US Treasury Secretary to visit Vietnam

US Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew will arrive in Hanoi on November 14 as part of his scheduled Asian tour.

According to a press release from the US Embassy in Hanoi, Secretary Lew will travel to Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China,  discussing with his hosts’ counterparts on the economic outlook for the US and Asian region.

Secretary Lew is scheduled to meet senior Vietnamese government officials in Hanoi before departing for the Chinese capital Beijing.

Lew will arrive in Tokyo, Japan, on November 12 ahead of two days of visits through Singapore and Malaysia.

Secretary Lew is expected to focus on methods for boosting regional growth, including the anticipated completion of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations later this year.

Russian President concludes State visit to Vietnam

Russian President Vladimir Putin left Hanoi late on November 12, successfully wrapping up his State visit to Vietnam at the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang.

While in Vietnam, President Putin held talks with President Truong Tan Sang and met with Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The leaders highly valued the upgrade of bilateral ties to comprehensive strategic partnership, adding that the political relations between Vietnam and Russian are strongly developing with increasing trust.

They agreed to step up delegation exchanges and expand cooperation channels.

Both sides gave priority to energy cooperation, affirming to continue cooperating in mining, transport including civil aviation, shipbuilding, machinery manufacturing, communications and telecommunication.

They agreed to actively strengthen local cooperation in a practical and effective manner and considered investment into a light industry zone in Russia’s Far East.

As part of his visit, President Putin witnessed the signing of a range of important cooperation documents, including the agreements on Vietnamese citizens studying in Russia’s education institutions, the transfer of sentenced prisoners, defence cooperation and many other economic deals.

The Russian President also attended a photo exhibition on the Vietnam-Russia strategic partnership and the launching ceremony of the 2013 Russian Culture Days in Hanoi.

Science-technology market boosted

The PM has passed a program on science and technology market development by 2020 in a bid to increase the volume and value of locally-researched scientific and technological products and services.

Under the program, the proportion of transactions in intellectual property (solutions, process and technical know-how) would account for at least 10% by 2015 and 20% by 2020 of total sales of scientific and technological products and services in the market.

The program aims to renovate procedures and regulations on establishment, registration and operation of organizations which specialize in scientific and technological services; enable the development of scientific and technological services and narrow the development gap between domestic and foreign markets.

National-scale trading floors on technologies will be built in Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City and central Da Nang city while the current tech marts will be expanded in scale, organization and hosting places.  

Corporations in charge of evaluating technology, import and export of technological products, technological transfer will be established at universities and institutes.

The private sector is encouraged to part take in providing technological services, brokerage and consultation services, assessment and evaluation of products.

A contingent of staff specializing in technological and scientific services and market will be developed.

Electricity market on the horizon

The Government chief has signed a decision on roadmap, conditions and structure to formulate and develop an electricity market in Viet Nam.

Under Decision 63/2013/QD-TTg, the future electricity market will see the formation of a competitive power generation market by late 2014 as in the first phase.

The second phase will focus on competitive power trading which will be piloted in 2015-16 before coming into being in 2017-21.

In the third phase, a competitive retail sale power market will be operating on a trial basis in 2021-23 and officially run from 2023.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is responsible for building and submitting a project to restructure the power sector to realize development phases of the power market. It is asked to direct the implementation of the roadmap.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is in charge of working with the Ministry of Finance to allocate enough capital for the process.

Meanwhile, the Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) has to invest and perfect necessary infrastructure for the operation of the competitive power market.

According to the decision, EVN’s power generating corporations and plants (excluding large-scale ones which play an important role in socio-economic, national defense and security) will no longer connect with power trading, transmission and regulatory units.  

The decision will come into force on December 25, 2013.

Russia, Vietnam boost education and training cooperation

Russian Education and Science Minister Livanov Dmitryi Victorovich has expressed his country’s willingness to welcome more Vietnamese students at its tertiary education institutions.

At November 12 talks with Vietnamese Education and Training Minister Pham Vu Luan, Minister Livanov concurred with Vietnam’s proposals and committed Russia to helping train Vietnamese nuclear energy experts.

He confirmed the Russian Government would welcome the expansion of Russian language and culture education in Vietnam. Russia would help equip mini-libraries at Vietnamese high schools and extend the credit for building the Vietnam-Russia University of Technology.

He hopes Vietnam will become a reliable bridge linking Russian and Southeast Asian education and training.

Minister Luan thanked the Russian government and people for their continued support. Generations of Russian professors, teachers, and educational organisations have trained thousands of Vietnam’ highest-qualified cadres, experts, and skilled workers.

Luan mentioned the Ministry of Education and Training’s ongoing comprehensive reforms designed to prepare the human resources necessary for a successful knowledge economy.

Vietnam is eager for further assistance from the Russian Government, the Ministry of Education and Science, and training centres as it works towards this goal.

In the 2013–2020 period, Vietnam hopes Russia will raise in increasing the number of expatriate Vietnamese university students and post-graduates to 1,000, with a particular focus on studies in bio-technology, new material technology, space and energy technologies, and pharmaceuticals, Luan said

Vietnam wants Russian assistance in training for its nuclear science and technology ambitions. It is also seeking a loan to build the Vietnam-Russia University of Technology.

