Trade key to better human rights in Vietnam - NZPA
Prime Minister John Key says improving New Zealand's relationship with the southeast Asian nation can help.
Mr Key, who is in Vietnam, said the Government was aware of human rights issues in Vietnam and discussed them with the Vietnamese. "I don't think we're going to make progress lecturing people but we can certainly make progress having a discussion and dialogue with them, pointing out the expectations of the developed world when it comes to human rights. "And from time to time there may always be issues that may either involve New Zealanders or involve others where we step in and take a strong stance," he said.
Amnesty International said in its 2009 report on human rights in Vietnam a crackdown on dissidents continued, with severe restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly. A group of Catholics peacefully protesting over a land dispute were attacked and more than 200 ethnic minority Montagnards fled to Cambodia to seek asylum from persecution, the report said. The United States State Department said Vietnam's human rights record was unsatisfactory, with instances of police abusing suspects during arrest, detention and interrogation, and people being denied the right to fair and expeditious trials.
According to the Human Rights Watch group, three Vietnamese men who campaigned for workers rights and victims of land confiscation had been detained since February. It was unknown if charges had been laid against the men who were not allowed to contact lawyers or their families. The group's deputy director for Asia, Phil Robertson, said given the harsh treatment of political detainees in Vietnam, he was concerned authorities would use torture or cruel treatment to extract confessions from the men.
Mr Key said while human rights issues in Vietnam were not perfect, progress was being made. "We try our best to use our economic relationship and the growing strength of the relationship to improve human rights," Mr Key said.
"One option is just to say that we wouldn't have a commercial relationship with a country that had a human rights record that we didn't approve of, but I'm not sure that that would actually take us anywhere." Instead, the Government would use its friendship to reach out and speak about the issues.
New Zealand's two-way trade with Vietnam is worth about $500 million a year; exports to Vietnam totalled about $315m, 40 percent of which was dairy products. New Zealand mainly imported wood, furniture and clothing.
New Zealand essentially has free trade agreement with Vietnam through the Asean-New Zealand-Australia agreement, to which both are parties. Vietnam was also involved in Trans Pacific Partnership) negotiations.
Mr Key hoped building on that economic relationship would put New Zealand in a position to guide Vietnam to improved human rights issues.
Today he met with Vice President Nguyen Thi Dzoan and laid a wreath at the mausoleum of the late president Ho Chi Minh and at the monument of the National Heroes and Martyrs to commemorate the 37 New Zealander servicemen who died during the Vietnam war. Mr Key departs Vietnam tomorrow after a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and a courtesy call on President Nguyen Minh Triet.
Liberal trade must come with worker freedom, Vietnam told – AFP
Vietnam must allow free workers' unions if it wants to liberalise trade with the US, a group of American senators said Wednesday during a visit to the communist country. Their comments came shortly after Vietnam, the US and six other countries concluded the second round of talks toward a proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. "We wanted to explain to all the government officials we met with that the issue of labour rights, worker rights, freedom of organisation is an essential -- an essential part -- of any future liberalisation of trade agreements with the United States," Senator Tom Harkin told reporters. The Iowa Democrat is chairman of a Senate committee responsible for labour and other issues. Vietnam bans labour unions that are independent of the ruling Communist Party.
US-based Human Rights Watch said in May that Vietnamese authorities had re-arrested Doan Huy Chuong, 25, one of the founders of an independent trade union, and held him almost completely incommunicado. Harkin, along with two other members of his committee -- Senators Al Franken of Minnesota and Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- was to meet Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung later Wednesday. They earlier held talks with officials including the Minister of Labour Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan. Sanders told reporters that before any free-trade agreements could be established it was imperative that "workers in Vietnam have the right to organise, to form unions, to negotiate contracts... independent unions elected by the workers themselves."
Labour issues are among those being discussed as part of the prospective TPP deal. The eight participants held a second round of talks last month in the US.
The Senate delegation to Vietnam comes 15 years after the normalisation of diplomatic relations with the US, following a war that lasted several years. Despite differences over human rights issues, relations between the two countries have grown across a range of areas, and the US is Vietnam's most important export market.
Russia, Vietnam plan new offshore oil deal - Reuters
Russian state oil firm Zarubezhneft will sign a deal with Vietnam’s Petrovietnam in October to develop the 09-1 oil field off the south of the Asian country, Interfax news agency reported on Sunday. Zarubezhneft is a long-time partner with state oil group Petrovietnam in their 50/50 venture Vietsovpetro, which produces over 6 million tonnes per year (120,000 barrels per day).
Petrovietnam is drawing up an agreement for the further development of the 09-1 Block which will be submitted to the Vietnamese government by the end of July, Interfax quoted Zarubezhneft deputy director Viktor Gorshenev as saying.
