Vietnam court jails soft drinks tycoon in $40 million scam case

Vietnam's top soft drinks tycoon was jailed for eight years on Thursday in a $40 million fraud case -- the latest high-profile business figure snared in the country's sweeping crackdown on corruption.

The communist nation's wide-ranging campaign to wipe out endemic graft has seen more than 4,400 people charged with criminal offences, including officials and senior business figures.

A court in Ho Chi Minh City found Tran Qui Thanh and his two daughters guilty of scamming investors over loans issued in 2019 and 2020.

Thanh, the 71-year-old chairman of beverage group Tan Hiep Phat, was ruled to have masterminded scams to appropriate assets put up as collateral against loans, state media reported.

Even when the borrowers paid back the money with interest, Thanh would refuse to give back the assets on various pretexts, including claiming they had forfeited their repurchase rights due to contract breaches.

The court sentenced Thanh's 43-year-old daughter Tran Uyen Phuong, the company's deputy CEO, to four years in jail.

Younger daughter Tran Ngoc Bich, 40, was given a suspended three-year jail sentence.

Tan Hiep Phat is one of Vietnam's biggest beverage companies, known for its range of bottled tea and energy drinks.

In his final words before court, Thanh said he regretted what happened and was ready to take responsibility.

"I would like to be given leniency, handing me the chance to come back to society soon for my continued work and devotion," Thanh was quoted as saying.

Some of Vietnam's most successful business leaders have been snared in the graft purge.

In one of the biggest fraud cases in history, property tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death earlier this month for masterminding a swindle that has caused losses estimated at $27 billion.

Facing justice with Lan were 85 others, including senior banking officials, being sentenced on charges ranging from bribery and power abuse to appropriation and violations of banking law.

In March, a Hanoi court gave luxury property tycoon Do Anh Dung eight years in prison for cheating thousands of investors in a $355 million bond scam.

State media reported that Dung and his son, who was jailed for three years, have already repaid the $355 million.

Vietnam tycoon sentenced to death in $12.5-B fraud case

Agence France-Presse

Football: Smith scores twice as holders USA ease to win in World Cup opener

AUCKLAND, New Zealand  -- Sophia Smith scored twice and set up another as a new-look United States launched their bid to win a third Women's World Cup in a row with a 3-0 victory over Vietnam on Saturday.

One of six members of the USA starting line-up making her World Cup debut, lively forward Smith finished a fine move to open the scoring in the 14th minute at Eden Park in Auckland.

Veteran Alex Morgan was then denied from the penalty spot before Smith struck again deep in stoppage time at the end of the first half in front of a crowd of just over 41,000.

She then set up the third goal for captain Lindsey Horan in the 77th minute, after veteran icon Megan Rapinoe had come off the bench to win her 200th cap.

"I think it was a good starting point for our team in this tournament. I also know that we have a lot more that we can give, a lot more to do, little things to work on," said the 22-year-old Smith.

Vlatko Andonovski's title favorites missed a hatful of chances as debutants Vietnam avoided the humiliation that befell Thailand at the 2019 World Cup, when they were thrashed 13-0 by the United States.

There is clearly room for improvement for an American side who will also play Portugal and 2019 runners-up the Netherlands in Group E, as they aim to win an unprecedented third consecutive title.

However, this was a new experience for many of their side, and for Andonovski, taking charge of a World Cup game for the first time having replaced Jill Ellis as coach not long after their triumph at France 2019.

"Unfortunately we didn't capitalize on all the great opportunities that we created and that is something we are certainly going to focus on in the lead-up to the next game, but the first one is in the books and the focus immediately shifts towards game two," said Andonovski.

That will be against the Dutch on Thursday in a re-run of the 2019 final.

With Rapinoe beginning her final World Cup before retirement on the bench, Smith and 21-year-old Trinity Rodman flanked Morgan in attack on their debuts at the finals.

Right-back Emily Fox, centre-back Naomi Girma, and midfielders Andi Sullivan and Savannah DeMelo also made their first World Cup appearances.

"I have to say I was happy with the way the team played. I think that if you look at the team it is the first time this XI have been on the field together," the coach added.

"To see some of the connections and combinations was very positive."

- Morgan squanders spot kick -

Rodman, the daughter of former NBA star Dennis Rodman, needed lengthy treatment after suffering a knock inside the first minute before going on to have an impact on proceedings.

It was Smith who got the breakthrough though, controlling and finishing off a fine move expertly after Morgan flicked on a pass by Horan.

