Tieng Viet lovers club

[KangTuo]

Originally Posted by jackbl

Tê?t Trung Thu vui ve !

You treating me eat mooncake today?
I want double egg york type hor..

[jackbl]

iPhone 3GS running out, market anticipates iPhone 4
================================================== ==

VietNamNet Bridge – Mobile service providers must import nearly one thousand iPhone 3GS to meet high demand while waiting for iPhone 4, which will be launched on September 28.


Hong, 40, in Hanoi, has decided to purchase an iPhone 3GS after many days of wavering between iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. Hong thinks that iPhone 3GS has a beautiful design suitable for women, while the functions are nearly the same as that of iPhone 4. Now the mobile phone shop near her house has run out of iPhone 3GS. She was told that only an old iPhone 3GS, 16GB, white, is available, which sells for 11.5 million dong.

“I have to purchase a brand new product, or I will not purchase anything. Moreover, the product I intend to buy is iPhone 3GS 32GB,” she added.

However, Hong still cannot purchase it, even after checking many other shops.

Nhat Cuong Mobile Shop has also announced on its website it has no more brand new iPhone 3GS 16 GB and 32 GB. Now the shop only has brand new black iPhone 3 GS 8GB priced at 12.8 million dong and old iPhone 3GS 8GB, priced at 10.5 million dong. As for 3 GS 16GB and 32GB, Nhat Cuong Mobile now only has used white products, priced at 11.5-12.5 million dong.

According to the owner of a shop specialising in Apple products, there are four reasons for iPhone 3GS scarcity. First, a lot of people have run out of patience and do not want to wait for iPhone4, so they have decided to purchase iPhone 3.

Second, a lot of people think that the prices of iPhone 4 will be high, without having any outstanding features.

Third, the design of iPhone 4 is described as “manly” and not really attractive to women. Besides, Apple is also not selling iPhone 3GS globally, which has created a short supply on the black market.

iPhone 3GS are not only scarce on the black market, but two telecom companies, VinaPhone and Viettel have also announced that the demand for iPhone 3GS has increased dramatically. Though the two companies imported an additional 5000 iPhone 3GS, retail shops have asked for even more.

A VinaPhone source revealed that 1000 iPhone 3GS were imported by the company late last week, while ½ has been sold already. Vinaphone declined to say if it will continue importing iPhone 3GS.

Meanwhile, Viettel has imported 14,700 iPhones, but some shops in Hanoi and HCM City still do not have products to sell. The telecom company has revealed that it is planning to import more iPhone 3GS while waiting for iPhone 4.

In the latest news, VinaPhone and Viettel are taking final steps to launch iPhone 4, slated for September 28.

VnExpress quoted its sources as saying that at first, Apple decided that iPhone 4 would be launched on September 23, but then the date was delayed to September 28. Meanwhile, the official release day has not been announced by the two distributors. The companies are taking necessary steps for the product launch, including setting up prices and associated service packages.

The prices of iPhone 4 have not been revealed, but telecom companies say they will not be much higher than iPhone 3 and will be lower than products made available on the market by travelers to Vietnam.

VinaPhone added that the volume of iPhone 4 imports will be limited, and that those who want to purchase iPhone 4 must register on the company’s website.


Source: VnExpress

[jackbl]

Vietnam’s mooncakes ‘grease wheels of commerce’
================================================== ===

Vietnam’s appetite for mooncakes is rising as adults use the annual treats, traditionally enjoyed by children, to grease the wheels of commerce.

Mooncakes are a sweet, round delicacy given to youngsters and offered to ancestors during Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Wednesday.

But in Vietnam’s rapidly developing economy they have taken on increased importance for grown-ups who use gifts of mooncakes to build business relationships.

Most of the cakes sell for about one dollar but others, sometimes elaborately packaged and made with expensive ingredients like birds nest or crayfish, can retail for almost VND2 million (US$101).

That is almost three times the official minimum monthly wage for civil servants.

“Those are for the rich, and for bosses,” Nguyen Thi Hoai, 42, who makes her living collecting used paper products, said outside one of the many temporary mooncake shops which have opened around Hanoi.

