Vietnam’s GDP Growth Accelerates to 5.8% on Stimulus

Bloomberg

By Jason Folkmanis

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s economic growth accelerated this quarter, buoyed by domestic demand and government stimulus spending that has revived bank lending.

Gross domestic product expanded 5.8 percent from a year earlier after gaining 4.5 percent in the previous three months, according to the General Statistics Office in Hanoi. For the first three quarters, the economy grew 4.6 percent, compared with a revised 6.3 percent for the same period in 2008.

“Vietnam is certainly moving out of the slowdown,” said Ashok Sud, the Hanoi-based Vietnam chief executive for Standard Chartered Plc. “But getting back to the 7 or 8 percent growth that we were seeing before may take another couple of years.”

The government is focusing more on boosting economic growth this year than on easing inflation, Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet said last week. The country has among “the most attractive” growth prospects in Asia over the “long run,” said Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, in an interview last week.

“Vietnam’s steady recovery remains on track,” Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said in a research note today. “Industrial production, particularly from the state sector, continues to propel growth, while the retail sales momentum looks reasonably healthy.”

Retail sales have maintained growth rates of about 20 percent through the economic slowdown, according to research from Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon Capital.

‘Reviving Well’

“Core GDP support continues to be generated mainly by domestic demand,” wrote Joseph Lau, a Hong Kong-based economist at Credit Suisse Group AG, in a note last week. “Consumption held up well during the downturn and even big-ticket purchases seem to be reviving well.”

This quarter’s growth was largely spurred by services, which account for 38 percent of the economy and which expanded 5.9 percent in the first nine months from a year earlier.

Transportation, storage and telecommunications grew 8.4 percent during the first three quarters, while financial services expanded 8.1 percent during the period.

“In a developing market, the financial sector normally grows at about twice the rate of GDP,” said Sud of Standard Chartered. “In the case of Vietnam this year, we also had the stimulus package’s interest-rate subsidy program, which helped drive bank lending.”

Stimulus Package

Measures put in place to counter the slowdown included a fiscal stimulus package valued at 8.6 percent of GDP that featured tax exemptions, reductions and deferments for businesses, increased bond sales, and an interest-rate subsidy program, central bank Governor Nguyen Van Giau said in an August letter to the Asian Development Bank.

The interest-rate subsidy scheme as well as a government infrastructure program have been the “key drivers” behind Vietnam’s economic growth this year, wrote Robert Prior- Wandesforde, a Singapore-based economist at HSBC Holdings Plc.

Industry and construction, which accounts for 40 percent of the Vietnamese economy, grew 4.5 percent in the first three quarters, with the sub-category measuring construction alone expanding 9.7 percent.

Vietnamese building has “recommenced” and a heavy supply of office space will probably enter the market within two years, Dragon Capital said this month.

“The economic recovery is spreading out from construction to include the manufacturing sector,” wrote Prior-Wandesforde of HSBC.

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries, which made up 22 percent of the economy during the first three quarters, grew 1.6 percent. Seafood production was hampered by “many difficulties,” the General Statistics Office said in a report today, with industry exports sliding 10 percent by value during the first three quarters.

Six jailed for Vietnam baby fraud

BBC News

Six Vietnamese have been sentenced to jail for arranging more than 300 fraudulent adoptions, an official said.

The six were jailed for two to four-and-a-half years for "abuse of power", court official Nguyen Tien Hung said.

Among those convicted were two heads of provincial welfare centres, doctors, nurses and local officials.

They were found to have filed false papers to allow babies from poor families to be adopted, many by parents in France, Italy and the US.

Ten other people received suspended sentences of 15 to 18 months.

They came from the province of Nam Dinh, south of Hanoi.

The falsified papers said the babies had been abandoned, making them eligible for adoption by foreign parents, the prosecutors said.

The group was operating from 2005 to July 2008, when the two key suspects were arrested.

The case came to light last year after the US embassy in Hanoi accused Vietnam of failing to police its adoption system, allowing corruption, fraud and baby-selling to flourish.

The US report led Vietnam to end a bilateral adoption agreement.

Congress of Vietnamese Fatherland Front opens

HANOI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The seventh national congress of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front (VFF) opened here on Monday, mapping out development strategy and major tasks of the organization for the next five years.

The VFF is a united front organization of Vietnamese people from all walks of life. The national congress is convened every five years.

With the theme of enhancing the role of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, strengthening democracy, promoting social development and building national unity bloc for a prosperous country and a just, democratic and civilized society, the three-day conference has participation of around 1,300 delegates.

Huynh Dam, President of the VFF Central Committee delivered a speech at the conference. He said the VFF will strive to further enhance its role in Vietnam's renovation cause in the next five years.

The VFF will try to involve more people from various ethnical groups and social sectors to take part in the country's industrialization, modernization and international integration in all possible ways, said Dam.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nong Duc Manh spoke highly of the VFF at the conference. He said that the VFF has contributed greatly to the country's economic and social development, national security and national unity.

