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Vietnam arrests well-known blogger for criticism
5:23 a.m. EDT May 27, 2013 HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese police have arrested one of the country’s best known bloggers for posting criticism of the communist government, the latest in an intensified crackdown against dissent in the one-party, authoritarian state. Tuoi Tre newspaper reported Monday that police arrested Truong Duy Nhat, 49, at his…
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Vietnam Jails Two Over Leaflets
May 16, 2013 A court in southern Vietnam on Thursday sentenced two young activists to several years in prison for distributing “anti-government” leaflets, in a trial relatives and rights groups condemned as unfair and aimed at silencing dissent in the one-party state. University student Nguyen Phuong Uyen, 21, was sentenced to six years in prison,…
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Laos Land Grab: Deutsche Bank Backs Ruthless ‘Rubber Lords’
May 15, 2013 10:33 am By Martin Hesse, Jorg Schmitt and Wieland Wagner Vietnamese companies have been ruthlessly taking advantage of Laotian locals and their environment to create vast rubber plantations. The “rubber lords” are also getting support for the land grabs from Germany’s Deutsche Bank, which is violating its ethics and sustainability policies, critics say.…
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Vietnam must ditch state-sponsored crony capitalism
May 15, 2013 8:03 pm By David Pilling For a country in its demographic sweetspot, the economy is not growing fast enough The country has just emerged from a scandal that exposed virulent corruption at the heart of the Communist party. There is a pressing need to reform state-owned enterprises – behemoths of inefficiency, patronage…
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Vietnam’s Star Is Dimming
By William Pesek May 9, 2013 6:00 PM ET Like other would-be tiger economies, Vietnam faces a trifecta of new threats: a crisis-paralyzed Europe, a faltering America, and a newly spendthrift Japan. Yet the biggest risk to the nation’s future may be old-fashioned nostalgia. It has been 27 years since Hanoi launched the “Doi Moi”…
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In Hard Times, Open Dissent and Repression Rise in Vietnam
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — His bookshelves are filled with the collected works of Marx, Engels and Ho Chi Minh, the hallmarks of a loyal career in the Communist Party, but Nguyen Phuoc Tuong, 77, says he is no longer a believer. A former adviser to two prime ministers, Mr. Tuong, like so many…
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Why Vietnam needs more banking reform
April 15th, 2013 Author: Vu Quang Viet, UN Vietnam’s economic growth in the last decade has been driven by a tremendous expansion of bank credit. Domestic credit was 35 per cent of GDP in 2001; this figure had surged to 120 per cent by 2010. As a consequence, the ratio of average debt to owners’…
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Vietnam’s lost charm
Business Standard Barun Roy April 3, 2013 Last Updated at 21:50 IST Foreign investors are losing faith in their sought-after destination on the back of slow reforms and rising corruption Something has gone wrong for Vietnam. It finds it’s no longer the same darling of foreign investors it used to be. For three years in…
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Southeast Asia human rights ‘stagnating’: US officials
Agence France-Presse Posted at 03/22/2013 8:56 AM | Updated as of 03/22/2013 8:56 AM WASHINGTON – US officials voiced concern Thursday about human rights in fast-growing Southeast Asian nations, pointing to a lack of progress in many places and a worsening situation in some. As the United States pursues its rebalance toward Asia, it is…
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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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