Bank Public Co., Ltd. in HCMC, according to the agreement.

Farmers in the southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau signed a similar agreement [for VND53.6 billion (US$2.8 million) the same day.

In the meantime, authorities in the southern province of Dong Nai, the area most affected by Vedan’s pollution, have yet to respond to the company’s offer of nearly VND120 billion ($6.29 million).

The Dong Nai farmers are expected to reach a decision after a meeting between authorities and related agencies next Monday.

Meanwhile, local farmers are still filing lawsuits against Vedan, according to Nguyen Duc, Chairman of the Dong Nai Bar Association. Duc said that, so far, they have received 2,500 petitions from farmers, nearly half of which have been filed in court.

In an unrelated river pollution case, authorities in the central province of Quang Ngai Friday asked the Quang Ngai Sugar Joint Stock Company, to meet with affected farmers to formulate a compensation package.

The company was caught discharging untreated wastewater into the Tra Khuc River from May, 2009 until April 2010. Over 420 farmer families in Son Tinh District and Quang Ngai Town have claimed damages worth nearly VND3.9 billion ($204,724).

If the two parties can’t reach an agreement, local agencies will help farmers bring the company to court, according to the Quang Ngai People’s Committee.

The company’s crime was discovered in early May when tons of assorted marine creatures and thousands of ducks were found dead along the river.

Suspects apprehended in downtown double-murder

Suspects apprehended in downtown double-murder Police have arrested two suspects in connection with last week's triple stabbing in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. The arrests comes after a week-long manhunt.

Initial reports showed that on, August 6, Nguyen Quoc Tan, 21, was driving around on a motorbike with his friend, Nguyen Van Ut, 29. After turning down Cong Quynh street, in District 1, the pair nearly collided wtih another three men riding on two motorbikes.

A heated argument ensued and Hoang Dinh Hung, 27, one of the three men, took off his belt while other two - Nguyen Minh Duc, also 27, and Nguyen Chi Dung, 26 - took off their helmets and began striking Tan.

In the scuffle, Tan produced a knife and stabbed his attackers, he told the police.

Duc died from five stab wounds; Dung was felled by just two, while Hung survived his three wounds.

What happened next has remained a mystery until now.

When the police arrived at the scene, they had little to go on. Witnesses reported seeing two knives and various accounts differed on the make of the assailants' motorbike, police told a Thanh Nien reporter.

Onlookers also explained that this was not a gang-related knife fight and they did not believe that there was anything connecting the two parties in the crime.

Eyewitnesses did seem to agree that the first four digits of the knife wielder's liscense plate were 54Z7. For the last four, they could only provide one number.

Luckily, Hung woke up in the hospital and was able to give a physical description of both the motorbike as well as the man who had stabbed him.

They tracked down a motorbike in District 7, to Tan's nephew, who initially denied having loaned his bike to anyone, the night of the killing. After some questioning, the boy admitted that his uncle Tan was driving the bike on the night in question, police said.

According to the authorities, the two desperate men did their best to avoid capture.

After the deadly exchange, Tan drove Ut to Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, where he threw the murder weapon into a garbage bin, the younger man told police.

Tan hid out in the adjacent Binh Duong province, while Ut fled to Dong Nai province.

According to police, Tan said he bought the knife that same day, along with some fruit, to share with his drinking buddies in District 7. He met Ut on his way back from the fruit shop; the latter had asked for ride to the Children's Hospital in District 1 to visit his child.

Police say the investigation is still underway.

Suspects apprehended in downtown double-murder

Vietnamese tourist killed in Australian bus accident

Vietnamese tourist killed in Australian bus accident A Vietnamese man died when the bus he was travelling in toppled to one side Sunday during a tour in Australia, injuring 23 people.

The dead person has only been identified as a man in his mid-forties. He was reported as having not fastened his seat belt, so thrown out of the bus and crushed by the bus to death, Ryan Reynolds, reporter of the Australian newspaper Geelong Advertiser, told Thanh Nien.

Two other Vietnamese were critically injured and taken to Melbourne by helicopter. Others were sent by bus to nearby hospitals.

