Vietnam shares rebound on goverment buy-back plan

Vietnam's state investment arm pledged to buy shares in an unprecedented attempt to halt a dramatic drop in stock markets Thursday, helping the benchmark index rally from a 16-month low.

The measure was one of a series of initiatives outlined in a government policy document late on Tuesday designed to fight double-digit inflation and restore local retail investor confidence in a market that has lost about 34 percent this year in a liquidity crunch.

The State Capital Investment Corporation, which has registered capital of VND15 trillion (US$940 million), had not started buying back shares yet, brokers and traders said.

"For SCIC to really put money in the market it would take days because of their complicated investment procedures that require a series of approvals," one trader said.

Domestic retail investors who dominate trading have bailed out in the past month following a series of central bank directives to banks that dried up liquidity.

The central bank is grappling with policies to reduce inflation that hit 15.7 percent in February, the highest in 12 years.

SCIC officials could not be reached, but its Web site (www.scic.vn) posted a statement saying it was "urgently identifying a list of investment portfolios, size and methods of the investment in compliance with the government's directive for implementation."

The statement said the move was subject to final government approval and that the site would be updated with information.

SCIC has a portfolio of about 800 companies and major corporations, both listed and unlisted.

They include stakes in top information technology firm FPT, top dairy product maker Vinamilk, reinsurance firm Vinare, construction group Vinaconex and Pacific Airlines.

Earlier, a senior official of the State Securities Commission, the market watchdog, said SCIC would "immediately" buy back shares.

"SCIC's shares purchase is a suitable solution given the current conditions and could provide positive support to the market," Nguyen Doan Hung, Deputy Chairman of the State Securities Commission said in a statement.

The main Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, with a market cap of about $16.5 billion, climbed 4.8 percent to close at 611.17 points on the news, having fallen by as much as a third in the past month alone.

The smaller $5.3 billion over-the counter Hanoi Securities Trading Center jumped 7.9 percent to 206.49 points.

The Ho Chi Minh exchange is the worst performing in the world this year and has fallen almost three times as much as MSCI's Asia excluding Japan index.

Gala charms with a mix of old and new.

Thanh Nien’s Charming Vietnam Gala united Vietnamese with their expatriates in a shared cultural identity at London’s Central Hall Westminster last night.
Got charm? Musicians play traditional instruments in London.

A child tugged at her mother’s sleeve and asked when Dam Vinh Hung would perform.

One of the brighter stars of Vietnamese pop, Hung appeared soon enough and was met with wild applause from young and old alike.

The first of the two-night musical extravaganza thrown by Thanh Nien did not fill the 2,000-seat Central Hall Westminster, but for those who were there, the show delivered.

Proceeds from the show go to help the Nguyen Thai Binh charity for poor children in Vietnam.

Nguyen Lien Ha, a senior student at the London School of Economics, said she wasn’t sure which performance she liked the most.

“Every little bit of it was impressive,” she said.

“A lot of work must have been done to prepare for it and I do appreciate that.”

The performance was a mix of traditional and contemporary song and dance along with fashion shows featuring Vietnamese beauty queens and all shapes and forms of traditional Vietnamese dress.

British vocal quartet Teatro added a lovely version of “Can You Feel The Love Tonight.” One of the Brit vocalists said the Vietnamese models in the traditional Vietnamese ao dai dresses were the most delightful part of the show.

Miss Vietnam Mai Phuong Thuy and Miss Vietnam World Ngo Phuong Lan were recognized by the beaming crowd the moment they appeared on stage.

One audience member thought local divas such as Hong Nhung, My Linh and Phuong Thanh added to the “wonder” of the night.

She said the show was great but too short.

Most audience members were Vietnamese.

Tinh, a hair-dresser who has been living in England for 15 years, said Charming Vietnam was the biggest show she had ever seen.

“We don’t see a lot of Vietnamese shows here in London,” she said.

“So I was all excited and eager for it to begin.”

Nguyen Lien Ha said the night performance was indeed a celebration of Vietnamese culture by Vietnamese people.

Though many English people came to see the show on the cold winter night, the Duke of York and Prince Andrew did not make appearances.

But the prince, a long-time friend of the socialist republic, sent a warm letter to welcome Charming Vietnam to London.

Vietnam, with its “strong sense of cultural identity,” “has become particularly close to my heart,” Andrew wrote.

He said he had visited the country many times andwould visit again later this year.

The first night did not really go as “smooth as silk” as the show’s producer and Thanh Nien Editor-in-Chief Nguyen Cong Khe had promised.

For example, Pianist Bich Tra addressed a mostly Vietnamese audience in English without rephrasing herself in Vietnamese.

But for every awkward moment there was a performer ready to make things ok again, like when Teatro greeted the crowd in Vietnamese.

Cultural confluence harmonious, says BBC

The extravaganza created an impressive and harmonious combination of Western and traditional Vietnamese cultural traits, said the BBC newswire.