Officials from China, Laos, Cambodia and Cuba were invited to attend the opening ceremony of the conference.

Zhang Rongming, vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee delivered a speech at the opening ceremony.

Zhang said that bilateral relations between China and Vietnam have developed in an all-round way in recent years, with friendly exchanges and mutual-beneficial cooperation in all sectors.

Zhang said that the CPPCC would like to continue to work together with the VFF to promote China-Vietnam friendship and cooperation.

Xinhua News Agency

Vietnam's war to save Mekong from sea

By Seth Mydans Cai Rang, Vietnam

FOR centuries, as monsoon rains, typhoons and wars have swept over them to disappear in the sunshine, the farmers and fishermen of the Mekong Delta have drawn life from the water and fertile fields where the great river ends its 2,700-mile journey to the sea.

But everything here, both the timeless and the new, is at risk now from a threat that could bring deeper and longer-lasting disruptions than the generations of warfare that ended more than 30 years ago.

In a worse-case projection, a Vietnamese government report released last month says that more than one-third of the delta, where 17 million people live and nearly half the country's rice is grown, could be submerged if sea levels rise by 3ft in the decades to come.

In a more modest projection, it calculates that one-fifth of the delta would be flooded, said Tran Thuc, who leads Vietnam's National Institute for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Sciences and is the chief author of the report.

Storm surges could periodically raise that level, he said, and experts say an intrusion of salt water and industrial pollution could contaminate much of the remaining delta area.

The risks of climate change for Vietnam go far beyond the Mekong Delta.

Climate experts consider this nation of an estimated 87m people to be in the top five most threatened by rising sea levels linked to climate change.

If the sea level rises by 3ft, 11 per cent of Vietnam's population could be displaced, according to a 2007 World Bank working paper. If it rises by 15ft, 35 per cent of the population and 16 per cent of the country's land area could be affected, the document said.

The potential disruptions and the tremendous cost of trying to reduce their impact could slow Vietnam's drive to emerge from its postwar poverty and impede its ambitions to become one of the region's economic leaders.

Once again, this nation, which has spent much of its history struggling to free itself from foreign domination, finds itself threatened by an overpowering outside force.

"Climate change isn't caused by a developing country like Vietnam, but it is suffering the consequences," said Koos Neefjes, a policy adviser on climate change with the United Nations Development Programme in Hanoi.

In addition to rising seas in the Mekong Delta, climatologists predict more frequent, severe and southerly typhoons, heavier floods and stronger storm surges that could ultimately drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Climate refugees could swell the population of Ho Chi Minh City, on low-lying land just north of the delta, as war refugees did when it was known as Saigon.

But the city itself is also at risk, says the government study, prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Up to a quarter of the city's area would be threatened by rising floodwaters if the sea level were to rise by 3ft.

"Ho Chi Minh City could have a double impact if sea levels rise and living conditions in the delta are not sustainable," Thuc, the lead author of the government report, said.

His report assesses only the climatological risks, he added, and a great deal more work needs to be done to try to determine their social and economic impacts and the probable effect on future population displacement.

Because of the uncertainties of climate change and the variables of mitigation measures, it is impossible to rank nations precisely on a scale of risk, Neefjes said.

"Among all of the indicators used in this paper, Vietnam ranks among the top five most impacted countries," the paper says. It did not include some small island nations such as the Maldives and Tuvalu that are also threatened with severe inundation.

A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change listed the Mekong Delta, Bangladesh and the Nile Delta in Egypt as the world's three "hot spots" for potential migration because of their combination of sea-level rise and existing population.

As a region, Southeast Asia is disproportionately vulnerable, with only 3.3 per cent of the world's land mass but more than 11 per cent of its coastline, the Asian Development Bank said in a report it released earlier this year.

But Vietnam has at least recognised the problem and has begun to address it, Neefjes said. "Faster than any developing country, it has actually developed a sensible national programme to start responding," he said.

Those plans include an attempt to integrate environmental concerns into the development plans of ministries and enterprises, modifications that could conflict with their ambitions for growth, he said.

Experts said Vietnam's primary approach – the hugely expensive construction and reinforcement of thousands of miles of dikes – would bring its own set of problems.

In the delta, they said, the barriers will probably inhibit the self-cleansing mechanism of rivers and trap millions of cubic yards of industrial waste, hundreds of thousands of tons of industrial rubbish, and millions of tons of pesticides and fertiliser that are used in fish farms and shrimp farms.

"If one-third of the delta's area is flooded by seawater, losses would be huge," Vo Hung Dung, director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Can Tho city branch, said last month in the newspaper Tuoi Tre. "But if the entire delta is polluted by waste water, the losses could be many times higher."

Here on the tiny Hau River,

Nguyen Thanh Chanh, 29, who fishes with his wife in a small boat, said that he had never heard any talk of climate change.

