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Welcome to VietNet Weblog
Wednesday, May 14 2008 @ 01:34 PM PDT

Qualcomm Gets BREW Win In Vietnam

Monday, April 28 2008 @ 08:37 PM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 40

Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Qualcomm Gets BREW Win In Vietnam

San Diego-based Qualcomm has signed on a Vietnamese mobile phone operator, S-Fone, for the firm's BREW data services, the company announced Wednesday. Financial impact of the win was not announced. Qualcomm said that S-Fone will launch BREW services on its CDMA network in Vietnam. The firm said that S-Fone subscribers will be able to shop for music, ringtones, information, games, financial applications, and other information and products using its technology.

Đừng để người nghèo bị gạt ra bên lề

Monday, April 28 2008 @ 08:30 PM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 42

http://www.tuoitre.com.vn/Tianyon/Index.aspx?ArticleID=252302&ChannelID=3

Đừng để người nghèo bị gạt ra bên lề

Nguyên thủ tướng Võ Văn Kiệt
TT - " Người nghèo - những hộ thu nhập thấp, những người phải chạy ăn
từng bữa - trên thực tế chỉ được thụ hưởng rất ít các kết quả tăng
trưởng, trong khi chính họ phải gần như lãnh trọn những hậu quả do lạm

phát đang diễn ra. Muốn đất nước có được sự phát triển bền vững, tôi
cho
rằng chúng ta không thể thiếu những chính sách cốt lõi để giải quyết
căn cơ vấn đề dân nghèo"

Nghe đọc nội dung toàn bài:

Kinh tế mấy năm qua vẫn tăng trưởng khá, nhưng sau những bão lụt -
thiên
tai, cuộc sống của người dân lại đang phải trải qua những đợt giá cả
thiết yếu bất ổn liên tục. Người nghèo - những hộ thu nhập thấp, những

người phải chạy ăn từng bữa - trên thực tế chỉ được thụ hưởng rất ít
các
kết quả tăng trưởng, trong khi chính họ phải gần như lãnh trọn những
hậu
quả do lạm phát đang diễn ra. Muốn đất nước có được sự phát triển bền
vững, tôi cho rằng chúng ta không thể thiếu những chính sách cốt lõi
để
giải quyết căn cơ vấn đề dân nghèo.

Cam kết lịch sử

Người nông dân chịu thiệt một cách trực tiếp trong quá trình công
nghiệp
hóa. Mỗi khi có những nhà máy, những khu công nghiệp, đô thị mọc lên,
những phúc lợi xã hội mà sự phát triển mang lại cho nông dân chỉ chiếm

một giá trị rất nhỏ so với lợi nhuận mà đất đai của nông dân đem lại
cho
những tầng lớp khác.

"Công nghiệp hóa" theo kiểu tiếp nhận những đầu tư, chủ yếu khai thác
lao động giá rẻ, tuy có giải quyết được công ăn việc làm có tính nhất
thời cho một số lao động thiếu việc làm, về lâu dài không thể nào thay

đổi địa vị nghèo khó của nông dân.

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The Economist: The political cost of inflation

Saturday, April 05 2008 @ 07:58 PM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 105

The political cost of inflation

Apr 4th 2008
>From the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire
Rising prices spark labour unrest in Vietnam

On March 31st more than 15,000 workers at a Nike-contracted factory in southern Vietnam went on strike to demand higher wages in the face of rising prices. Although the strike was called off on April 2nd—after the workers were offered a 10% pay rise—the factory has been forced to close temporarily owing to fights between returning workers and those continuing to demand higher wages. The incident is the most recent instance of a marked surge in inflation-fuelled labour unrest in Vietnam, which has primarily affected the garment and footwear sectors. There have been around 600 strikes in the past 15 months, according to the labour ministry.

Vietnam's annual inflation rate has soared to 19.4% year on year in March, from 15.7% in February, hitting double-digits for a fifth consecutive month. Food-price inflation, which holds around a 40% weighting in the consumer price index and has been accelerating rapidly since mid-2007, continues to be the main factor driving up the general price level. The cost of food and foodstuffs surged by 30.6% year on year in March, up from

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Vietnam ADB Outlook 2008 Report released yesterday (4/2/08)

Thursday, April 03 2008 @ 02:45 PM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 171

retrieved from: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2008/VIE.pdf

Viet Nam
A third consecutive year of 8%-plus growth was led by strong expansion of investment and consumption.
The rapid growth has strained resources, as shown by a surge in imports, infrastructure bottlenecks,
skilled-labor shortages, and inflation, which accelerated to over 19% year on year by March 2008. The
authorities have tightened monetary policy and allowed some exchange rate flexibility to rein in price
rises, and are initiating fiscal measures. These steps, plus weaker external demand, should pull back
growth this year. In 2009, inflation is expected to moderate and GDP growth pick up. Challenges are to
control inflation, maintain stability of the banking system, and ease the infrastructure constraints.