High-priced mooncakes “are for someone who wants to show off,” a housewife who gave her name only as Huong said as she passed a shop where cakes sold for between VND200,000 and 700,000.

One boxed gift contained eight small mooncakes, their traditional accompaniment of tea, and the modern twist of a bottle of wine – all for VND1.5 million.

Tran Hung Lam, 38, a motorcycle taxi driver, said he saw some people carry out five or even 10 big boxes of high-end cakes from a shop near his parking spot.

“Not worth the money,” Lam declared.

For many people, though, they are.

One woman who works for a large private firm said mooncakes are a way to thank clients, business contacts and bosses for their support.

The cakes are a way to “expand relations,” added the woman who declined to be named. She said her company bought its mooncakes from a luxury hotel, not an ordinary mooncake shop.

The Vietnam News on Friday quoted Nguyen Xuan Luan, deputy director of a major national bakery firm, as saying orders of its luxury Golden Moon cakes were up 20 percent on last year.

Large companies order the cakes to present to staff “and partners”, said Luan, of the Kinh Do company.

Thang Long-Hanoi brand mooncakes had also sold well, even at VND1.8 million for a box of four, he was quoted as saying.

More down-to-earth cakes, which can look something like an Australian meat pie, often contain a green-bean paste and come in a cheap plastic wrapper.

They are commonly given to teachers during the festival, which originated as a way to mark the end of harvest and is also celebrated by Chinese communities around Asia.

Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the most important celebrations in Vietnam’s Chinese-influenced culture, is a time for children to receive toys and is marked with colorful lanterns and lion dances as well as mooncakes.

“It is traditional that one offers a box of these special cakes to someone that you want to please or owe a favor, like your landlord or the local police,” said a supplement to the Vietnam Economic Times.

Gift-giving is part of the culture in Vietnam, but the country is also rated as one of the world’s most corrupt.

Everyone from traffic police to health workers and teachers are widely alleged to receive payoffs.

Gift-giving is not necessarily corruption but could be, said Matthieu Salomon, international senior adviser to Towards Transparency, a local non-governmental organization acting as the “national contact” point for Transparency International, the German-based global anti-corruption network.

“It depends on the value of the present,” said Salomon, whose group is not a chapter of Transparency International.

“It also depends on how people perceive the present, especially whether they feel obliged to offer it and whether people who receive it think they have to give something in exchange.”

Nguyen Thi Tham, 39, who earns about VND60,000 a day, said she did not know whether giving cakes constitutes bribery.

“But Mid-Autumn Festival is the time to show gratitude to certain people,” she said.

[AdGuy]

Originally Posted by KangTuo

You treating me eat mooncake today?
I want double egg york type hor..

He will give you his 'double yolk'

[KangTuo]

Originally Posted by AdGuy

He will give you his 'double yolk'

No leh... Nothing leh

[jackbl]

Sex work an escape from poverty, drudgery
================================================== ======

Prostitution is illegal and deemed a “social evil” in Vietnam, but this has not been an inhibiting factor in its exponential growth over the last few decades.

Official pronouncements as well as assessments by other agencies of this growing “problem” stick to the conventional rationale of women forced into the profession by poverty or by criminals running the flesh trade.

However, Kimberly Kay Hoang, a PhD sociology candidate at the University of California, says such assumptions do not stand up to close scrutiny. In fact, she says, the illegal sex industry in Vietnam offers little evidence of trafficking or coercion.

“Vietnam has been marked as a Tier 2 country by the United States State Department and people from all around the world have been concerned with ‘saving’ Vietnamese women from being trafficked,” she told Thanh Nien Weekly via email.

Tier 2 refers to the degree of compliance with minimum standards set by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act enacted by the US government in 2000.

In June, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga rejected the US Department of State’s findings that the human trafficking situation had worsened in Vietnam, saying they “do not rightly reflect the real situation.”

Hoang said she agrees with the spokeswoman.

“I think that the media has over-sensationalized this idea of ‘forced’ sex workers. In 2006-2007 NGOs, journalists, and academics alike came to Vietnam looking to ‘save’ women, myself included. However, when most of us got deep into the thick of our research we were shocked to find that in Vietnam (not across borders) very few women were forced,” she said.