Life is already hard, and the rivers already flood during the monsoon season from June to November.

"Those who farm go to the fields, and those who fish go to the rivers," said Huynh Thuy, 47, a farmer.

"They don't worry much about the future."

Vietnam Leave Out Le Cong Vinh For Vital Syria Qualifiers

The regional champions have made a controversial decision...

Vietnam will be without star striker Le Cong Vinh for their two 2011 Asian Cup qualifiers against Syria in November.

Coach Henrique Calisto has decided to allow the hitman, who scored the winning goal in Vietnam's 2008 ASEAN Cup triumph, to stay in Portgual in an attempt to break into the starting eleven for club side Leixoes.

The regional champions have two vital matches in the space of four days against Syria.

“All the 23 players called this time were chosen by coach Henrique Calisto. We (Vietnam Football Federation) don’t have any suggestions,” Nguyen Trong Giap, deputy manager of the national team, told Thanh Nien.

Before the two clashes, the national team will start training next week for the HCMC Cup which will take place from October 20-24.

The first match against Syria takes place in Hanoi on November 14.

Vietnam Finds Itself Vulnerable if Sea Rises

The New York Times

CAI RANG, Vietnam — For centuries, as monsoon rains, typhoons and wars have swept over them and disappeared into the sunshine, the farmers and fishermen of the Mekong Delta have drawn life from the water and fertile fields where the great river ends its 2,700-mile journey to the sea.

The rhythms of life continue from season to season though, like much of the country, the delta is moving quickly into the future, and industry has begun to pollute the air and water.

But everything here, both the timeless and the new, is at risk now from a threat that could bring deeper and longer-lasting disruptions than the generations of warfare that ended more than 30 years ago.

In a worse-case projection, a Vietnamese government report released last month says that more than one-third of the delta, where 17 million people live and nearly half the country’s rice is grown, could be submerged if sea levels rise by three feet in the decades to come.

In a more modest projection, it calculates that one-fifth of the delta would be flooded, said Tran Thuc, who leads Vietnam’s National Institute for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Sciences and is the chief author of the report.

Storm surges could periodically raise that level, he said, and experts say an intrusion of salt water and industrial pollution could contaminate much of the remaining delta area.

The risks of climate change for Vietnam go far beyond the Mekong Delta, up into the Central Highlands, where rising temperatures could put the coffee crop at risk, and to the Red River Delta in the north, where large areas could be inundated near the capital, Hanoi.

Climate experts consider this nation of an estimated 87 million people to be among the half-dozen most threatened by the weather disruptions and rising sea levels linked to climate change that are predicted in the course of this century.

If the sea level rises by three feet, 11 percent of Vietnam’s population could be displaced, according to a 2007 World Bank working paper.

If it rises by 15 feet, 35 percent of the population and 16 percent of the country’s land area could be affected, the document said.

The government report emphasizes that the predictions represent the threat, based on current models, if no measures are taken in the coming decades, like building dikes.

But the potential disruptions and the tremendous cost of trying to reduce their impact could slow Vietnam’s drive to emerge from its postwar poverty and impede its ambitions to become one of the region’s economic leaders.

Once again, this nation, which has spent much of its history struggling to free itself from foreign domination, finds itself threatened by an overpowering outside force.

“Climate change isn’t caused by a developing country like Vietnam, but it is suffering the consequences,” said Koos Neefjes, a policy adviser on climate change with the United Nations Development Program in Hanoi.

In addition to rising seas in the Mekong Delta, climatologists predict more frequent, severe and southerly typhoons, heavier floods and stronger storm surges that could ultimately drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Climate refugees could swell the population of Ho Chi Minh City, on low-lying land just north of the delta, as war refugees did when it was known as Saigon.

But the city itself is also at risk, says the government study, prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Up to one-fourth of the city’s area would be threatened by rising floodwaters if the sea level rose by three feet.

“Ho Chi Minh City could have a double impact if sea levels rise and living conditions in the delta are not sustainable,” Mr. Thuc, the lead author of the government report, said in an interview.

His report assesses only the climatological risks, he said, and a great deal more work needs to be done to try to determine their social and economic impacts and the probable effect on population displacement.

Because of the uncertainties of climate change and the variables of mitigation measures, it is impossible to rank nations precisely on a scale of risk, Mr. Neefjes said.

However, the 2007 World Bank working paper studied 84 coastal developing countries and found Vietnam to be the most threatened in terms of percentage of population affected, and second only to the Bahamas in terms of percentage of land area affected, if no mitigating measures are taken.

“Among all of the indicators used in this paper, Vietnam ranks among the top five most impacted countries,” the paper says. It did not include some small island nations like the Maldives and Tuvalu that are also threatened with severe inundation.

A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change listed the Mekong Delta, Bangladesh and the Nile Delta in Egypt as the world’s three “hot spots” for potential migration because of their combination of sea-level rise and existing population.