Vietnam to host ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, ASEAN Regional Forum meeting - Xinhua
Vietnam will host the 43rd ASEAN ( Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Ministerial Meeting and the 17th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) conference from July 19 to 23, said Vietnamese Assistant Foreign Minister Pham Quang Vinh here on Thursday at a press briefing. Vinh said that together with the two above-mentioned meetings, Vietnam will also hold post-ministerial conferences which include ten ministerial meetings between ASEAN and ten dialogue partners including Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States respectively.
The meetings are held annually and can be considered important meetings of foreign ministers of countries in Southeast Asia and Pacific, Vinh said. At the meetings, participants are expected to focus their discussions on measures to promote cooperation within the ASEAN bloc and in the Asia-Pacific region, and preparations for the summits such as the 17th ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit in October this year, according to Vinh.
Specifically, delegates will put forward measures to implement decisions made at the 16th ASEAN Summit in April this year, discuss ways to accelerate the process of building the ASEAN Community and bringing the ASEAN Charter into the reality and gain support of partners to achieve these goals, and exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest, he said.
The Vietnamese assistant foreign minister said that a number of important documents will be signed and adopted at these meetings. A Joint Communique is expected to be adopted at the end of the 43rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting while Chair Statements will be issued at other ministerial meetings to announce their outcomes and results, he said.
At the 17th ARF meeting, participants will officially approve an action plan to implement the vision of ARF statement by 2020, creating an overall framework for collaboration within the ARF from now to 2020. The third Protocol amending the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) will also be signed to facilitate the accession of the European Union and European Community to the treaty, according to Vinh.
Moscow to help Vietnam build subway - Xinhua
Moscow will assist Vietnam in building a subway in its capital Hanoi, the chief of the Moscow metro said Saturday."The issue is being considered and discussed," Dmitry Gayev told RIA Novosti news agency. He said a metro construction agreement was reached in February, when a Moscow government delegation visited Vietnam. But he added that until now no time frame has been set yet.
The Moscow metro is the world's second busiest and one of the most popular underground transport systems. It is known worldwide for its rich decoration of stations with art at the epoch of socialist realism.
Vietnam attaches importance to ties with U.S - Xinhua
Vice Chairman of Vietnam's National Assembly Nguyen Duc Kien said here on Thursday that Vietnam always attaches importance to ties with the United States. Kien made the remarks at the meeting with U.S. Senator James Webb, Chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations here on Thursday. At the meeting, Kien expressed his expectation that the comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and the United States will be promoted in both bilateral and multilateral scopes.
Vietnam expects to see further economic and investment cooperation with the United States, considering it as a momentum for the development of bilateral relations. The two countries need to speed up cooperation in coping with climate change and sea level rise for the common interest of the two peoples, said Kien.
At the meeting, Kien appreciated the support of the U.S. Congress and people in settling the lingering dioxin issues and demining in Vietnam. The country is looking forward to receiving more effective and practical support from the United States in these fields.
During the meeting, the senator James Webb said he was impressed by the rapid changes of Vietnam as well as the development of U.S.-Vietnam relations in the past time and believed that the relations will be strengthened in the future. The U.S. senator also said he would try to make contribution to addressing the consequences of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
Vietnam counts cost of record heat wave – DPA
A heat wave settled over north and central Vietnam since March was affecting agriculture, power generation and health, officials said Friday. Over a third of the central region's rice crops had failed, said Bui Ba Bong, deputy minister of agriculture and rural development, and hydroelectric dams were running dry.
Temperatures in the north and centre of the country reached 41 degrees Celsius in the shade, according to the National Hydro-meteorological Forecast Centre. "Vietnam is experiencing the hottest weather since 1949," said centre director Bui Minh Tang. "The record temperature was 40.4 degree in the shade in 1949."
Bong said the draught had destroyed about 100,000 of the 254,000 hectares of rice fields planted in the central provinces this year, with losses estimated at 2.5 trillion dong (135 million dollars). A further 100,000 hectares had not been cultivated in the region due to water shortages. If measures are not taken in time, losses could reach between 5 and 6 trillion dong, he warned.
Power cuts were frequent, as the central region's hydroelectric reservoirs were drying up, said Dao Van Hung, chairman of the Electricity of Vietnam Group. The state-run newspaper Tuoi Tre on Friday quoted Vu Duc Giang, chief executive officer of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group, as saying power cuts had caused a loss of 300 million dollars to his group.
The heat has led to a sharp increase in hospitalizations, in particular among the aged and the very young, state-run Vietnam News reported. "Doctors at the National Paediatrics Hospital are treating between 1,800-2,000 children each day, almost double a normal day's figure," Vietnam News quoted Nguyen Thanh Liem, director of the hospital, as saying. The majority were suffering from fevers, respiratory-related diseases, encephalitis and digestive disorders, said Liem.