The bus was carrying 27 people, most of them tourists from Vietnam, China and Hong Kong, when it skidded and toppled to one side at around 2:30 p.m. local time, ending up on the sidewalk of Tomahawk Creek in Irrewillipe city, 160 kilometers from Melbourne. It was raining hard at the time, the police said.

Local sergeant Shane Howard said it had been raining unceasingly for the past four or five days, making the sidewalk slippery and muddy, Geelong Advertiser reported.

Investigators have surmised that the driver had lost control as the street was slippery due to wet weather.

There're no signs that any other vehicles have been involved in the accident.

The name of the tour operator has not been released.

The accident is being investigated further and Vietnam Embassy in Sydney is identifying the victims.

Four teens charged with murder of Vietnamese national in Scotland

Four teens charged with murder of Vietnamese national in Scotland Four young men aged between 14 and 16 in Scotland were to appear in court Monday onr charges of murdering a delivery man of Vietnamese origin last week, BBC reported.

On the night of August 11, 40-year-old Simon San, 40, got out of his Smart car and was walking towards the Yong Hua Garden takeaway, where he worked, when the group assaulted him, according to the news source.

San was later found unconscious outside the pub next door by his sister Shirley San, who runs the takeaway in Lochend Road, according to local Daily Record.

He died the next day in hospital from severe head injuries.

San's family, who have been living in Edinburgh for 30 years, described him as "a shy, hard-working and non-indulgent man."

It was an “unprovoked attack”, detective chief inspector Gareth Blair was quoted as saying by Daily Record.

"We have no reason to believe this was racially motivated and none of our witnesses has reported that the youths were drinking or taking drugs," he said.

The police had reportedly failed to act on previous complaints about a group of youth causing trouble in the neighborhood, the Daily Record reported.

However, Blair said “there is absolutely nothing to say this attack is linked" to the troublesome group.

Good Samaritan gets merit certificate

Good Samaritan gets merit certificate The man who saved a train driver after a railway accident on August 6 received a certificate of merit from the country’s railway administration Sunday.

Nguyen Quang Dai, 43, from the northern province of Ha Nam was awarded the certificate at his home by Khuat Minh Tri, labor union chairman of Vietnam Railways.

Earlier, directors of Hanoi Locomotive Factory also called on Dai to thank him and hand over some gifts.

Upon hearing the train crash near his home on August 6, Dai rushed to the scene and saved the life of driver Truong Xuan Thuc who was stuck in the dark locomotive bleeding copiously from life-threatening injuries. It took Dai two hours to save the driver.

As the driver was stuck in his chair and using a crane only worsened the situation, Dat borrowed tools from a nearby motorbike garage to remove nails and move the chair along with the driver.

Then he bit through the driver’s leather sandal thinking that using knife or other sharp impliments might end up with the driver losing his foot.

Nguyen Dinh Thong, director of Hanoi Locomotive Factory, said it would have been quicker to move Thuc out by amputating his legs, but Dai didn’t do that.

“And when people shouted that the train was going to catch fire, he was still industriously removing nails,” Thong was cited by the news website Vnexpress as saying Thursday.

“No one can neglect seeing a fellow creature crying for help. Many people in my position would have done the same thing,” Dai said.

Dai said he had first used a handkerchief on the train and pipe tobacco in his pocket to stop the bleeding.

“When I was a soldier, I saw many injuries and I’ve learnt that we should quickly stop the bleeding or it would be very dangerous,” Dai was cited by Vnexpress as saying.

On August 6, the north-south train almost hit a tipper truck crossing the railway and Thuc had hold the brake lever firmly. He lost one arm and saved the lives of more than 300 passengers. Drivers usually just moved the lever to one side, which would save them from severe injuries but not slow the train down as quickly, Thong said.

Thuc, who's worked 22 years for the railway, still travelled to work on a bicycle, unable to afford a motorbike, local news reports said.

Dai said he wishes the railway industry installs fences at every crossroads between the railway and residential roads.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Labor exporters urge accord with Israel

The Overseas Workers Management Bureau is working hard to reach an agreement on labor with Israel to open the way into this lucrative market for Vietnamese farm workers.