As a region, Southeast Asia is disproportionately vulnerable, with only 3.3 percent of the world’s land mass but more than 11 percent of its coastline, the Asian Development Bank said in a report it released this year.

But Vietnam has at least recognized the problem and begun to address it, Mr. Neefjes said. “Faster than any developing country, it has actually developed a sensible national program to start responding,” he said.

Those plans include an attempt to integrate environmental concerns into the development plans of ministries and enterprises, modifications that could conflict with their ambitions for growth, he said.

Experts said Vietnam’s primary approach — the hugely expensive construction and reinforcement of thousands of miles of dikes — would bring its own set of problems.

In the delta, they said, the barriers will probably inhibit the self-cleansing mechanism of rivers and trap millions of cubic yards of industrial waste, hundreds of thousands of tons of industrial rubbish, and millions of tons of pesticides and fertilizer that are used in fish farms and shrimp farms.

“If one-third of the delta’s area is flooded by seawater, losses would be huge,” Vo Hung Dung, director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Can Tho city branch, said last month in the newspaper Tuoi Tre. “But if the entire delta is polluted by wastewater, the losses could be many times higher.”

Here on the tiny Hau River, which winds through shaded groves of palm, bamboo and mangrove just south of Can Tho in the heart of the delta, there seems to be little awareness of these concerns.

Nguyen Thanh Chanh, 29, who fishes with his wife in a small boat, said that he sometimes listened to the radio and sometimes drank with friends at the end of the day, but that he had never heard any talk of climate change.

Life is already hard, and the rivers already flood during the monsoon season from June to November, from the swollen currents of the Mekong, from heavy rains and from tidal flooding.

An estimated 85 percent of the people in the delta are supported by agriculture.

“Those who farm go to the fields, and those who fish go to the rivers,” said Huynh Thuy, 47, a farmer. “They don’t worry much about the future.”

Vietnam, other nations look to U.S.-style community colleges

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

RACH GIA, Vietnam — The words of a song about Kien Giang Community College here say it was created to meet "the pressing expectations of the motherland." But school founder Do Quoc Trung, who co-wrote the song, says he wants his students to know college can enrich them, too.

"For the future development of our communities, let's build our school together," say the lyrics. "For Kien Giang … let's devote and sacrifice our life."

Asian culture has long placed a premium on higher education, but Kien Giang Community College, located in the capital city of Kien Giang Province in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, is a relative newcomer.

Founded in 2002, it is one of 15 created since 2000 in Vietnam, and is modeled in part on U.S. community colleges, where the concept was born in 1901, when Joliet (Ill.) Junior College was founded. And just as President Obama is counting on community colleges to prepare the USA's workforce for 21st century jobs, Trung and his counterparts here believe their fledgling schools have potential to play a lead role as Vietnam pursues its goal to join the ranks of industrialized countries by 2020.

Other countries, too, are tapping into U.S. community college expertise as they diversify their higher education systems. In April, China's Ministry of Education sent a delegation to the American Association of Community College convention in Phoenix, and a second group plans to visit in November. The first of several community colleges developed by the Republic of Georgia opened last year, with assistance from community colleges in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. Qatar's government is working with two U.S. community college presidents as it looks into offering associate degrees and a transfer option to four-year universities.

Such schools are not a new phenomenon beyond U.S. borders, says Rosalind Latiner Raby, director of the nonprofit group California Colleges for International Education. But changes in the economy have heightened interest worldwide in harnessing their potential. "What we're now seeing is an explosion that's been decades in the making," she says. "Most countries now either have or are developing plans for a community college-like institution."

Community colleges in Vietnam — or any country — are not carbon copies of the U.S. version. Iran and Mexico, for example, have borrowed heavily from France. Vietnam also has partnered with Canada and the Netherlands. And each system is shaped by its country's governance policies.

What binds such institutions is a common philosophy, Raby and other researchers have concluded: Whereas universities cater to an elite few, community colleges strive to address multiple needs of the public they serve, from nontraditional students to employers to low-income students just out of high school.

"We bring opportunity to the community," Trung says.

They appear to be having an impact. Since Kien Giang Community College was founded, the number of educated workers in the province's labor pool has jumped from 8.5% to 15% last year. Though the community college can't take sole credit for that, enrollments more than doubled, from 3,164 to about 6,500 in that period. It is 6,600 this year.

Like U.S. colleges, academic offerings such as accounting, finance and informational technology are standard fare. Kien Giang also has capitalized on the province's rich natural resources. As resorts attract more foreigners to Phu Quoc Island, a short ferry ride from Rach Gia, the school has been ramping up a tourism program. It launched a seafood technology program two years ago to help local fisheries meet export standards.

"We have a variety of food products but (the processing field is) not very developed," says Kien Giang food technology major Pham Thi Mong, 20 who hopes to go on to earn a bachelor's.

