Avenue project ex-manager prosecuted

The Supreme People’s Procuracy on Sept. 9 prosecuted Huynh Ngoc Si, former director of the Management Board of the ODA-funded East-West Avenue project in Ho Chi Minh City, on charges of “taking bribes”.

According to the procuracy’s indictment, Si took 262,000 USD from executives of Japan ’s Pacific Consultants International (PCI) for awarding design and supervision consultancy contracts to the company.

As the ex-PCI officials, who were prosecuted on charges of bribery and violations of Japan ’s anti-competition laws, confessed that Si received their bribes seven times in total, the Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Agency decided to continue further investigation.

The ex-employees with Japan’s PCI claimed that they gave Si bribes totaling 800,000 USD in exchange for the provision of consultancy services for the East-West Avenue project. The bribes were given between 2003 and 2006, at a time when the project in Ho Chi Minh City was underway.

The East-West Avenue project was approved in 2000. It used the Japanese Government’s ODA and Vietnam ’s capital.

On September 25, 2009, Si was sentenced to three years in jail on charges of “abuse of power” when carrying out the East-West Avenue and HCM City Water Environment Improvement project./.

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Seminar calls for institutional reform in VN

A seminar on institutional reform was held on September 9 in Hanoi with the participation of policy makers, researchers and foreign advisors.

Sponsored by Vietnam’s Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) and USAiD-funded Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative, phase II, the event aims to build a long-term institutional system and raise its effectiveness through better management to sustain competitiveness.

Experts shared the most effective tools for management and institutional reform, including organisational factors to speed up reform, administrative reform and discussed international trends in this issue.

Scott Jacobs, a senior international expert, said there should be reform in the labour market, infrastructure and economic policies to promote the prosperity of Vietnam. He added that Vietnam has higher success capability in institutional reform than the Republic of Korea or Singapore.

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, deputy head of CIEM, said that institutional reform would help lessen the burden on businesses, increase transparency, maximise national resources, support economic growth and generate more jobs./.

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Experts talk infectious disease prevention

Over 100 experts from the US, Japan, Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines convened in Hanoi on September 9 to discuss experiences in combating infectious diseases spread by virus from insects and animals in the Southeast Asian region

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien expressed her hope that the seminar would share helpful information on preventing infectious diseases spread by virus, discuss safe biological solutions to minimise their effects as well as develop new research and advanced technologies in an effort to combat diseases in the Southeast Asian region in particular and the world in general.

About 30 scientific reports identified the causes of the diseases, along with factors such as climate change and people’s hobbies which may hasten the spread of disease in the community, and warned about the occurrence of new and old diseases such as the SARS epidemic, A/H1N1 flu, malaria, petechial fever and allergy.

The seminar, jointly held by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Vietnam’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, lasts till September 10./.

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Vietnam, Laos to open joint wartime museum

The two neighbouring Vietnam and Laos are to open a joint museum in the Lao province of Savanakhet in memory of the two countries’ struggle for national salvation.

The information was released by Vice Director of the Savanakhet provincial Department for Labour and Social Affairs Bounauer Phomkhe on September 9.

He said the museum construction started in late 2007 at a cost of some 5 billion Kip.

On display will be war-era relics related to Lao and Vietnamese soldiers and people as well as enemy uniforms and weapons collected at the battlefields, especially during the bloodshed of Lam Son 719 and Road No. 9 campaign.

The exhibits would help visitors better understand the significance of the two nations’ struggle for independence and the aggressors’ nature, Phomkhe said.

The museum will also provide materials for research on the history of the struggle for revolutionary movements in Laos and educate its young generations in the special solidarity with Vietnam, which, he said, was cultivated by blood and bones./.

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WB launches another poverty reduction project

The project on poverty reduction in northern mountainous provinces launched its second phase on September 9 in Hanoi with 150 million USD in loans from the World Bank.

The 165 million USD project will be carried out from 2010-2015 in more than 2,300 villages in the six provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Dien Bien and Lai Chau.