It was one-way traffic but it remained 1-0 until Rodman was clipped by Hoang Thi Loan in the area just before the break and the Moroccan referee gave a penalty after coming over to review the images.

Yet Morgan, playing in her 19th World Cup match, saw her poor kick saved by goalkeeper Tran Thi Kim Thanh diving to the right.

Instead Smith made it 2-0 towards the end of eight added minutes in the first half, firing through the legs of the goalkeeper and in after a Girma cross had been punched away.

The goal was initially ruled out before being given after another lengthy check confirmed there was no offside.

Rapinoe, her hair dyed blue, entered the fray to cheers just after the hour mark alongside Rose Lavelle, the two goal-scorers from the 2019 final.

Teenager Alyssa Thompson also came on for her World Cup bow just before Smith pounced on a Julie Ertz ball forward and supplied a cutback for Lyon midfielder Horan to score.

Lavelle hit the underside of the bar late on as Vietnam escaped with a creditable scoreline on their World Cup bow.

Agence France-Presse

Football: Vietnam women get World Cup boost with SEA Games gold

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Vietnam's women scored a big pre-World Cup boost on Monday by beating Myanmar 2-0 to win gold at the Southeast Asian Games.

Thi Thanh Nha Nguyen made sure of a fourth gold in a row with a curling shot in the 76th minute, delighting the large Vietnamese contingent among the more than 8,000 fans at Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium.

Captain Huynh Nhu, who opened the scoring in the 12th minute, said the win would serve as a boost ahead of the global showpiece starting in July.

"This victory makes us become more confident when playing in big tournaments like the World Cup," said the Portugal-based forward.

"It also increases the belief of the fans."

Coach Mai Duc Chung agreed that the regional win was "a preparatory step on the way to" the tournament in Australia and New Zealand.

Ranked 33rd in the world, Vietnam are one of only two Southeast Asian teams headed to the Women's World Cup, along with the Philippines.

The Golden Stars will play holders the United States in their first group game on July 22, before meetings with Spain and Portugal.

Huynh's tap-in was all that separated the teams after an even first half.

In the second half, Myanmar launched a number of counterattacks, but could never find the final touch, before substitute Nguyen's handsome effort effectively finished the contest.

In the bronze-medal match earlier Monday, Thailand battered hosts Cambodia 6-0, Saowalak Pengngam and Pattaranan Aupachai with a brace each.

The other goals were from Panittha Jeeratanapavibul and Jiraporn Mongkoldee, whose 25th-minute strike made her the top scorer in the competition, on six goals.

Agence France-Presse

Vietnam says looking to buy Russia virus vaccine

HANOI - Vietnam's health ministry is looking to buy a bulk order of Russia's coronavirus vaccine, state media said Friday, despite global skepticism over its effectiveness and safety.

The communist nation of 95 million people has been widely praised for its effective handling of the pandemic and went nearly 100 days without recording a locally transmitted infection until last month. 

But an outbreak in the beach resort of Danang has put the country back on high alert and several towns are under virtual lockdown. 


Vietnam could receive up to 150 million doses with a fraction of them donated by Russia, state newspaper Tuoi Tre reported, adding that acting health minister Nguyen Thanh Long had approved the purchase.

But state news website VNExpress said officials were still deliberating over a health ministry plan to buy the vaccine doses.

Moscow said this week it had developed the world's first vaccine offering "sustainable immunity" against the coronavirus and was in the final stage of human trials.

Germany and the US are among the countries to cast doubt on the claim, after Western scientists raised concerns about the speed of its development and suggested that researchers might be cutting corners.

It was not clear when Vietnam would be able to receive the vaccine doses, but Tuoi Tre reported that Russia had also agreed to donate "a number of machines" and other medical equipment to help contain the outbreak.

Vietnam has reported just 911 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths after an aggressive public health response involving mass quarantines and a robust track-and-trace regime. 

The country has maintained a strong relationship with Russia since the days of the Soviet Union.

Agence France-Presse

Vietnam records 1st virus death as pandemic rebounds

HANOI  - Vietnam recorded its first coronavirus death on Friday as the pandemic rebounds in a country that had previously been praised for stubbing out the contagion.

The patient, a 70-year-old man, died in the central city of Hoi An nearly 3 weeks after being admitted to hospital with serious underlying conditions, according to state media.

The communist nation was applauded earlier this year for controlling COVID-19 with strict restrictions on movement, extensive quarantine measures and a robust track-and-trace regime.

But an outbreak over the weekend in the beach resort of Danang, near Hoi An, has put the country back on high alert.