Many students aspire to begin their studies at a university — a bachelor's degree is held in high esteem — yet the odds of doing so are not in their favor. Just 16% of university age students in Vietnam were enrolled in higher education in 2005 (vs. 43% in Thailand that year, 17%-19% in China and Indonesia), says a Harvard report out last year.

Though that percentage is increasing, those precious few slots go only to those scoring highest on a national exam. The Vietnamese government, acknowledging that its higher education system needs an overhaul, encourages more affluent families to send their children abroad, or to one of the private universities sprouting here under agreements with other countries, including Australia, Germany, and the USA.

Affordability is a growing concern, too. Undergraduate tuition at a four-year public university is only slightly higher than it is for an associate's degree, but prices could increase this fall — to about $135 and $110, per academic year, respectively. But for students in Kien Giang Province, where the average household annual income is about $456, costs related to travel, housing and other expenses quickly add up. The nearest major universities is in Can Tho, a three hour drive from Rach Gia. And for some families, that's too far for comfort.

"My parents … do not want me to learn far from home. My home is near my school, it is very convenient for me," says English major Duong Thi My Hang, 21, who is pursuing a bachelor's degree through a satellite program at Kien Giang Community College. Added benefits she says, include the college's computer labs (acquired as part of a partnership with the India-based National Institute of Information Technologies) and its foreign teachers, who come mostly through a U.S. program called Princeton-in-Asia, a nonprofit founded in 1898 that sends college graduates to serve communities throughout Asia.

Still an 'experiment'

Yet for all their promise, the future of community colleges here remains uncertain. The most concrete roadblock: They must be granted permanent status from the government's Ministry of Education and Training. And it still views the schools as experimental.

One problem is that the concept is not fully understood by the public or some key decision-makers, says Mai Van Tinh, the Ministry of Education and Training official in charge of community colleges. Some provinces, for example, have tried to merge community colleges with long-established public professional schools that typically focus on a single discipline, such as teaching or medicine. That model reflects the "sluggish, stagnant and bureaucratic thinking … of the old command centralized planning market," Tinh says. Local leaders "did not understand that the North American model of community college is very dynamic and flexible in a market economy."

Tinh's interviews last year also found some provincial leaders who said they would rather have a four-year university.

In fact, three of Vietnam's 15 community colleges have been upgraded to university status. And Diane Oliver, an education professor at California State University-Fresno and lead author of a chapter on Vietnam in Community College Models: Globalization and Higher Education Reform, published in March and co-edited by Raby, worries that other schools may want to do the same — if only to ensure their continued existence. "Without a permanent regulation they're always in a little bit of jeopardy," she says.

The preference for university status reflects the biggest perceptual challenge for community colleges: lack of prestige — an issue not unfamiliar in the USA.

"Overcoming the stigma that they are perceived as 'lesser' institutions in terms of quality of education is a major hurdle" for Vietnam's community colleges, says Michael Michalak, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. The State Department has helped support a number of initiatives here with U.S. community colleges.

The American Association of Community Colleges is working with its Vietnam counterpart to develop quality-assurance guidelines. And Trung, who hosted three U.S.-Vietnamese conferences during his tenure at Kien Giang, developed an especially close relationship with Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, N.Y., one of four U.S. institutions to help his campus develop its information technology program.

Benefits go both ways. "U.S. companies doing business in Vietnam (need) a skilled workforce to function productively," Michalak says, and U.S. partnerships lend credibility to Vietnam's programs.

Tinh agrees. "I hope that in the near future, together with assistance and cooperation from U.S. community colleges, we will promote the pilot program … to the more permanent status," he says.

And Trung, who has been reassigned to a university starting this fall, hopes he is right.

"The country needs all levels (of training), from vocational to higher education," Trung says. But "the urgent aims of education are to bring training to the community and to provide opportunities for everybody."

Fanged frog, 162 other new species found in Mekong

BANGKOK — A gecko with leopard-like spots on its body and a fanged frog that eats birds are among 163 new species discovered last year in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, an environmental group said Friday.

WWF International said that scientists in 2008 discovered 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and one bird species in the region. That works out to be about three species a week and is in addition to the 1,000 new species catalogued there from 1997 to 2007, the group said.

"After millennia in hiding these species are now finally in the spotlight, and there are clearly more waiting to be discovered," said Stuart Chapman, director of the WWF Greater Mekong Program.

Researchers working for WWF warned that the effects of climate change, including an upsurge in droughts and floods, threaten the diverse habitat that supports these species. That is on top of traditional threats such as poaching, pollution and habitat destruction.

"Some species will be able to adapt to climate change, many will not, potentially resulting in massive extinctions," Chapman said in a statement. "Rare, endangered and endemic species like those newly discovered are especially vulnerable because climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats."

Among the stars in the new list is a fanged frog in eastern Thailand. Given the scientific name Limnonectes megastomias, the frog lies in wait along streams for prey including birds and insects. Scientists believe it uses its fangs during combat with other males.

