Miss Earth contestants visit HCM City’s largest rubbish dump

VietNamNet Bridge – Twenty beauties from the USA, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Singapore, etc. and host Vietnam spent their entire morning to see how rubbish is treated at the $100 million Da Phuoc garbage dump in HCM City on November 8.

Maricelle Rani Wong from Singapore said she was surprised to see such as big waste treatment site. As the second-year student at the National University of Singapore, Wong has visited several rubbish dumps in Singapore but they are much smaller than the one in HCM City.

Other contestants and Miss Earth 2009 showed their interests in the introduction of Kevin Moore, general director of the Vietnam Waste Solutions, the investor of Da Phuoc rubbish dump, about the waste treatment process.

During the trip, the contestant from South Africa consistently took notes in her small notebook while the contestant from Guatemala raised many questions about the treatment process.

After the field trip, contestants met with local women.

Tonight, November 9, 20 out of nearly 90 contestants will perform their talents in the Talent Show at the Diamond Palace in HCM City.

Some photos of Miss Earth contestants at the Da Phuoc dumping site in HCM City:

Miss Earth 2009 talks with Kevin Moore.

PV

Businessmen, please support culture development, but don’t interfere

VietNamNet Bridge – Nowadays, more and more Vietnamese businessmen show their corporate social responsibility (CSR) by funding cultural works or financing constructions of pagodas. However, in many cases, their crude interference ruins the cultural value.

In the interview given to VietNamNet’s Vietnam Economic Forum (VEF), Associate Professor Dr Nguyen Van Huy, Member of the National Council for Cultural Heritage, stressed that businessmen can fund the cultural development, but they should not make thoughtlessly interfere inthe wider context of cultural matters

Could you please tell us what other countries in the world think about the corporate social responsibility in culture development?

In developed countries, businesses and businessmen always pay closeattention to the development of cultural heritages. They believe that culture is the foundation which helps them develop and prosper. Therefore, when they succeed, they think they have to express their gratitude towards customers and the society. At the same time, funding cultural activities is also an effective way of doing marketing for businesses.

Starting business as a railway transport company, nowadays Meitetsu has become a prosperous economic group, operating in many fields. The owners of Meitetsu, who are now millionaires and billionaires, believe that they need to express their gratefulness to the people, who use their railway services, by spending money to build a miniature museum of the world. This is a huge project covering an area of hundreds of hectares.

There are many investment funds and the culture supporters named after famous businessmen, such as Rockerfeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, or Toyota Foundation. The funds reserve big budgets for developing and preserving culture

You have talked about developed countries. What would you say about Vietnamese businessmen and their stories on funding culture development?

Vietnamese businesses have been playing a very important role in the development of the country. They have been accumulating big capital, while many businessmen have become very rich, somethingthey could not imagine just 10 or 15 years ago.

However, it seems that Vietnamese businessmen still do not think that they need to make contribution to the culture development.

In fact, many businesses implemented their corporate social responsibility by funding the repairing pagodas. In some cases, as they did, they made thoughtlessly interfered with the integral part of the work and thus ruined it altogether

For example, a businessman agreed to spend money to recover Tam Van citadel in Dien Bien. The citadel was made of soil, but the businessman then asked to build the citadel in bricks. As the result, the citadel ended up resembling Great Wall. I have to say that this is a kind of rude interference in the work of culturists.

In other countries, businessmen fund cultural projects, but they never intervene in the works of culturists.

Besides, businessmen also spend money to help flood-stricken people, fund art performances or sports events (football tournament, tennis or golf tournaments). But they rarely fund cultural activities, which is understandable: businessmen cannot see their benefit in funding cultural activities. They still do not understand that funding cultural activities is a good way to polish their images.

Some people say that Vietnamese cultural products are very poor and unattractive. Do you agree with the comment?

Making and trading cultural products is the weak point of Vietnamese businesses. Most businesses still hesitate to make investment in the field, partially because they do not have good ideas to develop their business.

Meanwhile, other countries have been very good at this. In China, for example, there are many enterprises specializing in making specimens of antiques which appeared in different dynasties in the country. The products have high quality and they have been selling very well, bringing large profits to the enterprises.

What should we do to settle the problem?

If you go to museums and heritage sites in Vietnam, you will see that there are only generic souvenirs available, the kind of products that you can find everywhere else. Museums and heritage sites do not have specific products of their own. Therefore, the products are uninspiring and unattractive to tourists.

What needs to be done now is for businesses to spend money to create new designs with high quality. However, then a new problem will arise with new designs being copied by other producers. Therefore, producers have no motivation to create anything new or innovative.