The project aims to improving living conditions of local people by raising access to infrastructure, the institutional capacity of local authorities, the output of local communities, market connectivity and business initiatives.

The WB’s Director in Vietnam , Victoria Kwakwa, hailed Vietnam ’s achievements in poverty reduction, saying that she hoped the project will continue to contribute to the country.

The Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh, said the rate of poor households in the six targeted provinces is high, from 23-30 percent compared to the national average of just over 11 percent.

So, the WB’s assistance to the project will help Vietnam meet its UN millennium development goals on poverty reduction by 2015, he said.

With 130 million USD, the first phase of the project, in six northern mountainous provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Hoa Binh, Son La, Bac Giang and Phu Tho, has made a significant contribution to improving the local residents’ standard of living./.

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Inspectors uncover ‘wrongdoing’ at health ministry

The government’s Inspectorate has accused the Ministry of Health of “several wrongdoings” in the purchase and stockpile of anti-bird flu drugs like Tamiflu.

In a report last week, inspectors also recommended to the government to “discipline individuals and organizations involved in the case.”

The report said that between late 2003 and late 2005, there were only 91 cases of A/H5N1 influenza but the ministry proposed in November 2005 to stock 30 million anti-viral pills, enough for three million patients.

The government approved the purchase of 20 million at a cost of VND562 billion (US$28.9 million).

Half of them are now past their expiry date.

The report also accused the ministry of importing raw materials for anti-viral drugs from India and Singapore at a 50 percent higher price than offered by Swiss company Roche.

The products have a shelf life of just three years compared to Roche’s 10 years, it said further.

The ministry permitted four drug firms to import the raw materials without reporting to the Ministry of Finance, it said.

They bought more than 2,000 kilograms from the Indian company Hetero Labs Limited and Singapore’s Mambo Overseas Limited at $12,000 a kilogram but the ministry reported a price of $17,500-$18,000, it said, adding they pocketed the difference of around $6.8 million.

Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu told Tien Phong newspaper his ministry is awaiting a final decision from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, but said any wrongdoing that is uncovered must be severely punished.

He was not in office when it happened, he added.

Nguyen Thi Trung Chien, his predecessor, was the minister at that time.

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American mother helps to ease pains of war

The 90 year old co-founder of Peace Trees Vietnam, Rae Cheney, could not hold back her tears when she visited the country where her son was killed for the first time.

Talking with the Army’s daily newspaper, the Quan doi Nhan dan, Cheney remembered her difficult times after she was informed of her son’s death in 1969 and her decision to open up her heart and act to ease the pain of war.

With the whole-hearted support of her daughter, she set up the non-governmental organisation named Peace Trees Vietnam (PTVN). The organisation became the first US NGO to receive permission from the Vietnamese Government to help clear unexploded ordnance in the country.

PTVN has been working in Vietnam ’s central province of Quang Tri since 1995. It has also organised visits to Quang Tri for many Americans, including veterans and relatives of soldiers who died during the war, so that they can see with their own eyes how the former battlefield has changed after the war and plant trees to celebrate peace in the country.

To date, more than 70,000 such “peace trees” have been planted in Quang Tri.

Rae Cheney, her daughter Jerilyn Brusseau and PTVN’s Executive Director Le Dinh Quang, have been presented with the “For Peace and Friendship among Nations” insignia by the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations. At the awards ceremony in Hanoi , Jerilyn Brusseau, on behalf of her mother, said that the honour will encourage them to keep on their mission of healing and promoting faith and goodwill between both countries.

During her visit to Vietnam , Rae Cheney and her daughter plus members of PTVN and donors will attend ceremonies to inaugurate a kindergarten named after her son, Daniel Cheney, as well as two libraries in Quang Tri. One of the libraries has been named “Mother’s Peace Library.”

Cheney also plans to meet with a Vietnamese mother whose son laid down his life during the war. She said she wants to become a friend of Vietnamese mothers who share the same pain./.

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