Luan proposed strengthening cooperation in research and teaching Russian language and culture at Vietnamese educational centres.

Both sides agreed the joint committee on science and technology cooperation should be upgraded to the inter-ministerial joint committee on education, training, science, and technology cooperation.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has hailed Vietnam’s efforts to brace itself for super typhoon Haiyan, the 14th hitting the country this year.

In its press release, the UNDP praised the Government of Vietnam’s proactive pre-storm measures, which have helped to save lives and mitigate the impact of typhoon Haiyan, which killed thousands in the Philippines.

Haiyan made landfall in Haiphong and Quang Ninh in the early hours of November 11 while eleven central and central northern provinces were pounded by heavy rainfall and high winds from the movement of the storm system offshore for 24 hours.

After making landfall, Haiyan quickly weakened into a tropical depression as it moved further inland, and changed its course towards southern China.

For the first time, the Vietnamese Prime Minister activated the highest state of preparedness on November 8, three days before the storm made landfall, the release said.

As part of preparedness and mitigation measures, nearly 800,000 people were evacuated ahead of the storm. By the time the typhoon finally came ashore in the North, most of those evacuated in the central provinces had already returned home, it added.

Central and provincial authorities were also placed on the highest level of alert to take all necessary preventive and response measures. A high-level Government delegation was deployed to direct operations, before, during and after the emergency.

“We are impressed by the extraordinary preparedness measures taken by the Government to cope with the storm. Strong leadership, right from the highest level, played a key role in minimising the impact and human losses, said Pratibha Mehta, UN Resident Coordinator in Vietnam.

Both civil and military authorities were fully prepared. Each province had stockpiled on food, water, sanitation equipment, and medical supplies. Humanitarian workers of the UN system and INGOs recognised and praised the Government’s proactive preventive measures ahead of the storm.

The Government of Vietnam has well controlled the situation but the UN agency keeps close contact with the authorities and other humanitarian partners, and is ready to render international assistance if need be.

National Assembly (NA) deputies passed a Resolution on the 2014 State budget estimates with 87.95 percent of votes in the November 12 morning session of the 13th NA’s sixth meeting.

According to the resolution, the State budget’s total collection will be 782.7 trillion VND (37.27 billion USD) and total spending, 1,006.7 trillion VND, leading to a 224 trillion VND overspend, or 5.3 percent of the country’s GDP.

The NA deputies also asked the Government to intensify financial disciplines and rules, strictly implement the fiscal policy, and restructure budget collection and spending to ensure macroeconomic stability.

According to the deputies, the Government should also reduce the expenses for State management apparatus, cut down expenses for meetings, celebrations and overseas trips and not buy public cars except in cases regulated by the law.

The same percentage of votes was also gained for a resolution on the adjustment of the State budget estimates for 2013.

Under the document, the Government was assigned by the NA to increase the State budget’s overspending to compensate for the central budget’s loss, but by no more than 195.5 trillion VND (equivalent to 5.3 percent of the estimated GDP).

The Government continued to ask localities to reduce spending, cut down unnecessary and ineffective expenses, and allowed localities that lack money to compensate for budget deficits by using 70 percent of the financial reserves fund to cover the shortage in budget revenues.

During the session, member of the NA Standing Committee and Chairman of the NA Office Nguyen Hanh Phuc presented a draft resolution to increase the number of deputy prime ministers from four to five.

The NA voted on the document with 87.75 percent in favour.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung submitted proposals to ask the NA to approve the appointment of Minister and Chairman of the Governmental Office Vu Duc Dam and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh to the deputy PM post.

The NA deputies discussed the PM’s proposals at the end of the morning session and gave opinions on the revised Notary Public Law in the afternoon.-

Gov’t leader committed to anti-corruption efforts

Vietnam will do its utmost to create an equitable and transparent environment for foreign companies to do long-term business in the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc made the commitment at the 12th anti-corruption dialogue in Hanoi on November 12.

He noted Vietnam is accelerating its international integration, following its admission to the World Trade Organisations (WTO) and current negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and many other free trade agreements (FTAs).

Vietnam is aware that combating corruption is not only the task of Vietnam but also the requirement of donors and multilateral economic cooperation mechanisms, said Phuc.

Over the years, he said, the Party and State of Vietnam have paid due attention to combating corruption. The National Assembly and government have introduced many legal documents, including the Law on Anti-corruption, to intensify the fight.

A steering board on corruption prevention was established and led by the General Secretary of the Party Central Committee.

Anti-corruption is an important task of the entire political regime and society, in which the business community plays an important role, he said.

He proposed business and craft associations, including the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, take the lead in undertaking anti-corruption initiatives in the business community to create a healthy, transparent, and non-corruption environment.

The government will revise and perfect legal documents on corruption prevention and control to tighten loopholes in the fight, Phuc assured delegates.

The dialogue was jointly held by the UK Department for International Development, the Vietnamese Government Inspectorate, and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting concludes

The 11th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting wrapped up in New Delhi, India on November 12 after two days of sitting.