In analyzing why many Vietnamese women choose to be a sex worker despite its illegality in the country, Hoang said, “I think that people need to pay more attention to corporations and factories who are not paying their workers livable wages. Many of the women in my project started out as factory workers making VND700,000 (US$36) to VND1 million ($51) and according to them, the ‘smart ones’ are the ones who got out of the factories and are actually working in places where they can ‘turn their lives around’,” she said.

In a paper titled “Economies of Emotion, Familiarity Fantasy and Desire: Emotional Labor in Ho Chi Minh City’s Sex Industry” published in the Sexualities Journal this April, Kimberly found that sex work was an “emotional labor” and that the industry has experienced a shift in major clientele following the recent economic crisis.

More than sex

The paper finds that the Vietnamese sex industry is highly stratified and economic difficulties are not the only reason why people enter sex work.

“I think that we should recognize that sex work involves more than sex. It is an intimate relationship with porous boundaries where women sometimes marry, migrate, and fall in and out of love,” Kimberly said.

“Women in the lower end sector certainly entered the sex industry for economic reasons. However, women in the highest paying sector actually came from wealthy families by local standards. In the mid-tier sector, women served as tour guides and provided men with what I call ‘expressive emotional’ labor, making these men feel loved,” she said.

Hoang spoke with 21-year-old Kim Ly who frequented high-end bars in five star hotels and was dating two Viet kieu men from the US. Ly, who was from a relatively well-to-do family, said she got more out of her clients by engaging in a form of emotional labor by showing concern for the latter’s well-being.

Hoang also quotes Thanh, an overseas Vietnamese man [or Viet kieu] in the study who works as a computer technician in Paris, as saying all the women at a District 1 bar he was at were “working” and that “you just have to put out the right price.”

Thanh bought a bottle of Remy, a Cognac bottle that costs about $100, and invited some women to drink, including 24-year-old Hoai. Thanh took a liking to Hoai and they began to dance seductively with each other. At the end of the night they exchanged numbers and over the course of two weeks, the two spent time with each other on dates in cafes, restaurants, and bars.

“I’m only here for two weeks and it’s nice to have someone beautiful to be with here. I bought her jewelry, clothes and give her money to spend while we are together.”

“These girls are expensive because they are young, pretty, and other guys want them… I knew if I didn’t give her enough money she would move on to another guy. I don’t want to go for those ugly girls that you see with old white guys,” he said.

As a high-end client, Viet kieu men like Thanh come to Vietnam to consume more than just sex, Hoang finds. These men are purchasing the services of high-end sex workers who are young, beautiful, relatively well off, and desired by other men, and who, most importantly, make them feel desired.

Hoang reports that Tram, another sex worker, continues to work in the sex industry even after she has secured herself a foreign husband, because her socioeconomic position was not secure and she needed to ensure that she could send money to her family, her former husband and their children.

“It’s not that I don’t love William [her husband]. It is just a different kind of love; the kind of love where you grow to love the person because they have done so much for you. There is no guarantee that William will be my ticket out of Vietnam. The embassy does a lot of investigations into fake marriages and they could easily deem my marriage as a fake one since I am a divorcee. So, I need to have back-up plans.”

Changing clientele

Viet kieu are no longer major clients of the high-end sector due to the impacts of the global economic crisis that hit many other countries harder than Vietnam.

“While the rest of the world has been suffering through a major economic crisis, Vietnam’s economy has experienced a 7 to 8 percent growth per year... Vietnam has received a lot more in foreign direct investments since it joined the WTO in 2006 and much of those investments are coming from Asia,” Kimberly said.

“As a country regionally positioned in Asia, Bill Hayton has argued that Vietnam is an emerging dragon. In this way the highest paying sector of the sex industry now caters to wealthy locals and Asian businessmen and not Viet kieus or Westerners,” she said.

Hayton, Vietnam correspondent for BBC News in 2006 to 2007, authored “Vietnam, Rising Dragon,” published in March this year.

In an article on the BBC News website, Kimberly said the change in major clientele happened around 2009 and the locals could spend an average of $15,000- $20,000 a month in expensive bars.

These bars have karaoke lounges like others but are advanced to a high-end level. Bartenders here are also sex workers who earn some $2,000 a month from tips and between $150 and $200 per night with their client, she wrote.

