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Amid tensions, Chinese fruit a turnoff in Vietnam
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press – 3 days ago HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Jack Nguyen had sold 20 of his 30 containers of imported American grapes when fresh rumors hit the Internet and state-run media: Chinese fruit on sale in Vietnam might look good, but it contains deadly levels of preservatives and pesticides. Shoppers quickly…
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Vietnam’s downward spiral
The Phnom Penh Post March 17, 2013 By Roger Mitton Vietnam is a sad country these days. Almost every report about the place, whether it concerns the economy, corruption, political repression or the price of beer, is profoundly depressing. Perhaps the most melancholic item was a story by the journalist Nguyen Phuong Linh in last…
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Fear of change in Vietnam
Mar 6, 2013 By Khanh Vu Duc Fear has long underpinned the authoritarian rule of Vietnam’s Communist Party. Fear of change; fear of the people over which they rule; fear that the people might soon demand more freedom, accountability and transparency than their once revolutionary leaders are willing to allow. While Vietnam’s communist leaders have…
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Vietnam economic crisis takes heavy toll on society
Posted: 13 February 2013 2128 hrs HANOI: From growing numbers of people with depression to families bankrupted by stock market investments, many are suffering in Vietnam’s slow-burn economic crisis — and blame the communist regime for their woes. After swapping Soviet-style central planning for free-market reforms in the mid 1980s, Vietnam became a regional poster-child…
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Vietnam’s state sector a ‘cancer’ in economy
AFPJanuary 30, 2013, 12:31 pm HANOI (AFP) – Opaque, corrupt, inefficient — Vietnam’s state-run companies are used to criticism, but now they stand accused of creating a systemic economic crisis which the communist regime cannot fix. More than 25 years after it started a transition towards a market economy, the government is trying to unpick…
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Vietnam’s Economy: Sabotaged From Within
The Diplomat By James Parker January 29, 2013 Last year saw a number of Vietnamese state-owned enterprise officials being arrested for economic crimes or “irregularities” at the companies under their care. As covered previously on Pacific Money, one of the most shocking such arrests was that of Nguyen Duc Kien, a famous tycoon and founder…
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Resurgent inflation dampens Vietnam stimulus hopes
Agence France-Presse 8:22 pm | Thursday, January 24th, 2013 HANOI—Vietnamese inflation accelerated in January, official data showed Thursday, reducing expectations of further monetary stimulus to boost the flagging economy. Consumer prices were up 7.07 percent this month from a year earlier, following a 6.8 percent rise in December, the General Statistics Office in Hanoi said…
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Is Thanh the man?
A scandal-ridden party lashes out at dissent and tries to tackle corruption The Economist, Jan 26th 2013 HANOI EARLIER this month Vietnam’s courts handed out long jail sentences to 14 young democracy activists and bloggers accused, on the flimsiest of evidence, of subverting the state. Even by the sorry standards of the country’s Communist Party of…
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Vietnam’s economic woes: where to from here?
Jan 10, 2013 9:00am by beyondbrics By Jake Maxwell Watts and Nguyen Phuong Linh In both the developing and industrialised worlds, economic growth rates, like bad news, can be entirely relative. Vietnam’s respectable-sounding GDP growth of 5.08 per cent in 2012 was in fact a painful fall from 5.9 per cent in 2011 and marked…
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Challenging ASEAN:The US Pivot Through Southeast Asia’s Eyes
December 2012 By Donald K. Emmerson The US pivot toward Asia has been viewed largely through the lens of American security and economic competition with China. Within that context, writes Donald K. Emmerson, Washington is also deepening its involvement in ASEAN in terms of both security and trade. At stake is ASEAN’s vaunted centrality as…
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