The meeting adopted the President Statement with a number of important decisions on cooperative directions and programmes of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) forum in the time to come, passed 16 new initiatives proposed by its member countries, established 12 cooperation groups and put forth preparations for admitting Croatia into the forum.

During the meeting, delegates exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual concern. They affirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, and ensuring maritime freedom, security and safety in order to recover the economy and deal with global challenges.

Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Ha Kim Ngoc affirmed that urgent issues are now strengthening strategic trust, establishing a code of conduct, creating transparency in the relationship between nations and intensifying the reached principles on solving all disputes through peaceful negotiations, in accordance with the United Nations Charter and international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Within the framework of the meeting, Ngoc held bilateral meetings with delegation heads from India, Germany, the UK, France, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Holland, Poland, Ireland, Bangladesh, Norway and Switzerland.

They affirmed that their countries attach importance to ties with Vietnam and will further strengthen friendship and cooperation with the country.

DPRK Rodong delegation visits Vietnam

A delegation from Rodong Sinmun daily, an official newspaper of the Workers’ Party of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), is paying a working visit from November 11.

At a November 12 reception for the delegation, Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Affairs Head Hoang Binh Quan, said the Vietnamese Party, Government and people recognise great importance to further reinforcing the traditional relationship between Vietnam and the DPRK in the new situation for the sake of both peoples, contributing to regional and international peace, stability and development.

Quan praised the outcomes of talks between the delegation and Nhan Dan (People) newspaper officials and their regular exchange of delegations and professional experience which help enhance the Parties’ relations.

Ri Kyong Sop, Rodong’s deputy editor-in-chief, expressed his pleasure at Vietnam’s socio-economic developments over the years.

He also briefed his host on the DPRK’s situation, expressing desire to enhance cooperation between the two newspapers as well as developing the two countries’ time-honoured friendship and deepening mutual understanding between the two peoples.

ASEM supports Vietnam’s post-storm recovery

Vietnamese Foreign Ministry representatives have thanked ASEM members for their attention and sympathy in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.

Delegates joined with Indian Foreign Minister and ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting Chair Salman Khurshid in expressing solidarity with the Vietnamese and Philippine victims of the devastating storm.

The 11th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting was held in New Delhi on November 11–12.

The Indonesian FM and ASEAN delegation heads urged ASEM members to offer the Philippine and Vietnamese Governments practical assistance that will help their citizens overcome the typhoon’s repercussions.

A number of ASEM member nations answered the call with pledges of aid to the Philippines and assistance to Vietnam.

Attendees are drafting a joint statement formalising their readiness to support the Philippine and Vietnamese people affected.

Vietnam, Laos work for border of peace

Vietnam and Laos have consented to fully abide by border management agreements signed in the past and strengthen cooperation for a borderline of peace, friendship and cooperation for mutual development.

The agreement was reached at talks between Commander of the Border Guards, Lieut. Gen. Vo Trong Viet and Director of the Border and Mapping Department under the General Staff of the Lao People’s Army Syphanphut Thavong in Vientiane on November 12.

Accordingly, both sides will keep close checks over border areas so as to timely prevent and thwart sabotage plans by hostile forces while facilitating information and experience sharing.

Both host and guest expressed their satisfaction with campaigns to raise public awareness of border defence as well as twinning the two nations’ border localities to enhance their solidarity.

Over the past time, they have conducted thorough inspections along border areas, making it easier for businesses and citizens to do business and travel. The Vietnamese and Lao border guards have fought against crime, established diplomatic defence relations and beefed up education cooperation.

This year, the Vietnam Border Guard Academy trained nearly 30 Lao military officers and students while border guards from 10 Vietnamese provinces offered high-quality training to 270 of their Lao counterparts.-

Fifth international workshop on East Sea ends

Following two days of discussions, the fifth international workshop on the East Sea successfully wrapped up in the capital city on November 12.

During the event, delegates focused on recent developments in the East Sea , the role of ASEAN and major powers and international law including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) whilst recommending means for the maintenance of peace and stability in the East Sea .

Many of the scholars said the situation in The East Sea improved this year while some others said they see a looming risk of unstability. China has worked to improve relations with neighbours including India and Vietnam as well as start consultations with ASEAN in the realisation of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

They shared the view that the East Sea still remains a hot spot of disputes, therefore, ASEAN should maintain solidarity to uphold its central role in the region.

Scholars emphasised the compliance with international law in general and UNCLOS in particular, asserting that China ’s claim of the U-shape line is unclear and illegitimate. However, they suggested the involved parties should make their territorial claims clear in order to define disputed waters and form a joint exploitation model in the East Sea .

They hailed the progress of the implementation of the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) as well as the prospect of the negotiations for the COC signing. They held that the COC needs to have clear regulations in order to adjust behaviours of the involved in overlapping waters in hopes to ensure all parties’ benefits.

Proposals for fishery cooperation, a peaceful marine park, and joint studies on geographic conditions in the East Sea were also made during the workshop.-

Source: VNA/VOV