Thang, a 56-year-old local entrepreneur in Kimberly’s story, said: “The Viet kieu era is over.” Local men now drive Bentley cars costing half a million dollars, he noted, adding, “Once Vietnamese men play,” other Asian men or Viet kieu cannot match them.

Reported by Minh Hung

[KangTuo]

Originally Posted by jackbl

Sex work an escape from poverty, drudgery
================================================== ======
However, when most of us got deep into the thick of our research we were shocked to find that in Vietnam (not across borders) very few women were forced,” she said.

In analyzing why many Vietnamese women choose to be a sex worker despite its illegality in the country, Hoang said, “I think that people need to pay more attention to corporations and factories who are not paying their workers livable wages. Many of the women in my project started out as factory workers making VND700,000 (US$36) to VND1 million ($51) and according to them, the ‘smart ones’ are the ones who got out of the factories and are actually working in places where they can ‘turn their lives around’,” she said.

The paper finds that the Vietnamese sex industry is highly stratified and economic difficulties are not the only reason why people enter sex work.

“I think that we should recognize that sex work involves more than sex. It is an intimate relationship with porous boundaries where women sometimes marry, migrate, and fall in and out of love,” Kimberly said.

“Women in the lower end sector certainly entered the sex industry for economic reasons. However, women in the highest paying sector actually came from wealthy families by local standards. In the mid-tier sector, women served as tour guides and provided men with what I call ‘expressive emotional’ labor, making these men feel loved,” she said.

Hoang spoke with 21-year-old Kim Ly who frequented high-end bars in five star hotels and was dating two Viet kieu men from the US. Ly, who was from a relatively well-to-do family, said she got more out of her clients by engaging in a form of emotional labor by showing concern for the latter’s well-being.

Hoang also quotes Thanh, an overseas Vietnamese man [or Viet kieu] in the study who works as a computer technician in Paris, as saying all the women at a District 1 bar he was at were “working” and that “you just have to put out the right price.”

Thanh bought a bottle of Remy, a Cognac bottle that costs about $100, and invited some women to drink, including 24-year-old Hoai. Thanh took a liking to Hoai and they began to dance seductively with each other. At the end of the night they exchanged numbers and over the course of two weeks, the two spent time with each other on dates in cafes, restaurants, and bars.

“I’m only here for two weeks and it’s nice to have someone beautiful to be with here. I bought her jewelry, clothes and give her money to spend while we are together.”

“These girls are expensive because they are young, pretty, and other guys want them… I knew if I didn’t give her enough money she would move on to another guy. I don’t want to go for those ugly girls that you see with old white guys,” he said.

As a high-end client, Viet kieu men like Thanh come to Vietnam to consume more than just sex, Hoang finds. These men are purchasing the services of high-end sex workers who are young, beautiful, relatively well off, and desired by other men, and who, most importantly, make them feel desired.

Hoang reports that Tram, another sex worker, continues to work in the sex industry even after she has secured herself a foreign husband, because her socioeconomic position was not secure and she needed to ensure that she could send money to her family, her former husband and their children.

“It’s not that I don’t love William [her husband]. It is just a different kind of love; the kind of love where you grow to love the person because they have done so much for you. There is no guarantee that William will be my ticket out of Vietnam. The embassy does a lot of investigations into fake marriages and they could easily deem my marriage as a fake one since I am a divorcee. So, I need to have back-up plans.”

This is one of the more interesting news you posted

[jackbl]

SOS: foreign tourists are swindled by falsified websites
================================================== ====
VietNamNet Bridge – Many Vietnamese individuals and institutions have assumed big travel firms’ names to cheat foreign tourists. Meanwhile, a real travel company is considering suing these impostors in court


Sabine Lorenz and Karin Hildegard Dusold, two German tourists, heard about the beauty of Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay from relatives and decided to make a trip to Vietnam. They booked a tour to visit with the five-star Paradise Cruise in August on http://www.halongparadisecruise.com/. However, after the tourists made their payments, they received a notice that the five-star Paradise Cruise ran out of rooms and they were asked to travel with another cruise service.

