Free Republic

Construction on Vietnam’s second refinery started Wednesday as the country plans to increase its petroleum output to meet growing energy demand. The Nghi Son refinery, which will cost a total of around US$9 billion to build, will have a refining capacity of 200,000 barrels per day, or 10 million tons per year, once it comes online in 2017. As a team, the new plant and the existing Dung Quat refinery are expected to satisfy 65 percent of the nation’s oil and gas needs by 2020. Dung Quat, Vietnam’s first refinery, opened in the central province of Quang Ngai in 2009....

The US-led TPP trade pact that will include Vietnam among its signatories is expected to be wrapped up this year, but Vietnamese firms are unsure if they will benefit. Many are anxious since foreign investors with deep pockets are planning to set up operations in the country to take advantage of the lowering of import taxes by many large economies that will sign up for the trade deal. For instance, import tariffs in the US, the biggest customer for Vietnam’s leading export, textiles, will be cut from 17-32 percent now to zero. Many textile and garment companies in the region...

Cross ownership of banks poses a threat to the entire financial system, but authorities have done little to deal with the problem. “[Pervasive] cross ownership involving state-owned, joint stock, and foreign banks, financial companies, and state-owned and private firms is complicated and becoming a serious problem in Vietnam,” economist Dinh Tuan Minh said. Economist Bui Kien Thanh said cross ownership is one of the main reasons for the increasing bad debts in Vietnam, which were at 8.6 percent of banks’ total loans as of the end of March, according to the central bank. The issue is serious that it was...

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam's fledgling airline industry is poised for a boom as local competition heats up with fleet expansions, new routes and planned share offers that are set to make it one of the world's three fastest growing markets. Even as the local economy chugs along at about 5 percent growth, its slowest pace in 13 years, demand for domestic air travel is growing by double digits. That is translating into a surprisingly robust new source of business for Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote), Airbus (EAD.PA: Quote) and regional aircraft makers such as Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp (7011.T: Quote), Bombardier Inc...

(Reuters) - Relatives offered words of comfort to a teary-eyed woman paying her last respects as an undertaker slammed shut the door of the cremation chamber and flames engulfed the small coffin of a cherished family member. The hastily arranged prayers, cremation and scattering of ashes in Vietnam's capital was for Capi, a 13-year-old dog that died that day after a battle with diabetes. Capi's owner had called Bao Sinh Dog-Cat Resort, a one-stop shop with services rivalling anything on offer to humans. "I'm so glad this place exists. Otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with Capi's body," said...

HA NOI: The task to reduce non-performing loans (NPLs) and increase charter capital as well as complete basic ownership structure of weak credit institutions would be given priority in the period of 2013-14. The advice was made by Le Xuan Nghia, member of the government advisory board and former deputy chairman of the National Financial Supervisory Committee. Addressing the conference entitled "Movements of macro-economy and prospects of Vietnam's bank restructuring process" held in Ha Noi yesterday, Nghia said the basic task for bank restructuring last year was to fundamentally ensure liquidity and handling weak credit institutions. "After two years of...

(Reuters) - The United States and Vietnam on Thursday signed a pact that would allow the transfer of nuclear technology to the Southeast Asian nation and open the way for U.S. investment in the burgeoning industry, in another sign that Washington is seeking stronger economic and strategic ties in the region. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S.-Vietnam Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement would allow U.S. firms to tap Vietnam's future nuclear power market, although the State Department said the deal will not allow Vietnam to enrich or reprocess U.S.-origin nuclear materials. "This agreement will create numerous opportunities for...

Many foreign firms in Vietnam have shifted their focus away from production to trading imported products as import tariffs have fallen under free trade agreements. Late last year Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp sent a letter to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung saying it cannot set up a factory in Vietnam as planned, and would instead sell imported automobiles in the country. Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh said it was regrettable since such projects are vital to the country. Vietnam hopes foreign investment would help it develop key sectors like automobiles, electronics, and processing industries by bringing technology....

Trade fraud is an increasing problem for Vietnam's gas industry, said Tran Trong Huu, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Gas Association, at an online discussion in Ha Noi last week. Market watch teams dealt with 400 gas trading violations in the first eight months of the year, confiscating over 15,000 gas tanks and collecting penalties that totaled 2 billion dong (US$95,200). Many enterprises used fake gas tanks to pump gas themselves from remote areas, said Do Thanh Lam, deputy head of the ministry's Market Management Department. Huu said that authorities were too lax in granting licences to gas businesses....

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has struck a deal to advise the Vietnamese government on economics and trade, The Telegraph reported Sunday. A team of Blair’s consultants are working with the foreign ministry to support economic and trade links with the UK and the European Union, according to the report. The deal was confirmed after Blair flew to Hanoi on two separate occasions in 2012 and 2013 for talks with Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung. On the first visit last October, he offered to advise the Vietnamese government on issues including reforming the economy, attracting more foreign investment and...

