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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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IN VIETNAM, RAGE GROWING OVER LOSS OF LAND RIGHTS
Jan 31, 4:37 AM EST BY CHRIS BRUMMITT ASSOCIATED PRESS KIM SON, Vietnam (AP) — Faced with a group of farmers refusing to give up their land for a housing project, the Communist Party officials negotiating the deal devised a solution: They went to a bank, opened accounts in the names of the holdouts and…
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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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In Vietnam, Anti-China Protests Get Creative
Voice of America, Marianne Brown January 25, 2013 HANOI — In the face of growing constraints on freedom of speech by Vietnamese authorities, protesters who oppose Chinese policies and trade practices are finding inventive ways to express themselves. With stories of carcinogenic bras and toxic apples from China prevalent in the Vietnamese media, many people…
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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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Vietnam’s propaganda agents battle bloggers online
18 January 2013 – 19H05 AFP – After harassment and prison failed to silence Vietnam’s dissident bloggers, the communist government started building an army of propaganda agents to infiltrate chatrooms and sing the regime’s praises. “Their favourite arguments are: ‘shut up and trust the government’. They don’t engage in rational debate. They go in for…
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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 admits deploying bloggers to support government
11 January 2013 Last updated at 19:50 ET By Nga Pham BBC News, Hanoi The bloggers have been hailed for stopping negative online rumours Continue reading the main story Related Stories Vietnam convicts ‘plot’ activists Vietnam subversion trial starts Vietnamese bloggers deny charges Vietnamese propaganda officials have admitted deploying people to engage in online discussions…
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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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Does Hanoi deal with Beijing for its people, or for itself?
January 12th, 2013 Author: Hai Hong Nguyen, UQ China’s recent aggression in the South China Sea has provoked civic protests in the two largest cities of Vietnam. Participating in these protests were nationally well-known personalities, scholars, young people and students. In successive meetings with their Chinese counterparts, Vietnamese officials have agreed that they would not allow…
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