After that, they realized that a company located at No 68 Hang Bo Street, Hanoi had assumed Paradise Cruise’s name and cheated the two German tourists.

Another traveler, French Christian Prestaut, thought that he successfully booked a tour with Paradise Cruise for a trip to Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. He paid a deposit worth $1500 through http://www.halongparadise-cruises.com/ (total expenses for the trip were $4986). However, after depositing the payment, the traveler realized that a man named Tony Bui created the false website. Mr. Bui lives at Room 514, F4, Trung Hoa Residential Quarter in Cau Giay District, Hanoi.

Nguyen Cao Son, Marketing and Sales Director for Tuan Chau Paradise Cruise, said that his company has received many complaints from clients. The clients said they paid for five-star cruise services, but they were then forced to travel with low-quality cruises.

“After learning about the facts, we realized that we are also victims. Some companies and individuals have assumed our names to cheat clients,” Son said.

According to Son, the address of his company’s website is www.paradisecruises.org and the company has a certificate on trademark registration from the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP). However, to date, at lease eight websites with similar names have been created, creating misunderstandings for travelers. A lot of foreign travelers book tours on these false websites, which explains why they receive such low-quality service.

“We believe that individuals and institutions deliberately create misunderstanding, because on the false websites, they provide information similar to the information on our official website, while changing the information about physical addresses to contact and emails to book seats,” Son said.

He went on to say that his company is considering bringing this case to court in order to protect the Vietnamese tourism industry’s image in the eyes of international tourists.

While talking to Dau tu newspaper, Lawyer Nguyen Hoan Thanh from Thanh and Associates Law Office, said that there are clear signs of intellectual property law violations, but it would be not easy to remove the addresses and domains of the websites that falsify Paradise Cruises’ name.

“If Paradise Cruises can point to the institutions and individuals who deliberately violated the laws, the company can take legal proceedings against these individuals and institutions and sue for damages,” Thanh said.

According to Thanh, if the domain of the websites is “ .vn”, the company will be able to sue the individuals and institutions and ask to remove the websites. However, if the domains are “.com” or “ .org,” the company will have to ask for the removal through ICANN, the institution that supervises domain names. The institution will make a decision on whether to stop the operation of domains that create such great misunderstandings.

Meanwhile, analysts have called on institutions and relevant agencies to take the necessary actions to stop the falsification of tourism websites, saying that this is one of the reasons to explain why many foreign tourists do not intend to return to Vietnam after their first trip.




The eight falsified websites:

http://www.vietnamadventurestravel.com/Home.aspx

http://www.halongparadisecruises.org/

http://www.halongparadise-cruises.com/

http://www.halongparadisecruise.com/

http://www.paradisecruiseshalong.com/

http://www.paradisehalongcruise.com/

http://www.paradisecruise-halongbay.com/

http://www.paradisecruise.org/




Source: Dau tu

[jackbl]

Rushing brides
==============================

Despite brutal murder, Vietnam continues to bleed wives

Pham Thi Ngoc Dat, 19, and four pretty young women sat chatting happily about their bright futures on a recent afternoon.

The girls had gathered at a street-side café near the South Korean Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, waiting in eager anticipation.

Every one present had married a Korean husband in recent months. As they talked, they discussed plans to move to the prosperous peninsula as their visa applications had gone through.

“I am very excited to move there,” said 21-year-old Ta Thanh Tu, who wed a 40-year-old Korean man six months ago.

Tu said the brutal July murder of a Vietnamese bride by her crazed South Korean husband did not worry her at all.

“My husband speaks little Vietnamese and my Korean is nonexistent,” Tu said. “That’s my biggest worry.”

Dat and Tu will join a growing flock of Vietnamese brides heading for South Korea.

As concerns mount about dashed hopes and violent clashes, South Korea is taking steps to reform the matchmaking process and experts have called on Vietnam to do the same.

Some 38,000 Vietnamese women flocked to South Korea from 2004 to 2009, according to the National Statistical Office in Korea, which recorded 7,249 such marriages last year alone.

Official figures from the Korean Justice Ministry show that around another 2,300 Vietnamese wives have migrated to South Korea during the first half of this year.

Starting this November, Koreans hoping to wed foreigners will have to take educational courses about international marriages, and those who fail to attend will have visas denied to their brides, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said in late July.