Economic performance

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Vietnam's success story losing the plot

Tuesday, April 01 2008 @ 09:06 AM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 107

Straits Times
March 30, 2008

Vietnam's success story losing the plot
High growth achieved at high cost, with prices soaring, trade gap ballooning and stocks plunging
By Roger Mitton

HANOI - THE other day, when I went to one of my favourite cafes where the serving of spring rolls, noodles and salad had always been an unbeatable 18,000 dong (S$1.50), I found its price had gone up to 44,000 dong.
Do the maths: That is an increase of more than 140 per cent.

It is not unusual in Vietnam these days. The country has by far the highest inflation rates in Asia.

The bread rolls I buy at the Nguyen Son Bakery next door have just gone up 50 per cent in price.

My monthly rent has been arbitrarily hiked by 67 per cent.

In fact, I have lost count of the number of people who have told me their rent has recently been increased, often doubled, sometimes tripled, with no notice and no recourse - it's take it or leave it.

So when the government revealed last week that March's year-on-year inflation rate was 19.4 per cent, no one was in the least surprised. In fact, most people believed the figure was understated.

Increases in food prices and rents have been astronomical. The price of petrol went up 36 per cent last month and there have been stiff hikes in the prices of electricity and cooking gas.

Vietnam's low-income workers, who earn around US$60 (S$83) a month, are seething. Thousands have stormed out on wildcat strikes. Their anger is directed not just at exploitative managers, but at the ruling communist regime as well.

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Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance

Monday, March 31 2008 @ 11:35 AM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 108

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Greetings from the Center for Asia Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP)
and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk
Reduction (UN-ISDR)!

We are pleased to invite you to the Third Global Congress of Women in
Politics and Governance which will be held on October 19-22, 2008 at
the Dusit Hotel, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The theme of
the congress is ?Gender and Climate Change?.

Women and environment experts have raised concern over the absence of
women in the discourse and debate on climate change, a global
mainstream issue that is currently impacting the entire world. The
involvement of women in areas of environmental management and
governance should not be perceived as an afterthought. Women's roles
are of considerable importance in the promotion of environmental
ethics.

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Trên chín phần mười tỷ phú Trung Quốc là con em cán bộ cấp cao

Wednesday, March 26 2008 @ 04:42 PM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 101

Theo "Á châu nhật báo"
27-2-08

Trên chín phần mười tỷ phú Trung Quốc là con em cán bộ cấp cao

Báo cáo điều tra của cơ quan nghiên cứu chính thức Trung Quốc để lộ: trên chín phần mười tỷ phú Trung Quốc hiện nay là con em cán bộ cấp cao, trong đó có
hơn 2900 người có tài sản cộng lại là hơn 2000 tỷ NDT. Giữ các chức vụ chủ chốt trong 5 lĩnh vực lớn: tài chính tiền tệ, ngoại thương, khai thác đất đai,
công trình lớn, chứng khoán, về cơ bản đều là con em cán bộ cấp cao.

Mấy bộ môn như Ban Nghiên cứu thuộc Quốc Vụ viện, Ban Nghiên cứu Trường đảng TW, Viện Khoa học Xã hội Trung Quốc v.v.. gần đây đã cho ra lò một bản báo
cáo tình hình kinh tế xã hội, ghi chép tỉ mỉ thu nhập kinh tế của các tầng lớp xã hội khác nhau. Trong đó cho biết thu nhập của các nhân viên công vụ cao
và trung cấp của Trung Quốc đã vượt qua thu nhập của công vụ viên các nước phát triển và tầng lớp trung lưu Âu, Mỹ.

Báo cáo này cho thấy rõ: có tới 85% đến 90% con em cán bộ cao cấp giữ các chức vụ chủ chốt trong 5 lĩnh vực lớn là tài chính, ngoại thương, khai thác đất
đai, công trình lớn, chứng khoán, trên thực tế đã hình thành giai cấp tư sản quan liêu.