Authorities in an outlying Hanoi district have set up special taskforces to hunt and catch and kill stray dogs after at least 117 people were bitten by those infected with rabies. Nguyen Thi Cam, a resident in Soc Son District’s Bac Son Commune, said a stray dog, possibly from a nearby province, wandered by her house, attacking her five-year-old granddaughter on June 29. “I chased it away with a stick. But it returned several hours later and bit three other people before running away,” she said. “It looked like a mad dog with red eyes. Its hair stood up on...

The prime ministers of Vietnam and China said they both intend to settle East Sea disputes peacefully at their meeting in China’s Nanning City Monday, Vietnam News Agency reported. The discussion between PM Nguyen Tan Dung with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang coincided with the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the 10th China-ASEAN Business-Investment Summit. The two leaders held that both nations need to cooperate to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea, and resolve every point of contention via non-violent negotiations. PM Dung emphasized that the two sides should strictly abide by the agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement...

If you’re Caucasian, have a pulse and all your teeth, you’re guaranteed an English teaching job in Asia. This is a running joke in English as a Second Language (ESL) circles, which is indicative that racism abounds in the TEFL industry in the continent. For those with fair skin and a university degree or an English teaching certificate, finding a teaching job in Asia is uncomplicated and easy as recruiters actively seek the quintessential all-American. For everyone else, racial discrimination is a harsh reality. In South Korea and China it isn’t uncommon to come across job posts that read “white...

A new species of velvet worm has been discovered in the jungles of Vietnam. Unlike related velvet worms, however, this one has uniquely shaped hairs that cover its body, and it reaches a length of 2.5 inches long, said Ivo de Sena Oliveira, a researcher at the University of Leipzig, Germany, who described the species in Zoologischer Anzeiger. The paper suggests that thousands of unknown species of velvet worms are just waiting to be found throughout the world's tropical rain forests. Oliveira's research suggests that in the Amazon rain forest alone, there may be a new species of velvet worm...

The headlines-grabbing story of a former soldier who fled into the jungle with a year-old son and lived there for 40 years took an angry turn Friday with the former’s nephew claiming he had burnt their jungle dwelling down. Ho Van Lam, 44, a resident of the mountainous district of Tay Tra in the central Quang Ngai Province says he was upset with criticism over his charging people money to guide them to the makeshift-hut that is located 40 kilometers deep in the jungle. On Friday morning, several news websites had reported Lam had charged visitors, including reporters, VND4 million...

AFP - Vietnam is offering free classes in Marxism, Leninism and the teachings of Ho Chi Minh in a bid to revive interest in the ideology behind the country's system of government. Philosophy students will not have to pay university tuition fees under a new scheme aimed at encouraging more people to embrace the unpopular classes. "We have not received enough applications for these subjects," a professor of philosophy at a state university told AFP on condition of anonymity Thursday because he was not authorised to speak to the press. "Students only apply for subjects which offer realistic prospects of...

HO CHI MINH CITY/SINGAPORE, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Desks are empty, the office silence broken only by a handful of staff chit-chatting or playing on cellphones. It's another slow day at the headquarters of Vinacafe, a state-owned firm once the vanguard of Vietnam's coffee export boom. "There's no one here for you to talk to," a receptionist said when asked who was in charge at the Vietnam National Coffee Corporation in Ho Chi Minh City, the hub of an industry that produces 17 percent of the world coffee output. The bosses and managers of Vinacafe have either quit or were...

Less than a week after being "rescued" from a jungle home they built and fled to 40 years ago during the Vietnam War, a former soldier and his son have both asked to go back. They were taken from their dwelling, where they had been ever since their house was bombed in 1972, by a group of family members and local officials last week. Ho Van Thanh, the 82-year-old father, has recovered with some medical care after being carried from his home 40 kilometers deep in the jungle in the central province of Quang Ngai on a hammock last Wednesday....

Pico Dragon, the Made-in-Vietnam micro satellite, was shipped to the International Space Station ( ISS) Sunday to prepare for a mission in space, state-run Vietnam News Agency reported Sunday. Accordingly, the micro satellite, together with three other micro satellites of the United States, was carried by Japan's Kounotori 4 (HTV-4) cargo spacecraft. The two-stage H-2B rocket carrying the HTV-4 ship lifted off at 4:48 am Tokyo time (19:48 GMT Saturday), initiating a five-day journey to the International Space Station. Vietnam's Pico Dragon is programmed to capture images of the earth, collect space environment data and test communication systems, said the...

HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - Tycoon Henry Nguyen mopped floors, flipped burgers and even cleaned toilets over a 10-year campaign to convince McDonald's Corp to let him bring Big Macs and Happy Meals to communist Vietnam. McDonald's is making a late entry into this market, where Yum Brands Inc already has dozens of Pizza Hut and KFC outlets and Burger King Worldwide Inc has 15 restaurants. Even Starbucks Corp debuted in Ho Chi Minh City in February and opened its second branch last week. Capitalism has taken root in a country that many Americans associate more with an unpopular...