“We are taking great strides in promoting the image of a modern Vietnam where traditional music is not only for preservation. [It] is still surviving every night in our country,” show director Tat My Loan told BBC.

Show-goers raved about the unique traditional instruments like dan bau (monochord) and the dan da (stone xylophone).

Meanwhile, divas Thanh Lam, My Linh and Hong Nhung succeeded in bringing modern music to the stage with their pop performances.

Enthusiastic acclaim and great admiration from the audience testified to the show’s success, the BBC concluded.

Posted by Tonylam

Vietnam, UK ink nearly $4 billion in deals

Local companies signed with British counterparts seven agreements worth over US$3.9 billion in total in London Wednesday.
PM Nguyen Tan Dung (R) at a conference in London Wednesday where he vowed to create an environment conducive to foreign investors

The deals, which Chairman of the UK Trade and Investment Andrew Cahn said were “extraordinary” in terms of value, were part of the Vietnam-UK Business Forum organized to mark Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s first official visit to the UK

The conference brought together major companies from both sides to explore partnership opportunities.

Vietnam is listening

Dung said foreign investors’ concern over cumbersome procedures and human resources shortages were his government’s main concern.

The greatest difficulty Vietnam faces in training its people is a lack of funds, said Dung.

“From the family up to the state level, limited financial resources are our biggest challenge,” he said.

The Vietnamese PM called for more investment in education and training from British companies.

“It would benefit us as well as you, who would like to come to a country with capable human resources,” he said.

According to Dung, the British government has also pledged to train 500 Ph.D. candidates as well as 5,000 English teachers in Vietnam.

Dung said Vietnam would also strive to improve its people’s English skills, aiming to make English one of its “fortes” by 2020, Dung assured the conference.

Foreign investors should not be worried about Vietnam’s intellectual property laws either.

Dung said the country already had a comprehensive legal framework to protect intellectual rights.

“We are even considering pressing criminal charges against violators of intellectual property rights,” he said.

Other goals the country is striving to achieve, according to Dung, are to improve infrastructure, ensure social justice and democracy, and alleviate poverty.

He said that fighting corruption and creating a healthy investment environment were among his top goals.

At a conference last January in Hanoi, foreign investors also voiced their concerns that Vietnam’s infrastructure couldn’t keep pace with its rapidly expanding economy.

Britain is interested

Cahn said Vietnam was a “powerful business opportunity” which British investors should not miss.

With an amazing poverty reduction record – from around 70 percent in 1997 to just 20 percent 10 years after, Cahn was confident the country would successfully tackle any challenges it is facing as a World Trade Organization (WTO) member.

According to Cahn, British investors are very interested in Vietnam, with exports to the country increasing by 40 percent from 2006 to 2007.

The UK is also Vietnam’s 14th biggest foreign investor, with trade between the two countries reaching $2 billion and investment hitting $1.4 billion in 2007, according to Vietnam’s Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hung Phuc.

But the UK Trade and Investment as well as well-known British companies including HSBC and Harvey Nash said they were “ambitious for more,” with the over $3.9 billion deals just the beginning of what is hoped to be a new phase in the Vietnam-UK relationship.

Posted by Kieuphong

School denies teacher was attacked by students

Authorities of central Quang Binh province have asked a local high school in to make a full disclosure about an incident in which a history teacher was allegedly beaten in class by two twelfth graders.

Ho Cong Quang is accused of attacking his teacher Pham Trung Cuong with the help of fellow student Hoang Dai Khanh on February 26 at Quang Ninh High School.

According to reports, Quang was late for his morning history class with Cuong, telling the teacher he had been “out for fun.”

Quang apparently left class again without asking permission and Cuong wrote the disrespectful behavior into the class record book.

Quang ran to see what the teacher had written and became agitated, ran out, and returned with Khanh, a student from another class.

Witnesses said the two ran up and attacked the teacher repeatedly with large pieces of wood they had brought with them.

Due to the injuries he sustained, Cuong was apparently unable to continue his teaching duties and reported suffering dizziness.

He was hospitalized the next morning.

Cover-up to protect an image?

District police sent a taskforce to the school to investigate but the school’s management board said “it was a trivial case,” and refused to cooperate with authorities.

The Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper reported Monday that school principal Truong Dinh Thach had denied the assault took place.

Principal Thach allegedly told other teachers at the school: “This is only an internal case and there is no need to inform higher-level authorities as it does not involve criminal activity.”

After being shown the teacher’s medical records for hospitalization, Thach then said “the case is a pity, as this month the school is filing documents to be recognized as a national standard school.”

Tran Cong Thuat, deputy head of the provincial administration, said earlier the school had applied to be recognized as a prestigious “national school” but was turned down.

Quang and Khanh reportedly had weak academic records and a history of poor behavior.

The two students have so far not been charged with any wrongdoing in the case.

Source: TN, SGGP