Another unusual discovery was the Cat Ba leopard gecko found on Cat Ba Island in northern Vietnam. Named Goniurosaurus catbaensis, it has large, orange-brown catlike eyes and leopard spots down the length of its yellowish brown body.

Lee Grismer, of La Sierra University in California, said he found a tiger-stripped pit viper in Vietnam described in the report while he was attempting to capture a second gecko species.

"We were engrossed in trying to catch a new species of gecko when my son pointed out that my hand was on a rock mere inches away from the head of a pit viper," Grismer said in a statement. "We caught the snake and the gecko and they both proved to be new species."

That gecko species was not included in the WWF report because it hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet. All the other species listed by the WWF have been described in journals.

Simon Mahood, a conservation adviser for BirdLife International in Indochina, welcomed WWF's attention to the new species and said more could be discovered if additional money is put into conservation and countries make it easier to do field work.

"We are seeing more reports of new discoveries and populations because this region is relatively poorly known, particularly when it comes to cryptic and less fashionable groups like fish and amphibians," said Mahood, whose group this year announced finding the first nest of white-eared night heron in Vietnam and the discovery of a baldheaded song bird in Laos called the barefaced Bulbul Pycnonotus hualon.

On Friday, it announced that it discovered three more sites where the endangered, grey-crowned crocias or Crocias langbianis can be found in Vietnam. The bird has a white underbelly and brown and slate feathers.

Other new species found are a tube-nosed bat named Murina harpioloides that lives in southeastern Vietnam and a new bird species called the Nonggang babbler that favors walking to flying and is found in the karst rainforest on the Chinese-Vietnamese border, an area of limestone fissures, sinkholes and underground streams.

Experts said a range of factors contributed to the upsurge in new species, including better access to regions that have seen decades of war and political unrest and more spending by governments on research to protect and identify plants and animals.

The WWF, which plans to publish yearly tabulations of newly discovered species in the Mekong, called for increased efforts to ensure new species are protected by preserving the large areas of forest and the free-flowing river networks they need to survive.

China Releases Vietnamese Fishermen Seized Near Paracel Islands

By Beth Thomas

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- China freed Vietnamese fishermen detained near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea after Vietnam requested their release.

Chinese authorities yesterday informed Vietnam’s embassy in Beijing that they had released all the fishermen, who were detained aboard three fishing boats, Le Dung, a spokesman for Vietnam’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said in a statement.

The seamen are expected to arrive home in the next few days, he added.

Thirteen Vietnamese fishermen from the central coastal provinces of Quang Ngai and Khanh Hoa were arrested near the Paracel Islands on Aug. 1 while seeking shelter to avoid a storm, the Quang Ngai government said Aug. 4. Twelve other men working on two boats from Quang Ngai were detained earlier, Hanoi-based Dung said in the statement.

The Vietnamese authorities are working with China to solve “outstanding problems,” Dung said in the statement.

The Paracel and Spratly Islands are claimed in whole or part by Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

Vietnam seeks funds for Agent Orange victims

HANOI, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Vietnam launched an "Orange Day" campaign on Monday to raise funds for people it says suffered through the spraying of Agent Orange herbicide by American forces during the war, for long an irritant in relations.

Vietnam and the United States disagree over the impact of the dioxin-laced herbicides, millions of gallons of which was sprayed on Vietnamese jungles by U.S. forces from the early 1960s until the early 1970s in an attempt to deny Communist troops cover.

On Sunday, more than 10,000 people, some in wheelchairs, paraded through downtown Ho Chi Minh City in support of Agent Orange victims and "poor people with disabilities", newspaper Saigon Giai Phong reported.

Vietnam's English state-TV channel VTV4 planned to broadcast Agent Orange-related programmes all day, and the campaign's organisers hoped to raise $3.4 million for shelters, scholarships and vocational training through a range of activities.

The launch date, Aug. 10, marked the day Agent Orange was first used 48 years ago, state media reported.

Hanoi says the defoliants, nicknamed "Agent Orange" from the orange stripe on the barrels in which they were stored, have caused 400,000 deaths and millions of cases of cancer and other ailments. It says 4.8 million people were exposed.

The United States is involved in a project to assess and help clean up dioxin "hot spots" in the central city of Danang and is helping fund services to the disabled community in that area.

Many U.S. veterans exposed to the defoliant have complained for years about a variety of health problems.

Last month, a U.S. Institute of Medicine panel said a study had found that Agent Orange may raise the risk of heart disease and Parkinson's disease, but it said the evidence was far from definitive.[ID:nN24481722]

The findings added to the list of conditions that could be linked to the defoliants, including leukaemia, prostate cancer, type II diabetes and birth defects in the children of veterans.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand the dismissal of lawsuits by Vietnamese nationals and U.S. veterans against Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N), Monsanto Co (MON.N) and other chemical makers over the use of Agent Orange.