Health officials on Friday also announced the country's highest single daily caseload since the pandemic began.

"Elite medical experts" have been mobilized to help tamp down the outbreak in Danang, Doctor Tran Nhu Duong, deputy head of the National Institute of Epidemiology, told state TV as news of the first death emerged.

They will join "around 1,000 people including military men" heading to the the epicenter of the latest cluster, a city that had been bursting with domestic tourists until authorities announced the virus had made a comeback.

Before the weekend, Vietnam had not recorded a locally transmitted infection for nearly 100 days.

But since then nearly 100 people who had traveled to Danang have tested positive across the country, leaving health authorities scrambling to snuff out the outbreak.

MAKESHIFT HOSPITAL

The number of "infected people increased at a record figure" with 45 new cases, said the Suc Khoe Doi Song newspaper, a health ministry mouthpiece.

The patients aged between 27 and 87 were all being treated at or were employed at Danang's hospitals, or were their relatives, it added.

State media said a makeshift hospital was being set up at a Danang sports center in anticipation of the outbreak worsening.

Flights in and out of Danang and public transport within the city have already been suspended, and the majority of its 1.1 million inhabitants have been advised to remain at home.

At least 21,000 people are undergoing rapid-test swabs for the virus in the capital Hanoi after traveling to Danang. Similar tests were also conducted in business hub Ho Chi Minh City for returnees from Danang.

Bars have been closed in nearby Hue while tourism is suspended in historic Hoi An.

Vietnam has won praise for its handling of the virus -- reporting just 509 infections in total, including those from the new wave, and until Friday no deaths despite sharing a long border with China.

Earlier this month, state media trumpeted the survival of a British pilot who spent more than 2 months on life support in Vietnam with the virus.

Stephen Cameron, 42, was the sickest patient medics have had to treat during the coronavirus outbreak and was given just a 10 percent chance of survival.

Agence France-Presse

Vietnam reopens schools after easing coronavirus curbs

HANOI - Authorities at kindergartens and primary schools in Vietnam took children's temperatures at the gates when they re-opened on Monday from a months-long closure over the coronavirus pandemic, following last week's partial re-opening of other schools.

With just 288 infections and no deaths, the Southeast Asian nation has seen no community infections for nearly a month, putting it on course to resume activities sooner than most others in the region.

"The teachers told us to use hand sanitizer and not to touch one another at school," a fifth grade student, Vu Tuan Phong, said outside his primary school in Hanoi.

He and his schoolmates went home at mid-day, as most schools are following a shorter day than before the pandemic.

"Parents, myself included, trust that the government, as well as the school, will take the optimal measures so kids are safe being in school and parents have peace of mind going to work," said one mother in the capital, Ngoc Anh, 29.

The school re-opening is Vietnam's latest step in lifting virus curbs, although international commercial flights and dance clubs and karaoke bars remain banned.

Schools for older children reopened partially last week.

"The risk of COVID-19 (in Vietnam) is low now, and that's a good thing," Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said last week. "But we need to stay vigilant."

(Reporting by Khanh Vu; Additonal reporting by Minh Nguyen; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

-reuters-

Vietnam introduces 'fake news' fines for coronavirus misinformation

HANOI - A new decree took effect in Vietnam on Wednesday introducing fines for the dissemination of 'fake news' or rumors on social media, amid the rapid spread of comment online about the novel coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country.

The first COVID-19 cases were detected in Vietnam this January and the health ministry has reported 267 infections so far with no deaths, numbers well below those seen in some other Asian countries.

Local authorities have already fined hundreds of people for posting what they described as "fake news" about the virus, using the term popularised by US President Donald Trump, based on existing legal provisions. But the new decree, drafted in February, supersedes one from 2013 which does not specifically cover 'fake news', new guidelines say.

A fine of 10-20 million dong (P21,000 to P42,000), equivalent to around 3 to 6 months' basic salary in Vietnam, will be imposed on people who use social media to share false, untruthful, distorted, or slanderous information, according to the decree.

The new rules were not specifically drafted to deal with coronavirus social media comment and extend far beyond that topic, raising concern among human rights groups already heightened by a cybersecurity law that has been in effect since last year.

Penalties can now be imposed on anyone sharing publications that are banned from circulation in Vietnam, state secrets, or maps which fail to show Vietnam's claims in the South China Sea, according to the decree.

"This decree provides yet another potent weapon in the Vietnamese authorities' arsenal of online repression," said Tanya O'Carroll, Director of Tech at Amnesty International.