Key aims to cement relationship with Vietnam - NZPA
Cementing New Zealand's relationship with Vietnam through trade, aid and our bid for a spot on the United Nations' Security Council has been the aim of Prime Minister John Key's trip to the southeast Asian nation. Mr Key arrived in Vietnam on Saturday. Today he will meet Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and President Nguyen Minh Triet.
New Zealand gave $10 million in annual aid to Vietnam and the Government would be looking to maximise the value of that, Mr Key said. Vietnam's needs had become more complex as the country grew and the aid relationship would need to adapt. New Zealand aid money goes into education, including for senior officials to travel to New Zealand for study, and to cooperating with non-government organisations in the country.
Mr Key said he was as confident as he could be that Vietnam would remain a partner in Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations (TPP). He raised the TPP with Vietnamese government and Communist Party leadership. They expressed that they wanted to be part of it, he said. "They see it as an important step forward, so all the signs are positive but this is a very difficult negotiation."
Mr Key said New Zealand was hopeful Vietnam would support New Zealand's bid for a place on the United Nations Security Council in 2015/16. New Zealand had secured quite a number of votes already, he said. "We continue to be in a position where it's only New Zealand and Spain at this point -- the World Cup champions I might add -- so with a bit of luck we'll get through in that category unopposed."
Other countries may come in at the last minute so it was worthwhile New Zealand securing votes, he said. "Last time New Zealand was on the Security Council we did a tremendous job, we were well respected and I think it would be quite a feather in our cap if we could get that nomination for the 2015/16 period."
Mr Key was in Vietnam to celebrate the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Vietnam and to meet government and Communist Party officials. He will return for the East Asia Summit later this year. At that time he will also celebrate a commemorative event to recognise the 35th anniversary. The Communist Party's general secretary Nong Duc Manh, who is currently out of the country, would be back then.
Mr Key arrives back in New Zealand tomorrow afternoon.
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam To Jointly Develop Triangle Area - Bernama
Parliaments of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam have signed an approval for the three countries to jointly develop a triangle area, China's Xinhua news agency reported Friday. Citing the joint statement, the agreement allows of having a joint-controlled border point as well as setting up of a website with English language as an international language and the three nations' national languages.
The joint statement was released on Friday after the two-day parliaments meeting, which kicked off on July 7 in Kratie province in Cambodia. The meeting also discussed the roles of parliaments on how to help promote triangle development plan among the three countries.
The triangle development area covers four provinces in Cambodia: Rattanakiri, Stung Treng, Mondulkiri and Kratie, with three provinces in Laos and four provinces in Vietnam. It is the annual meeting and Vietnam hosted the meeting last year.
In 2002, leaders of the three countries agreed to boost for economic benefit, promoting tourism, exchanging culture, as well as to well cooperate in social order, security and to reduce poverty
Remnants of war still deadly threat in Vietnam's Quang Tri – AFP
Something resembling a broken green plate suddenly catches Staff Sergeant Mike Overton's eye. "I need you to back up," he quickly warns a reporter. In Vietnam's Quang Tri province, which a survey found to be 80 percent contaminated with unexploded munitions from the Vietnam War, Overton has just discovered another potential threat.
Overton, 28, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, quickly determines that the remnant of a Russian-style Claymore mine, packed with ball bearings, no longer poses a danger. It was lying atop Hill 881 South, a Vietnam War battlefield still littered with an assortment of ordnance including rifle ammunition, mortar and anti-tank rounds, grenades, and remnants of missiles.
In Quang Tri province none of this is unusual, says Chuck Searcy, country representative for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. The fund sponsors Project RENEW, a group which has spent years trying to protect Quang Tri residents from the leftover explosives known as UXO (unexploded ordnance).
The UXO problem which exists throughout Vietnam is at its worst in Quang Tri, along the former Demilitarized Zone that divided then North Vietnam from the U.S.-backed South. The area was heavily bombed and fought over, and now is increasingly popular with tourists.
Since the end of the war in 1975, 2,774 people have been killed and 3,986 wounded by UXOs and landmines in Quang Tri, said a detailed survey released last year. Casualties have fallen dramatically in recent years, but they still occur.
Ho Van Nguyen, a father of six, died in February while cutting weeds on his slash-and-burn farm. He apparently struck a cluster munition, said Project RENEW, one of several charities addressing the legacy of war debris in the province.
More than a third of the land in six provinces of central Vietnam, including Quang Tri, is contaminated with UXOs and landmines, said the survey released by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and Vietnam's Ministry of defense. It said more than 80 percent of Quang Tri is affected, and unexploded bombs create fear among residents, hindering economic development.