Bureau chief Nguyen Ngoc Quynh unveiled the plan after emphasizing that the absence of such an agreement was a major hurdle for Vietnamese guest workers to tap the world’s most developed agricultural market, which is not demanding while offering high incomes.

The fact that Israel needs just between 4,000 and 5,000 guest workers annually while Thailand has already met up to 60 percent of the demand has pushed Vietnamese authorities to rush to reach an agreement in this field.

The Overseas Workers Management Bureau says guest workers can get paid between US$1,300 and 1,500 a month.

In 2008, the Middle East market embarked on receiving Vietnamese guest workers through a program of cooperation in training of apprentices signed with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

As a result, 236 Vietnamese guest workers have been so far sent to work in Israel with annual net incomes ranging from $5,000 to $7,000.

Gov’t approves $33.4 million for maths development

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a VND651 billion (US$33.4 million) maths development program during the 2010-2020 period.

The program focusing on maths research, application and lectures aims to bring Vietnam maths to the 40th position in the world’ rankings by 2020 from the current 50-55th position.

By 2020, Vietnam strives to have enough qualified maths lecturers at universities and colleges, more than 70 percent of whom are PhD degree holders. Maths institutes and a number of major universities’ maths faculties are expected to become regional maths training and research centers by that year.

The program aims to improve the quality of maths training and broaden its scale at general education and higher education as well.

Under the program, the number of internationally announced maths publications is expected to double from the 2010 figure.

To achieve these targets, the program will build the Maths Research Institute (MRI), to assist key maths application schemes, send maths researchers and teachers overseas for further training and organize domestic and international maths conferences.

Maths is among basic sciences that have developed well in the country since 1954, said Prof Le Tuan Hoa from the Vietnam Maths Association, adding that Vietnam won one gold, four silvers and one bronze at the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) 2010 in Kazakhstan.

Vietnam has attended the IMOs 34 times since 1974 with 45 golds, 82 silvers and 63 bronzes. The country has been among the top 10 countries of almost 100 countries and territories over the past 10 years.

Noteworthy, Prof. Ngo Bao Chau, who is the country’s youngest maths professor and famous for the Langlands’ fundamental lemma project, is a candidate for the Fields prize. The prize will be announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians in India on August 19, 2010.

Transport of pigs under scrutiny to stop blue-ear

A veterinary staff member carries out a biopsy on a carcass at Thuan Loi slaughter-house in HCM City. The city has ordered closer monitoring of the way pigs are transported into the city to keep out blue-ear disease. —VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hai

HCM CITY — Chairman of the HCM City People's Committee Le Hoang Quan has ordered for closer monitoring of transport of pigs into the city to keep out blue-ear disease.

The chairman also called for increased awareness of the disease among pig farmers.

"All measures must be taken to ensure safe pork is available for Tet (the Lunar New Year) early next year and farmers and breeders have disease-free animals for breeding after the epidemic abates," he said.

According to a preliminary report by the city Division of Animal Health, inspectors in District 9 found and destroyed more than two tonnes of pig carcasses in Long Binh Ward. They had been brought in from Dong Nai Province's Trang Bom District.

In Binh Chanh District, authorities found and destroyed 2.1 tonnes of infected meat at an illegal food shop.

In districts 1, 2, 12, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc, animal quarantine stations seized and destroyed more than 5.3 tonnes of illegally transported pork and suckling pigs.

Phan Xuan Thao, head of the animal health division, said the transport of pigs with blue-ear disease into the city from other provinces had been rising since the end of July.

And, things are worsening in the city's neighbourhood. All samples taken from pigs transported from Tay Ninh Province tested positive for the disease. For Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, the number was 35 out of 50.

Nguyen Trung Tin, city People's Committee deputy chairman and head of a Standing Board for Animal Diseases Prevention, said the city also had to focus on ensuring the safety of its 30,000 pigs.

He ordered the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to work with provinces to prevent the illegal transport of pigs, and the Division of Animal Health to disinfect the city, especially breeding and slaughter sites.

He asked the State-owned Vissan Company to buy up all the stocks of pigs sold by farmers to ensure there would be adequate supply this year.