VNR500: Private enterprises still cannot top the list

VietNamNet Bridge – In the 2010 VNR500, private enterprises still bottom the list in terms of business efficiency with business results much lower than that of state-owned enterprises and foreign invested enterprises.

On November 25, Vietnam Report and VietNamNet released the 2010 VNR500, the list of the 500 Vietnamese biggest enterprises in terms of turnover in 2010. For the fourth consecutive year enterprises are ranked and made public on mass media. Now, when Vietnamese people are discussing a new five-year socio-economic development plan, it is the perfect time to review a complete picture of Vietnamese enterprises over the last four years.

No discrimination in ranking by economic sector expected

Currently, Vietnam Report releases two main rankings 1/ the list of the top 500 biggest Vietnamese enterprises of all economic sectors and 2/ the list of the top 500 biggest private enterprises.

The classification of enterprises in accordance with the economic sector seems to be seen only in Vietnam.

The proportion of private enterprises in the VNR500 (list 1) has been increasing yearly with an average increase of two percent per annum. The figure shows that the private economic sector has been steadily increasing. Business results of the enterprises on the second list are approaching to the indexes of list 1, which shows the considerable progress of private enterprises, even though the progress remains below expectations.

Therefore, one can place high hopes that in the near future, Vietnam will only have one ranking – the VNR500 – the list of top 500 biggest enterprises of all economic sectors, with no discrimination of the type ownership.

However, this will only become true when discriminations between economic sectors are removed.

Private enterprises still bottom the list in terms of business result

Despite the challenges from the economic downturn, the VNR500 enterprises have still been staying firmly grounded, and the total turnover of all500 enterprises on list 1 has still been gradually increasing over the past four years. Meanwhile, the total sums of taxes paid by the enterprises increased sharply in 2009 and 2010 after the shock in 2008.

Regarding the two main business indexes, ROA and ROE, one can see that the indexes of foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) far exceeded that of the two remaining economic sectors.

However, the gap has been closing. The two indexes of FIEs decreased sharply from 26.9 percent and 62.4 percent in 2007 to 14.7 and 30.9 percent, respectively, in 2008, and the downward trend is continuing.

Contrary to expectations, the business results of private enterprises, which are much lower than that of FIEs and state-owned enterprises, place them at bottom the list of enterprises.

The weakness of private enterprises is partially explained by the fact that the enterprises are facing more difficulties than state-owned enterprises in accessing land and bank loans.

Little changes in business field structure

The list of the top 500 enterprises shows only little changes in the business fields of the biggest enterprises.

Industrial enterprises are still dominating the ranking (70 percent of enterprises), while the two other business fields, agriculture and trade services, have the same proportion of enterprises on the list – 10 percent.

The enterprises operating in five key fields are still topping the rankings, including enterprises focused on mineral resources – oil and gas, construction – real estate – construction materials, banking – finance – insurance, steel and agriculture – forestry.

The crisis storm deal a blow on exports

While some business fields such as mineral resources – oil and gas, and steel still can show their strength, other business fields which rely on exports, such as footwear, seafood and garment, have endured negative impacts from the global economic crisis.

This explains why in the 2007 ranking footwear and garment companies stayed above the construction and real estate field with 5 percent of enterprises, but in the 2010 ranking, the figure has dropped to 2.6 percent.

The number of manufacturing enterprises in the ranking remains very modest, which shows that the productivity and competitiveness of Vietnam’s economy remains weak after four years of joining WTO.

The dire need to enhance national competitiveness

Vietnam’s economy is rebounding far from the shadow of global economic turmoil, but this strong recovery is not enough to guarantee sustainable growth and high competitiveness for the nation if it cannot address a number of key issues that are a brake on its future development. The European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) recommends in its third edition of the “White Book” released in Hanoi on Thursday that the Government should take bold actions with regards to infrastructure, administrative procedures reform, human resources (HR) development, low value-added production, and better protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).
These issues were highlighted by EuroCham Chairman Alain Cany and EuroCham Executive Director Matthias Dühn when they were interviewed by the Daily. They were of the opinion that resolving those concerns was crucial for Vietnam to achieve more sustainable long-term economic growth and not be caught in the “middle-income trap”.