Local people are "afraid to farm up there" on Hill 881 South, said Le Huu Hanh, 64, who served with North Vietnamese forces in that area during the war. Hanh overcame his fear of the leftover munitions and returned in May to try to help U.S. military investigators pinpoint the site where remains of a U.S. Marine could be found.
To safely clear the way, Overton, a U.S. Air Force explosives ordnance disposal (EOD) technician, was part of that team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. Known as JPAC, the unit investigates American missing-in-action cases and recovers the remains of those it finds.
Just as the team and its Vietnamese liaison officers reached the top of the hill, Overton found a grenade and three mortar rounds. Other war debris lay in plain view among scattered pine trees and bomb craters. "Forty millimeter," Overton said, pointing at one decaying projectile beside an overgrown foxhole. He was armed only with an Excalibur II metal detector that he hefted like a weapon. Overton concluded that none of what he found posed a threat, but he left markers around all the ordnance. Hill 881 South where JPAC worked is uninhabited. Elsewhere in Quang Tri, local residents face the danger of UXOs and are encouraged to report suspected explosives.
Project RENEW, working with Norwegian People's Aid, has set up special EOD teams that respond to those alerts from the public. They have been called out 1,000 times in the past couple of years to safely remove and destroy more than 3,000 pieces of ordnance, Searcy said.
In April the government approved a plan which aims to clear by 2025 about 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres), 20 percent of Vietnam's contaminated land. That would cost more than 34 trillion dong (US$1.83 billion), Vietnamese officials have estimated, with funding from local and international sources.
Vietnam holds 99 for fraud -- AP
State media say police in southern Ho Chi Minh City have arrested 99 Chinese and Taiwanese for allegedly swindling millions of dollars from victims located mostly in mainland China. The 76 Taiwanese and 23 Chinese suspects were arrested between late June and last week.
The Tuoi Tre newspaper reported on Thursday that the suspects made random calls over the Internet from Vietnam to people mostly in mainland China. The suspects posed as police, court officials, or postal employees and asked the victims to wire money to special accounts. The newspaper says the group began operations from Vietnam in March after a crackdown in China and Thailand. Victims were robbed of several million dollars each week.
The newspaper says 29 Taiwanese suspects have been extradited. The rest will be deported later.
Vietnam poachers arrested for killing rare monkeys - DPA
seven langurs, an endangered monkey species, a forestry official said Thursday. The men were arrested Wednesday in the Van Ninh district in Khanh Hoa province while carrying the dead langurs out of the forest, the region's head forest warden, Phan Huy Thang, said. The police seized the dead primates, which were initially identified as black-shanked douc langurs, as well as two rifles and nine rounds of ammunition, Thang said.
The poachers might have been assisted by the langurs' behaviour, the warden said. If one of them is shot, other langurs tend to gather around it. "That creates good chances for poachers to kill all of them easily," Thang said.
Black-shanked douc langurs are listed on the red list of critically endangered species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation, and are on Vietnam's own national red list.
Many officially endangered animals are hunted for their flesh and body parts in Vietnam, where they are widely believed to have medicinal and spiritual value.
Outrigger announces plans for Vietnam resort - AP
Hawaii-based Outrigger Enterprises Group has announced it will co-design and manage a luxury resort to be built along the central coast of Vietnam. The five-star Outrigger Vinh Hoi Bay Resort and Spa will be part of the Vinh Hoi Bay Golf Resort being constructed along a secluded beach north of Quy Nhon in Binh Dinh province, the company said in a news release.
The hotel is expected to open in late 2013. It will offer 210 guest rooms and suites, 46 private villas and a two-story grand villa. Six food and beverage outlets are planned, in addition to a cooking school, a wellness center, amusement zone, fitness center, library, adventure center and retail outlets. "We look forward to being a part of what is sure to become Vietnam's most recognized resort destination," said Darren Edmonstone, Outrigger's senior vice president for Asia.
Outrigger, a family-owned company with more than 60 years of hospitality experience, said its participation is included in an agreement signed with developer Vietnamese American Hotel and Resort Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the American company ITC Spectrum LLC. "Vinh Hoi Bay is a world of peace and tranquility in an off-the-beaten-path area of rural charm," said Canh Tran, chairman and CEO of ITC Spectrum, "The pristine mountain and beach setting of the Vinh Hoi Bay Golf Resort offers a distinctive variety of environments and varied terrain to provide the basis for the most unique and memorable integrated resort experience in Vietnam."
The Vinh Hoi Bay Golf Resort will include five luxury destination hotels, as well as individual villas. The centerpiece of the resort will be an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones II
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