"It contains a raft of provisions that blatantly violate Vietnam's international human rights obligations".

As part of the crackdown on misinformation on the coronavirus, authorities have launched a public poster campaign bearing the slogan "Fake news, real consequences".

Hundreds of fines have already been handed out, while 3 celebrities were also forced by authorities to offer public apologies.

Last month, a woman in the northern-central province of Ha Tinh was fined for a Facebook post within which she incorrectly said the coronavirus had spread to her local community. The post had just a handful of 'likes' before police took action. 

-reuters-

'Rice ATM' feeds Vietnam's poor during lockdown

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - A Vietnamese entrepreneur in Ho Chi Minh City has invented a 24/7 automatic dispensing machine providing free rice for people out of work following an ongoing nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Vietnam has reported 262 COVID-19 cases, and no deaths so far, but as a result of a 15-day social distancing program that began on March 31 many small businesses have been shuttered and thousands of people temporarily laid off from work.

Nguyen Thi Ly's husband was among those who have lost their job.

"This rice ATM has been helpful. With this one bag of rice, we can have enough for one day," said the 34-year-old mother of three children. "Now, we only need other food. Our neighbors sometimes gave us some leftover food, or we have instant noodles."



The machine distributes a 1.5kg (3.3lb) bagful of rice from a small silo to waiting workers, many of whom are street sellers or people who earned a living from cash-in-hand jobs like housekeeping or selling lottery tickets.

Hoang Tuan Anh, the businessman behind the idea, had initially donated a batch of smart doorbells to hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City before turning his technological expertise to food distribution.

Similar "rice ATMs" have been set up in other big cities like Hanoi, Hue and Danang, according to state media.

Employees monitoring the rice ATM declined to comment, but Anh told state media he wanted people to feel they still had access to food and resources, despite the current economic difficulties they found themselves in.

"I refer to this machine as a 'rice ATM' because people can withdraw rice from it, assured that there are still good people out there who want to give them a second chance," he said.

While many in the Communist-ruled country can rely on a social safety-net, and the government has introduced a stimulus package designed to help society’s most vulnerable, some people living on the margin, like Ly and her family, have not received enough support.

"I read about this rice ATM on the internet. I came to check it out, and couldn’t believe it came out for real. I really hope the sponsors would keep doing this until the end of the pandemic," said Ly, adding that her family's biggest problem was now paying their rent.

-reuters-

Vietnam Prime Minister asks major cities to prepare for lockdown to stop virus

HANOI - Vietnam's prime minister on Monday asked major cities to prepare for possible lockdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus as the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country reached nearly 200.

"Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have to review and update plans to battle the virus, and have to stand ready for city lockdown scenarios," Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in a statement.

"Vietnam has entered the pandemic's peak period, major cities have to speed up and take advantage of each hour and minute to carry out defined measures," Phuc said.

The Vietnamese government has ordered a halt on inbound flights, cut domestic flights, stopped public gatherings and temporarily shut down non-essential services until April 15 at the earliest.

It has also launched an aggressive quarantine and contact-tracing program to curb the spread of the virus after an influx of infections brought in by Vietnamese citizens escaping outbreaks elsewhere and by foreign visitors.

Vietnam has confirmed 194 infections but has had no reported deaths, according to the health ministry. More than 75,000 people are in quarantine. The country aims to keep the number of infections under 1,000.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Vietnam Airlines says losing $10.8-M in revenue a week due to virus

HANOI - Vietnam Airlines said on Thursday it was losing up to 250 billion dong ($10.8 million) per week in revenue due to travel curbs resulting from the coronavirus.

The country's flag carrier is reducing operations and trying to cut costs to ride out the impact of the epidemic and "achieve a positive financial result" for this year, it said in an emailed statement.

It has suspended all flights to and from mainland China since the end of January, directly affecting 70,000 visitors per month between the two countries, it said.

"The epidemic has significantly reduced the travel demand of domestic and international tourists in the Vietnam network," the company said, adding that its passengers on domestic routes have also fallen by 20 percent to 30 percent over the past two weeks.

China, where the coronavirus epidemic has killed more than 1,300 people, is Vietnam's largest source of foreign tourists and largest trading partner. Chinese tourists accounted for one-third of the 18 million foreign tourists visiting Vietnam last year.

Vietnam Airlines' pre-tax profit rose 1.72 percent last year to $145.4 million.

The government said on Wednesday the virus has cost Vietnamese airlines about 10 trillion dong so far in lost revenues.