Shift to high value-added production

“What we recommend for Vietnam is to shift from basic low value-added exports to more sophisticated and high value-added production and exports,” Cany said, though he agreed that the country had been successful in development, largely through low value-added exports for rice, coffee and other commodities.
Cany assumed the local content of made-in-Vietnam goods was just about 30%, as companies had to count on many imported materials and commodities to turn out their products. Heavy reliance on imports to produce exports is somehow more harm than good to their cash flow.
“They have to pay foreign currency first to import up to 70% of the input materials and then sell (finished products) within three to four months, and wait to receive payment in the U.S. dollar in another two months. So on average, you have a shortage of cash flow of 70% of your export turnover for more than six months, and this costs a lot,” Cany pointed out.
To increase the local content, Vietnam needs to improve the business environment to attract more investments in the supporting industry and production of high value-added items. Actually, more foreign manufacturers are coming to Vietnam to use the good quality but low-cost manpower.
In its White Book 2011, EuroCham views relatively low-cost work force, natural resources, favorable geographical location, political stability and a market of huge domestic potential as the key economic advantages that Vietnam has leveraged to move from a “low income” to “middle income” country in 2010. Over the past years, Vietnam has received large amounts of official development assistance (ODA) from bilateral and multilateral sources.
But EuroCham says Vietnam cannot rely on its current competitive advantages of low-cost labor, natural resources and ODA to last indefinitely because of rising wages, limited natural resources, and the ODA will eventually be reduced or discontinued.
Reality shows the low-cost labor is turning out to be a less prioritized factor that foreign companies consider before their decisions to enter Vietnam. In fact, more investors, especially those of large-scale and high-tech projects, are looking for Vietnamese qualified employees who can be the key to their success in this growing market.
“It is becoming more and more difficult for foreign enterprises to come to Vietnam to hire qualified people,” Cany said “This has been a problem for the last few years, but the more companies are coming, the more difficulties they face. It seems that a lack of capable employees becomes a chronic issue and this made some companies hesitate to make sizable investments in Vietnam.”
EuroCham reported that more than 65% of Vietnam’s workforce was still unskilled and more than 75% of the 20 -24 year olds were either unskilled or skill-strapped. In the ASEAN region, Vietnam ranks in the lower half of the human resource development, and so improving its workforce is one of Vietnam’s key tasks to meet the needs of rapidly changing labor markets at home and abroad.
Labor skills and productivity of Vietnamese employees are what that matters most, and EuroCham calls for agencies to pay more attention to this. Cany admitted general education in Vietnam was good, but stressed improvement in vocational training and higher education to provide the employees able to meet the employers’ requirements.
“We have discussed the HR topic sometimes and some improvements have been made by the Ministry of Education and Training, but this has to be accelerated,” Cany said. He added that if Vietnam wanted to attract the investors who brought added values and know-how from Europe and elsewhere in the world, the country had to make sure they would find qualified employees.

Changes for sustainable growth

While vocational training should match the needs of companies, EuroCham also recommends Vietnam in its Whitebook 2011 to encourage a “culture of innovation and creativity” as an impetus to the sustainable long-term development of Vietnam.
“Without this, Vietnam risks falling into the “middle-income trap,” the inability to arise out of an economy based on cheap labor and low-technology manufacturing methods to value-added knowledge-intensive and innovation-based manufacturing for both domestic consumption and export,” EuroCham Executive Director Matthias Dühn said.
EuroCham recommends the Government continue on all levels its efforts to raise awareness about the value of IPR protection, which is regarded as an incentive for many foreign companies to research and develop their products further for the benefit of consumers in the long run. Stricter enforcement of IPR also backs Vietnam’s shift towards creation and production of more quality products, and at the same time are of paramount importance for foreign investors in Vietnam.
Dühn said Vietnam had a good Intellectual Property Law and it should be enforced more rigidly by imposing maximum penalties on violations. “Often, the penalties on provincial levels are relatively low and so do not discourage people from stopping copycats because the money they make is much more than the money they pay for the penalties. This, in fact, often acts as an incentive to counterfeit products.”
Together with the progress in IPR, EuroCham proposes the Government continue its streamlining of administrative procedures to create a real investor-friendly environment. As a member of the Advisory Council for Administrative Procedures Reform (ACAPR), the organization has recognized some major achievements of Project 30 for procedure simplification, but emphasized that big challenges still lie ahead.
Cany and Dühn agreed that additional administrative procedures have arisen in 2010, counter-acting the good progress of Project 30. For instance, the effect of Circular 24/2010/TT-BCT on July 12, 2010 required importers of a large number of commodity imports to submit the automatic import license on customs clearance.
Dühn said as both the application and issuance of the automatic import license were required to be done by regular post/mail, an application was now likely to take an estimated 10 working days, a triple of the time required for the prior existing declaration requirement.
The Whitebook 2011 also raises concerns that the Government has passed Circular 122/2010/TT-BTC on price stabilization that went into effect on October 1. Dühn said this circular “is against the spirit and objectives of Project 30, and will add substantial administrative burdens and uncertainty to the private sector doing business in Vietnam, and also potentially prevent Vietnam from early graduation to market economy status under EU rules.”
These points are summed up in the Whitebook 2011 with the comment “that simplifying rather than increasing administrative burdens would attract more foreign investment."
EuroCham also said that to make Vietnam a better haven for foreign investors, the Government would have to upgrade the labor skills and productivity, and improve infrastructure and energy supply, with a view to better encouraging viable long-term public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
Equal importance is to continue improving the regulatory framework for investment, efficiently enforcing IPR regulations, and streamlining administrative reforms. EuroCham said structural changes for long-term economic growth should remain high on Vietnam’s agenda, particularly with regards to further equitizing state-owned enterprises.
Cany and Dühn agreed that Vietnam was more definitely on the radar screen of European companies, and 2011 should be a promising year for the country, at least in terms of growth. But, they maintained that Vietnam’s ability to sustain high long-term economic growth would depend on the Government’s quick reactions and solutions to the key issues.