The move came in response to the brutal murder of a 20-year-old Vietnamese bride by her schizophrenic husband – eight days after her arrival in the country. The murder sparked public outrage and growing uneasiness about the export of Vietnamese brides.

“We promise to set up measures to prevent such an incident from occurring again,” the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said in a press release issued at the time.

However, experts argue that these classes will not suffice in tackling the problem, given the continued demand for Vietnamese wives among Korean men.

The tragedies of Vietnamese wives stemmed chiefly from the lack of background information – mental health records, criminal background checks, etc. – leading to a breakdown in these marriages, said Kang Sung Hea of the Emergency Support Center for Migrant Woman for Migrant Women in South Korea.

Professor Lee Hye-Kyung of Pai Chai University in South Korea said that the Vietnamese government should also do its best to furnish would-be wives with enough information before they get married.

It is the responsibility of the two governments to protect its people from false promises, said Lee, who is also the President of Korea International Migration Association.

Under current Vietnamese laws, marriage brokerage for profit is illegal.

“We change something here and you change something there. Some good will come out of it,” Prof. Lee said. “I’m hopeful.”

Reported by An Dien (Dahye Yoon contributed to this report)

[AdGuy]

Originally Posted by KangTuo

This is one of the more interesting news you posted

I'm sure u found it interesting. That's y u quoted the whole post. Hehe

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by ciongka

Finally goin to vn next mth liao~~~~

Phan Thiet has another five-star hotel on coastline
================================================== ======

The five-star Sea Links Beach Hotel has started operations in Phan Thiet City, home to the resort town of Mui Ne, and plans to hold a soft opening ceremony in the middle of October 2010.

The hotel is part of Sea Links City, a complex of luxury properties owned by the Rang Dong Group including Sea Links Golf & Country Club, and golf course villas.

It is the first five-star beach hotel in Mui Ne, offering a magnificent view of the cape. Standing on top of a hill, the hotel offers a panorama of the sand dunes and the ocean in the distance, which is blue all year round since Phan Thiet has more than 300 sunny days a year.

The top floor is for reception and the lounge. Under it are the five levels that include 188 rooms, all facing the ocean to provide a panoramic sea view. The rooms have floor-to-ceiling glass windows so that guests can see an ocean view with bobbing boats, even when they relax in the bathtub.

Down the hill are four swimming pools, where guests can take a closer look at the 18-hole Sea Links golf course.

Phan Thiet is about 200 kilometers northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. According to the hotel’s management, chauffeur service can be arranged to pick guests up from Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport to Sea Links City.

By Tuong Thuy

[KangTuo]

Originally Posted by AdGuy

I'm sure u found it interesting. That's y u quoted the whole post. Hehe

I quoted only 7/8 of the post

[jackbl]

Seeking the biggest bang for their buck, tael
================================================== ====

VietNamNet Bridge – The dollar deposit interest rate has climbed to 5.5 percent per annum, while the gold interest rate has surged to two percent per annum. Gold continuously jumps to new heights, while the stock market remains gloomy. Which investment channels should people choose?

Dollar deposit interest rates have increased to 5.5 percent from four percent per annum seen one month ago, before the decision on devaluing the Vietnam dong by 2.1 percent was made. At the same time, the gold price has experienced its highest increases in just a week. As a result, gold deposit interest rates offered by Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Sacombank and Seabank have climbed from one to two percent.

Why are these rates rising? Securities investors believe it is because banks are hurrying to mobilise capital to meet requirements stipulated in Circular 13 on the required capital adequacy ratio.

The Circular, which will take effect on October 1, stipulates that commercial banks can lend no more than 80 percent of the capital they can mobilise. Meanwhile, at many commercial banks, the ratio has exceeded 90 percent. The circular poses many difficulties for banks’ operation; therefore, banks have proposed that the central bank amend the circular.

Dr. Cao Sy Kiem, former Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), remarked: “The sharp dollar deposit interest rate increases will not last for too long, because banks must consider rates in harmony with dong and other currencies interest rates.”

A deputy general director at a big bank, shared the same view, saying that the current increases will be a “short wave.” Banks now hope that SBV will amend some regulations of Circular 13.