($1 = 23,239 dong) (Reporting by Khanh Vu; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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Vietnam's coronavirus cases climb to 15, baby infected

HANOI - Vietnam confirmed another case of the new coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing its total to 15, the health ministry said.

The latest case is a 3-month-old baby, infected by her grandmother, who tested positive for the virus on Feb. 9, the ministry said in a statement.

It said 10 out of 15 confirmed case are from the northern province of Vinh Phuc.

Vietnam has made plans to quarantine hundreds of its citizens returning from China, including 950 at military camps outside Hanoi, and another 900 at temporary facilities on the Vietnam-China border.

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After Singapore, Vietnam confirms 2 cases of new coronavirus

Two Chinese nationals in Vietnam have tested positive for the SARS-like coronavirus and are being treated in hospital, officials said Thursday.

A Chinese man living in Ho Chi Minh City was infected by his father who traveled to Vietnam on January 13 from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus. 

The father was hospitalized on January 17 with a high fever, days before his son showed symptoms, health officials said. 

Both were quarantined and tested positive for novel coronavirus, a new infection that has already killed 17 people in China and infected more than 570. 

"The patients have shown signs of good recovery, (their) fever has reduced and they can eat now," Doctor Nguyen Ngoc Sang said Thursday at a meeting at Ho Chi Minh City's Cho Ray hospital. 

Vietnam's deputy health minister urged all precautions to avoid any further spread. 

"We should immediately test any suspected cases so that we can detect (the disease) quicker. We don't want it to spread to the public," Nguyen Truong Son said at the meeting attended by reporters. 

Vietnam shares a long porous border with China and welcomes millions of visitors a year from its northern neighbor. 

Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and the United States have all reported confirmed cases of the new virus after it first emerged in China on December 31. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

400 million Facebook users' phone numbers exposed in privacy lapse: reports

WASHINGTON - Phone numbers linked to more than 400 million Facebook accounts were listed online in the latest privacy lapse for the social media giant, US media reported Wednesday.

An exposed server stored 419 million records on users across several databases -- including 133 million US accounts, more than 50 million in Vietnam, and 18 million in Britain, according to technology news site TechCrunch.

The databases listed Facebook user IDs -- unique digits attached to each account -- the profiles' phone numbers, as well as the gender listed by some accounts and their geographical locations, technology website TechCrunch reported.

The server was not password protected, meaning anyone could access the databases, and remained online until late Wednesday when TechCrunch contacted the site's host.

Facebook confirmed parts of the report but downplayed the extent of the exposure, saying that the number of accounts so far confirmed was around half of the reported 419 million.

It added that many of the entries were duplicates and that the data was old.

"The dataset has been taken down and we have seen no evidence that Facebook accounts were compromised," a Facebook spokesperson told AFP.

Following the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, when a firm used Facebook's lax privacy settings to access millions of users' personal details, the company disabled a feature that allowed users to search the platform by phone numbers.

The exposure of a user's phone number leaves them vulnerable to spam calls, SIM-swapping -- as recently happened to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey -- with hackers able to force-reset the passwords of the compromised accounts.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trade surplus with US could make Vietnam target for tariffs, says AmCham

MANILA—Vietnam could become another target for tariffs by US President Donald Trump, because the Asian country has a huge trade surplus with the United States, the leader of an American business group in Hanoi said on Wednesday. 

Vietnam has become the destination for some companies looking to relocate from China to avoid US tariffs, said Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi. 

Inquiries from companies looking to move their operations from China to Vietnam have risen 300 to 400 percent this year, Sitkoff said.

But he added that Vietnam's trade surplus with the US, which reached $40 billion in 2018 and on track to gain some 40 percent this year, has not escaped Trump's notice. Vietnam is No. 5 on the list of countries with the largest trade surpluses with the US. 

"We don't know if the Trump administration is going to do something negative to Vietnam in the future," Sitkoff said in an interview on ANC's "Market Edge."

In July, the US slapped duties of more than 400 percent on steel imports from Vietnam. 

However, Sitkoff said Hanoi is also taking Trump's concerns seriously and is looking to address trade issues with the US. 

Sitkoff, meanwhile, said he hopes that the US and China will come to a win-win agreement on trade. 

He said tariffs will lower demand worldwide, stoke inflation and hit global supply chains. 

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All sewn up? Vietnam garment makers face hitches in lucrative EU trade deal

HO CHI MINH CITY - For Tran Nhu Tung, Vietnam's newly signed free trade deal with the European Union presents both huge opportunity, and a logistical headache.