In 1984, seven chemical companies, including Dow and Monsanto, agreed to a $180 million settlement with veterans.

Vietnam capital closes schools to stop H1N1 spread

HANOI, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Authorities in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, have effectively closed the schools in the city to try to prevent the spread of H1N1 flu, which has infected more than 1,000 people in Vietnam and killed one so far.

A circular by the Hanoi education department said that, effective Friday, schools must "immediately stop every activity that involves gathering students".

The new school year is scheduled to begin as planned on Aug. 17, it said, but some schools had started early and summer classes were in session at many others.

Three schools in Hanoi had reported students infected with the H1N1 virus, the news Web site VNexpress.net said. H1N1 cases have been reported in all regions of the country.

In its latest update last week, the World Health Organisation reported 162,230 confirmed cases and 1,154 deaths from the virus. Flu experts said this probably reflected only a fraction of the true count as not every patient can be diagnosed with a lab test.

Vietnamese Trade Deficit Narrows Through July; Inflation Eases

By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”By Jason Folkmanis

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s trade deficit narrowed, providing potential support for a currency hurt by concerns that stockpiling of dollars is making it difficult to pay for imports.

The trade gap shrank 78 percent in the seven months through July to $3.4 billion from $15.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi today. Inflation eased this month to a five-year low of 3.3 percent.

Any re-widening of the trade deficit as the economy gathers steam would be a concern for the exchange rate of the dong, which is currently “fragile but stabile,” according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The prospect of a wider gap may be quickening the depreciation of the currency, Dragon Capital said this month.

“Figures like this shouldn’t serve as a catalyst to trigger a run on the currency,” said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “We’re not at that threshold point. But the underlying issue and the specter of a run is a clear and present danger that Vietnam faces.”

The dong declined to a record low of 17,862 against the U.S. currency this week, using the so-called official rate. Steelmakers this month asked the government for help in getting hold of the dollars they need to pay for imports, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

“You have to pay more than the official rate to get dollars,” said Alan Young, chief operating officer of Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd., citing a figure of about 18,300 dong per dollar. “When we know we’ve got a shipment coming in we’ve got to start accumulating dollars on a daily basis a week in advance.”

‘The Problem’

The full-year trade deficit is unlikely to exceed $8 billion, Ho Chi Minh City-based fund manager Dragon said this month. Last year’s record trade gap was an estimated $17.5 billion. Through July, exports weakened 13 percent to $32.35 billion while imports slumped 32 percent to $35.73 billion.

“The problem is that a lot of the imports in Vietnam are not for consumption, they’re adding to its productive capacity,” said Robinson. “So whenever imports are that weak it points to weak future exports.”

The decline in exports this year has been due to lower prices, as volumes have increased, Vinacapital Investment Management Ltd. said last week. Reduced foreign investment as international companies cut back amid a global recession may also be hurting overseas sales.

Balance of Payments

“Domestic enterprises have seen their exports remain steady,” Vinacapital said in a research note. “Foreign- invested enterprises have seen exports drop.”

A “steep” decline in imports is easing pressure on the country’s balance of payments, Moody’s Investors Service said last week.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in recent years as a percentage of the economy “far exceeds” those of other Southeast Asian nations before the region’s 1997 financial crisis, suggesting the gap is a potential threat, according to a study for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum released this month.

Concern over Vietnam’s economic indicators increased last year as the trade deficit surged and inflation soared to 28.3 percent, the highest since at least 1992. This month’s slowdown in inflation was the 11th consecutive decline.

“Inflation will probably bottom in August at roughly 2 percent, as the fuel-price hike of last year drops out of the annual comparison,” wrote Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC in Singapore, in a note today. “The State Bank of Vietnam is now getting concerned about rapid credit growth.”

Heavy rain hits north Vietnam, Hanoi traffic halted

HANOI, July 20 (Reuters) - Heavy rain from a weakened tropical storm has hit northern Vietnam, causing flooding that brought traffic to a halt in the capital Hanoi and prompted the government to warn of landslides in mountainous areas.

Tropical storm Molave made landfall on Saturday along the southern coast of China, where it weakened before dumping torrential rain across Vietnam's northern mountainous provinces from late Sunday, the national weather centre said.

Provincial authorities should inspect residential areas facing a high risk of landslides and flash floods so they can be active in preventive measures, the government said in a report.

Floods and landslides early this month have killed 34 people and damaged hundreds of homes in seven northern provinces, an area also affected by Sunday's rain.

Up to 120 mm (4.7 inches) of rain also fell in the rush hour on Monday in Hanoi, knocking down trees and submerging streets, witnesses said. Traffic was chaotic at intersections, with flood waters hip-high in some areas, they said.

Flooding has become more frequent in Hanoi as the road and the drainage systems struggle to accommodate a rising population.