Van Duc Muoi, the company's general director, fearing an impending pork scarcity, said the company would carry out the city's orders.

So far 22 provinces and cities have reported outbreaks of blue-ear disease.

Van Dang Ky of the Department of Animal Health said Can Tho and Ben Tre Province were the two latest locations to report outbreaks.

The department has sought clearance from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to import 210,000 more vaccines from China for pigs.— VNS

Viet Nam determined to be a maths powerhouse

HA NOI — Viet Nam will spend about VND650 billion (US$34.2 million) to develop its expertise in mathematics during the next ten years.

A national programme aimed at fostering maths research, application and teaching, both qualitatively and quantitatively, has been approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Viet Nam aims to be one of the top 40 countries in relation to maths by 2020, a big leap forward from its current rank of 54th.

The programme sets detailed goals, which includes substantially boosting the ranks of qualified university maths lecturers. Authorities hope that more than 70 per cent of maths lecturers at large universities will be PhD degree holders by 2020.

Twice as many

The number of internationally declared research projects by Vietnamese mathematicians is expected to double over the current number, which accounts for only 0.21 per cent of the world's maths research.

An Advanced Mathematical Research Institute will also be built as the first step to achieve the plan's targets.

The institute will provide support to mathematical research projects and top-level mathematical training to university lecturers, mathematicians, new PhD degree holders and researchers. It will also implement outstanding, highly-applicable mathematical research projects and ideas.

More efforts will be spent on improving classes specialising in maths at the secondary and tertiary level, with exams held to select outstanding maths students for scholarships and training to raise the quality of maths teachers.

University Maths lecturers will also be encouraged to focus more on research and mathematical researchers and lecturers will be offered opportunities to study abroad on exchange programmes.

World-leading mathematicians, including Vietnamese living overseas, will be invited to come to Viet Nam for training, research and implementation of key mathematical research.

Funding will focus on major mathematical research projects that have practical uses, while authorities will also prioritise the hosting of international and national mathematical conferences, including the Asian Mathematical Congress, which Viet Nam will host in 2017.

Tran Quoc Huy, a mathematics degree holder working at an IT company, said the prog-ramme addresses the neglect of maths.

"I'm glad that the country has recognised the importance of maths, which has been seen as less important than many other modern sciences in Viet Nam during the past decade," Huy said.

Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan said excellence in maths is prized around the world.

Therefore, Viet Nam needed to follow the lessons learned at the world's mathematical institutes.

Mathematics is already one of the country's most developed basic sciences, which Viet Nam has developed since 1954, which is reflected in the country's strong performance at International Mathematical Olympiads for students.

Among the latest efforts, six Vietnamese students attending the 51st International Mathematical Olympiad in Astana, Kazakhstan last July won one gold, four silver and one bronze medals.

Other success stories include renowned professor Ngo Bao Chau, who will be a plenary speaker at the 2010 International Congress of Mathematics, held in India today. He is a strong candidate for the Fields Medal, the ‘Nobel prize of mathematics', at the event.

Not modern

However, no current mathematics faculty at Vietnamese universities uses modern mathematics teaching methods, according to Professor Le Tuan Hoa, deputy head of the Mathematics Institute.

Meanwhile, the number of good students who choose to pursue mathematics as their first degree was on a decline, he said.

Only 850 Vietnamese scientists have ever completed a mathematical research work.

The total number of Vietnamese mathematicians still pursuing a mathematical career was now less than the size of a mathematics faculty at a university in developed countries, said Hoa. —VNS

Cattle from Thailand bypass border quarantine checks

QUANG BINH — Thousands of buffaloes and cows have been imported from Thailand without going through quarantine procedures, a media report said.

The regulation on a 15-day quarantine period was not being imposed at the Cha Lo Border Gate in central Quang Binh Province's Minh Hoa District, a report in the Nong thon Ngay Nay (Countryside Today) newspaper said.

The official excuse was the long distance between the Animal Health Department and the segregation areas made the cost and transportation of food for the stock expensive.

Quarantine certificates were being issue within as few as 1-7 days, the report said.