“Any changes to the circular that help ease difficulties for banks will lead to lower interest rates. Gold deposit interest rates will be eased first, then dollar interest rates,” he explained.

At present, dong interest rates are hovering around 10.6-11.2 percent per annum. However, the general director predicted that actual interest rates may even be higher soon, when commercial banks offer special promotions.

Since banks dare not raise rates officially, as the Government and SBV have called on them to ease interest rates, they must offer preferences to depositors, which makes actual interest rates higher than quoted. Banks now lend money at 14.5 percent per annum to fund production projects, while interest rates on consumer loans run about 16.5 percent per annum.

Another financial analyst agreed that banks may have to raise dong interest rates, because the currently high dollar interest rates will prompt people to withdraw dong to sell for dollars, which they will then deposit. In this case, a dong shortage may occur.

The gold price on September 21 climbed to 30.5 million dong per tael. Sacombank-SBJ reported on that day that “The demand for purchasing gold continues to rise slightly on the first day of the week. However, they are small buyers who want to hoard gold or must buy gold to pay debts. The market remains lackluster, because people and investors have become cautious with the new price records.”

According to Nguyen Thi Cuc, Deputy General Director of Phu Nhuan Jewellery Company (PNJ), choosing gold investment must be done only by investors who understand technical analyses and factors that may affect price performance.

“It is necessary to put eggs into different baskets, or, in other words, make different small investment deals. If you have 10 dong, you should use three dong to purchase gold, while the remaining seven should go elsewhere,” Cuc stated.

Nguyen Thanh Truc, General Director of Agribank’s Jewelry Company, remarked that gold prices are now at very high levels. Gold keepers should gradually sell gold if they purchased when prices were low. Now is not the right time to buy gold to store.

Additionally, Kiem advised: “At this moment, it would be safest to buy dollars, because the stock market’s index is now below 500 points and it will be hard to bounce back. I would not choose gold, because prices are overly high.”



Source: Tien phong

[jackbl]

Vietnam Airlines cuts international tickets by 85 percent
================================================== ==
The national carrier Vietnam Airlines has announced an up to 85 percent discount on nearly 90,000 international flight tickets bought between September 30 and October 10.

Passengers planning to take off between October 15 and December 31 and between April 1 and May 31 can buy the discounted tickets at Vietnam Airlines agencies nationwide or via its website www.vietnamairlines.com.

The tickets will also be available at the International Tourism Exhibition between September 30 and October 2 organized at Saigon Seminar and Exhibition Center at 799 Nguyen Van Linh Street.

Under the program, round trip tickets to Southeast Asian countries will be discounted 85 percent, to Laos and Cambodia 74 percent, to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan 80 percent, to Japan and South Korea 82 percent, Australia 50 percent and European countries such as France, Germany, Russia 40 precent.

But the program will not be applied on flights around April 30 – the country’s reunification day and May 1 – Labor Day, which is the travel prime time as people have days off.



Source: VNA

[jackbl]

Radiology violations raise big concerns
===============================================

Safety violations at health clinics in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh have raised concerns among local experts.

Recent inspections conducted by the Ministry of Sciences and Technology in Hanoi found that eight out of 62 radiology clinics visited were using substandard and unlicensed machines, and lacked safety technicians.

The violators, all of which were detected at health clinics with X-ray machines, were fined a total of VND51.5 million (US$2,647).

The same situation was reported in Ho Chi Minh City, where 14 out of 35 inspected clinics were fined VND77 million ($3,958) in total also for violations in running X-ray machines.

Nguyen Hao Quang, Director of the Ministry’s Center for Nuclear Radiation Technical Support, said the health industry has yet to take proper care in its use of radioactive materials.

If health clinics keep running X-ray machines improperly, patients will suffer the consequences, according to Quang.

Substandard X-ray machines may give incorrect results and could pose risks of other diseases, he said.

Recent statistics showed that the rate of population having cancers is on the rise, which Quang attributed to the improper use of X-ray machines.

Another Health Ministroy official said, on the condition of anonymity, that these bad practices also posed risks the technicians who constantly come in contact with the radioactive materials --which can cause cancer and death.


Reported by Thu Hang