VietinBank shares slump on debut, still above IPO

* VietinBank shares fall maximum allowed on debut

* Still above December's IPO price but may fall further (Updates with market close, analyst's comment)

By Ho Binh Minh

HANOI, July 16 (Reuters) - Shares in VietinBank CTG.HM, Vietnam's fourth-largest lender by assets, fell the maximum allowed 20 percent from the starting level set by the bank on their stock market debut on Thursday.

However, the shares in the Hanoi-based bank were still double the average price of 20,265 dong at in its initial public offering (IPO) last December, and above the most recent prices on the unofficial and unregulated grey market.

The shares opened at 44,000 dong on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange and closed down 19.8 percent at 40,100 dong after touching the floor of 40,000 dong. That compares with the starting price of 50,000 dong set by the bank.

Dealers said the bank had set the opening price too high.

"The drop is fortunate for the market, because even at 40,000 dong per share the stock is overpriced," a trader at Baoviet Securities in Hanoi said.

The overall market was firm, with the benchmark VN Index .VNI closing 1.5 percent up at 433.47 points. It has risen 37.3 percent this year.

"The index should have risen more but VietinBank shares put a brake on it," said Tran Ngoc Tu, an independent market analyst.

"VietinBank shares will fall further, back to the IPO level if there is no good news," Tu said. "The bank's competitiveness is weak. It still relies on the state."

The state owned a dominant 89.23 percent stake as of July 3, its prospectus said. It listed 121.21 million shares on Thursday, 10.77 percent of its total.

The bank has said it would cut state ownership to 70 percent next year and sell 10 percent to strategic foreign investors.

It raised $64 million by selling a 4 percent stake in the IPO on Dec. 26. [ID:nHAN412752]

Companies in Vietnam often have their IPOs some time before they make their stock market debut.

They are then allowed to set the price at which the shares are first listed, and the stock is allowed to move 20 percent up or down that day, wider than the normal daily trading band of 5 percent.

38,000-39,000 dong on the grey market in May and early June before the bank applied for a listing licence.

Shares in VietinBank, or the Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade, have joined those of major financial companies such as Vietnam's top insurer Bao Viet Holdings BVH.HM and leading partly private lender Vietcombank VCB.HM on the market.

Vietcombank also set its starting price at 50,000 dong for its June 30 debut but its shares proved more popular and jumped by the maximum 20 percent on the day. They have since fallen back and ended at 49,800 dong on Thursday. ($1=17,804 dong) (Editing by Alan Raybould and Lincoln Feast)

Want to predict the weather? Watch the dragonflies

HANOI, July 16 (Reuters Life!) - Can dragonflies warn of impending rain? Can you predict the weather by looking at the colour of a cloud or by observing animals? For generations of Vietnamese farmers and fishermen, the answer is yes.

Although the weather in Vietnam is forecast using hi-tech satellite imaging, many communities still predict floods, storms and drought the traditional way -- by tracking nature.

For example, in a drought prone area of the coastal Ninh Thuan province, farmers believe that if the dragonfly flies high it will be sunny and if it flies low there will be rain.

In north-central Thua Thien Hue Province, fishermen are likely to bring their boats back to the shore if, in January or February, they look to the north and see a silver cloud that quickly disappears, as it is a sign of cold weather.

Many of these beliefs, which are kept alive through proverbs, folk songs and legends and which have so far been passed down orally, are now being recorded by a group of aid agencies in the Southeast Asian country as part of a project to see whether they still hold true in times of rapid climate change.

"The communities know a lot about disaster adaptation and the question now, in Vietnam, is to see if this indigenous knowledge is still accurate or not with the climate changing very quickly," Guillaume Chantry, project coordinator of Development Workshop France (DWF), told Reuters.

Climate change is expected to hit low-lying Vietnam hard.

In April, the Asian Development Bank said by the end of this century, Vietnam's rice production could dramatically decline while rising sea levels could submerge tens of thousands of hectares of cropland and uproot thousands of families living in coastal communities.

For the next two months, a group of agencies led by DWF will visit 10 disaster-prone areas from the mountainous north to the steamy Mekong delta in the south to collect information about traditional beliefs in the hope it could be used in programmes to reduce the risk of natural disasters.

Dr. Ben Wisner, a hazards expert at Oberlin College, Ohio and London's University College, says indigenous knowledge can help make disaster prevention programmes more effective by pinpointing areas that are vulnerable to flooding and which are not visible on satellite images or official maps.

The idea of using local knowledge to create better ways to adapt to climate change and reduce the risk of natural disasters is slowly gaining ground as experts, scientists and aid workers scramble to find ways of predicting and dealing with the threat.

Critics dismiss traditional ways of reading the weather as backward and old-fashioned.

But, according to a U.N. report, during the devastating 2004 tsunami, the Moken nomads on the coast of Thailand were among other Asian communities that were largely spared, because they noticed the change in environment, using knowledge passed down through generations, and fled to higher ground.

"It's important for us practitioners to know how communities usually protect themselves," Chantry said.