Importing livestock can be lucrative. One buffalo or cow can be bought for VND10 million ($523) in Thailand and sold for VND15-20 million ($785-1,046) in Viet Nam.

As many 10,000 buffaloes and cows crossed the border in the first seven months of the year.

Under regulations, livestock must go through seven stages of a 15-day quarantine period, supervised by Cha Lo Border Gate's Customs, Animal Health Agencies No 3 and the provincial Animal Health Department.

After 15 days, if segregated buffaloes and cows show no signs of disease, the owners receive quarantine certificates and the stock can be sold on the domestic market, the regulations state.

Violators are liable to a fine of VND15-20 million (US$785-1,046).

However, the rules were being ignored by agencies, the report said.

Provincial Animal Health Department head Pham Hong Son said "We just issue quarantine certificates for companies after the Animal Health Agency No 3 finish all quarantine procedures for animals and send files to us."

If animals had diseases, responsibilities belonged with the agency, Son said.

Besides, he said, the department and agency faced many difficulties in quarantining animals. Transporting feed for animals for 15 days was expensive, he said.

"We have submitted a proposal to building one concentrated segregated station in the Khe Ve area in Minh Hoa District," he said. — VNS

Germany demands refund of aid from province

Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park was named World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003

German development bank KfW has asked Quang Binh Province to refund aid money worth US$257,400 after local authorities failed to comply with agreements on preserving the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park.

KfW had approved aid worth $18.5 million to the central province in 2008 and last year transferred $257,400 for planting and protecting forests.

But the Phong Nha Ke Bang authorities failed to protect the 2,000-square-kilometer park, named as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003, from destruction to make way for farms, the bank said in a letter to the province People’s Committee.

The province has done virtually nothing to plant trees on 4,250 ha in the buffer zone as agreed, it said, or make a survey of the park’s bio-diversity.

Nguyen Huu Hoai, chairman of the Quang Binh People’s Committee, admitted lapses in the KfW-funded preservation project.

But the project will be placed directly under the management of the People’s Committee as agreed with the bank, he said.

The Phong Nha Ke Bang national park, around 500km south of Hanoi, includes one of the world’s largest limestone regions with 300 caves and primary forests.

HCM City needs school rooms

HCM CITY — Construction of new classrooms in HCM City has not met demand for the school year, forcing some districts to increase classroom enrolment.

At a workshop held yesterday in HCM City, Le Hong Son, deputy head of the city's Department of Education and Training, said that all levels from kindergarten to high school were faced with a classroom shortage.

Although detailed plans on classroom construction have been concluded for some time, the pace of building projects has remained sluggish.

Son said the city had built 1,059 new classrooms for the academic year, but this was still not enough.

Do Thi Hoa, deputy head of the Education Bureau in Go Vap District, said two wards in the district had no primary or secondary schools.

Students who live in these wards have to go to school in other wards, leaving classrooms crowded and teachers overburdened with work.

For this school year, Go Vap District lacks 460 classrooms, which has led to a decline in the number of day-boarders.

Moreover, the district's schools cannot meet the standard classroom size, which is 30 students for kindergarten and 35 for primary school.

Nguyen Thi Kim Quy, deputy chairwoman of the Fatherland Front Committee in Tan Phu District, said a shortage of rooms led to a drop in the number of children studying during the day.

Tan Phu District lacks 628 classrooms, including primary and secondary ones.

In Thu Duc District, the number of first graders has increased this year, overcrowding classrooms.

The average number of first-graders in each classroom in Thu Duc District is 43, according to the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee of HCM City's Board of Cultural and Social Affairs. — VNS

VietNam Society

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Display celebrates heroic Hanoi

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Vietnam tackles drought impacts

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Boycott fear forces river polluter payout

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Ex-official faces bribery charge in Japanese graft case

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Friday, August 20, 2010

Farmers to drop lawsuits following Vedan payout agreement

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Suspects apprehended in downtown double-murder

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Vietnamese tourist killed in Australian bus accident

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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Labor exporters urge accord with Israel

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Gov’t approves $33.4 million for maths development

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Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park was named World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003

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HCM City needs school rooms

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