Vietnam the first target for Seoul searchers

South Korea's most prestigious university wants to make Vietnam the location of its first overseas campus, part of an internationalisation strategy billed as putting "obligation and responsibility" above revenue streams.

Seoul National University

Seoul National University believes it can pass on academic expertise in development informed by South Korea's rapid transformation into an advanced market economy, presenting that as a motivation for its overseas-student recruitment and plans for a branch campus.

Junki Kim, Seoul National's dean of international affairs, pointed to the experience of South Korea, a nation with few natural resources, in making education a cornerstone of economic growth.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development forecasts that by 2025, South Korea will have the highest proportion of university graduates in the world - about 80 per cent of the population aged 25 to 44.

"When many of the developing nations are looking for ways in which they can improve through the learning process, we can provide that knowledge," Professor Kim said.

"When less developed nations are looking to drive their economies, where are they going to look? At the US and the UK? No, the gap is too huge."

He added that countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia needed "different patterns of growth. What they are looking for is an example like South Korea - where the state provides guidance and capital - and ways in which they can guide or develop a market economy."

Professor Kim said Vietnam had been "searching for ways to develop human resources in areas in which we have done relatively well", citing industries as diverse as medical services, IT, engineering and shipbuilding.

"In order to do so it needs human capital," he said. "We have been doing that - we have been providing very able people over the years."

He added that Seoul National would like to start the campus "modestly" by offering courses in development, public administration or public policy, and then gradually develop a full-scale outpost.

Professor Kim said that at South Korean universities, the rate at which tuition fees can increase is capped by the government, a rule that applies to both domestic and overseas students. This leaves little scope for charging overseas students higher fees, he added.

By contrast, he recalled a representative of the University of California, Los Angeles discussing the recruitment of overseas students to "fill the gap" left by California's budgetary crisis and declining state funding.

"We can't do that," he said. "Also, our business model is different. We are attracting overseas students as part of our obligation and responsibility to developing nations."

Professor Kim added that in terms of links with overseas universities, "the UK is the area in which we are lacking". His comments coincided with a visit to South Korea by pro vice-chancellors from five UK universities, organised by the British Council.

Vietnam's Saint Giong Festival receives UNESCO cultural heritage status

Vietnam’s Saint Giong Festival was among 46 other candidates recognised as world intangible cultural heritages on November 16.

By now Vietnam has had 6 world intangible cultural heritages.

The Saint Giong Festival is a unique tradition in Vietnam, held annually from the 6th-12th of the fourth lunar month at Phu Dong Temple (in Gia Lam District) and Soc Temple (Soc Son District) in Hanoi. The festival commemorates the legendary folk hero who grew from a three-year-old child into a giant overnight to help drive out invaders from the country.
The festival is a chance for visitors to watch the performance of traditional rituals and artistic activities which have been handed down from generation to generation.
The list of 47 new world intangible cultural heritages were announced at the 5th section of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritages in Nairobi, Kenya.
Among 147 nominations from 32 countries for recognition as world intangible cultural heritage status were submitted to UNESCO in 2010, 54 were selected for the 2nd round.
However, at the meeting held in Nairobi from November 15-19, only 47 nominations from 29 countries won the recognition. These new world intangible cultural heritages include 6 traditional handicrafts, 12 festivals, 6 traditional know-hows, 20 performing arts, and 3 traditional cuisines.
By now, 212 heritages from 106 countries have been recognised as world intangible cultural heritages. Vietnam has 6 heritages on this list. They include: Hue royal court music, Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) gong culture, the Bac Ninh love duet singing, the Thang Long Royal Citadel, the 82 doctoral stone steles in the temple of literature and now, the Saint Giong Festival.