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Philippines exporting labor and sex

Wednesday, March 26 2008 @ 04:06 PM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 413

Philippines exporting labor and sex
By William Sparrow

BANGKOK - Although prostitution is illegal in the Philippines, sex remains a thriving industry both domestically and abroad. Many Filipinas ply the world's oldest profession in an attempt to overcome crushing poverty and the oppressive economic crisis gripping their homeland. Even Filipinas who work overseas legally - as maids, nannies or in other legitimate occupations - often find themselves turning to the sex trade to supplement meager incomes and to send money home to the Philippines to support impoverished family members.

The Philippines has a bustling sex trade with much variety. Small bars and clubs serve locals - often taxi drivers, laborers and even local teenagers looking to solve their virginity - and employ women from poor rural areas who "service" clients for as little as 200-400

pesos (US$5-$10). More glitzy establishments cater to foreigners, especially in areas such as Makati, Pasay, Ermita or Angeles City where GRO's (Guest Relations Officers) can be known to charge as much as 2,000-3,000 pesos ($50-$75), even for a "short time" experience.

A recent visit to Makati, the business district of Manila, found bars packed with scantily clad girls, many adorned in thong bikinis or lingerie and gyrating enthusiastically to Western pop music. Several were equally enthusiastically about grinding their nearly naked bodies against male customers' in hopes of enticing a business arrangement. The enticement is obviously doubled when two girls set upon a customer, but the 6,000 pesos or so required to take them out can have a cooling effect.

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Bottom of the Barrel

Wednesday, March 26 2008 @ 04:02 PM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 92

Bottom of the Barrel

Millions of Asian workers producing goods sold here are trapped in servitude.

Newsweek - 3/17/08

Some of the world's leading computer makers don't want you to know about Local Technic Industry. It's a typical Malaysian company, one of many small makers of the cast-aluminum bodies for hard-disk drives used in just about every name-brand machine on the market. But that's precisely the problem: it's a typical Malaysian company. About 60 percent of Local Technic's 160 employees are from outside Malaysia—and a company executive says he pities those guest workers. "They have been fooled hook, line and sinker," he says, asking not to be named because others in the business wouldn't like his talking to the press. "They have been taken for a ride." It's not Local Technic's fault, he insists: sleazy labor brokers outside the country tricked the workers into paying huge placement fees for jobs that yield a net income close to zero. "They say they were promised 3,000 ringgits [$950] a month," the manager says. "How can we pay that? If we did, we would be bankrupt in no time."

So why don't those foreign employees just quit? Because they can't, even if they find out they've been cheated by the very brokers who brought them there. Malaysian law requires guest workers to sign multiple-year contracts and surrender their passports to their employers. Those who run away but stay in Malaysia are automatically classed as illegal aliens, subject to arrest, imprisonment and caning before being expelled from the country. "Passport, company take," says a Bangladeshi who has worked at Local Technic. (Like other workers in this story, he fears possible reprisals if he is named.) "They say, 'You come to this company, must work for this company and cannot work other place.' They say, 'If you work [for] someone else, the police will catch you'." He paid a broker in Bangladesh $3,600 to get him a job at Local Technic. When he arrived, he says, he learned he was making $114 a month after deductions for room, board and taxes. The math is simple: minus the broker's fee, his net monthly pay is $14. If he never spends a penny on himself, three years of labor will earn him a grand total of $504.

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Full Global Integration: Many plan to move to VN

Tuesday, March 18 2008 @ 04:29 PM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 108

AMCHAM SHANGHAI LAUNCHES CHINA MANUFACTURING COMPETITIVENESS 2007-2008 STUDY
Date: March 04, 2008

BOOZ ALLEN / AMCHAM SHANGHAI STUDY FINDS COMPANIES ADOPTING CHINA AS BOTH A GROWTH MARKET AND MANUFACTURING HUB ARE TWO-THIRDS MORE PROFITABLE THAN OTHERS

Full Global Integration of China with Global Supply Chains and

Boosting Operational Excellence are Keys to Countering Rise in Currency, Labor Costs

SHANGHAI / BEIJING / HONG KONG, March 4, 2008 �C The advantage of China solely as a low-cost, manufacturing-for-export market is diminishing. Companies that integrate China into their global supply chains as a source of competitive advantage are far more successful than companies that pursue narrower objectives in China, finds a study jointly conducted by management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (AmCham Shanghai).

More specifically, companies that pursue China as both a growth market and a market for lower-cost labor and sources, and integrate these operationally, enjoy significantly higher profits than companies pursuing just one of those objectives. Companies that employ dual sourcing and sales strategies report an average profitability rate two-thirds higher than those focused on just one of those objectives (29.6 percent compared with 17.8 percent). Despite the returns that this approach can generate, only one out of four companies is able to combine a strong in-country market growth effort with their manufacturing and sourcing operations.

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