The vice chairman of Thanh Cong Textile Garment Investment Trading (TCM) in Ho Chi Minh City is planning a rapid expansion in anticipation of the influx of orders the tariff-slashing EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) promises to bring.

"The EVFTA is the game changer that will pave the way for Vietnamese garments to dominate the European market," Tung said amid the clack of thousands of sewing machines in the metal-roofed factory on the outskirts of Vietnam's commercial centre.

Analysts say garments, worth around 10 percent of Vietnam's exports and currently subject to EU tariffs of around 9 percent, will be by far the biggest beneficiary of the EVFTA finalized last month.

The EU is already Vietnam's second largest garment market after the United States, accounting for 15 percent of the country's total garment exports last year, Vietnam Customs data shows.

Tung expects orders at his factory, which produces company uniforms and sportswear, to increase by at least 15% once the EVFTA, which will reduce duties on nearly half of all garment products to zero, is ratified by the European Parliament.

Vietnam, backed by more than a dozen free trade agreements, has emerged as a key link in the global manufacturing supply chain.

Last December, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told a Hanoi business forum that Vietnam had become "one of the world's big factories".

That capacity, however, is being tested by growing demand - both from the EVFTA and the global disruption of trade caused by the U.S.-China trade war which has seen some manufacturing shift from China to Vietnam and other nearby countries.

Staff shortages have already started to manifest in Vietnam's garment industry, where the vast majority of manufacturers are focused on the labor-intensive sewing and cutting process which makes the Southeast Asian country a popular outsourcing destination for foreign fashion companies.

Low pay and long hours are making it hard to meet the new factories' growing demand for workers, which has increased by 7% since 2018, according to Ho Chi Minh City-based recruitment firm Navigos Search.

"This industry always lacks human resources especially high-level employees who have specialized skills," Navigos managing director Mai Nguyen told Reuters.

For TCM's Tung, who is poised to open a new dyeing plant to keep up with orders, this means embarking on the difficult task of finding a chemical engineer who can lead his next operation.

"Finding people to operate dyeing or weaving machines is easy. They are workers, and we can train them," said Tung. "But finding experienced chemical engineers with a thorough knowledge of chemistry and dyeing is rare".

"I can count them on one hand," Tung added.

SEW WHAT?

The EVFTA presents another challenge for Vietnam's garment industry: Strict rules on the country of origin for materials - or the "double transformation" of goods.

For manufacturers like Tung, this means both the textile and the finished product itself should be Vietnamese or from a country with which the EU already has a free trade agreement in order to be tariff-free.

That's in part because of strong lobbying from European manufacturers who are already struggling against cheap imports from the likes of China.

At a 2013 hearing, European garment manufacturers expressed concern that an FTA with Hanoi could pave the way for cheap Chinese textiles to enter the European market after being transformed into garments in Vietnam.

Italian textile manufacturers and the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (Euratex) acted during the negotiations to prevent Chinese products that had undergone a finishing process in Vietnam from entering the EU without duties.

They also fought to delay the removal of duties for a certain period of time after signing the deal to prevent a sudden flood of Vietnamese products into the European market.

"In conclusion, considering the starting conditions, we were able to contain any damage," Sistema Moda Italia, the federation of Italian textile and fashion manufacturers, said in a statement.

Currently, nearly 70 percent of the raw materials used in Vietnamese garment manufacturing are sourced from overseas, especially China, according to official data. Clothing makers in Vietnam say few can afford the expensive process of producing their own raw materials.

"We have no intention of investing in dyeing ... It's capital-intensive and requires highly-skilled workers to operate," the owner of a small Ho Chi Minh-based factory of around 800 employees told Reuters.

"Importing is cheaper, simpler and faster for small firms like us," said the factory owner, who declined to be identified.

The factory, tucked in an industrial zone about 20km (12 miles) from the city center, produces mostly women's apparel and says Germany is its largest export market.

"The issue of 'point of origin' is important for us. We are considering importing materials from South Korea, which has already established free trade relations with the EU, instead of from China," the owner said.

"The higher costs mean less profit for us, but it's the best alternative way we can think of at the moment." (Reporting by Phuong Nguyen. Additional reporting by Khanh Vu in Hanoi, Claudia Cristoferi in Milan and Sonya Dowsett in Madrid. Editing by James Pearson and Lincoln Feast.)

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Multidrug-resistant malaria spreading in Southeast Asia: study

LONDON - Strains of malaria resistant to two key anti-malarial medicines are becoming more dominant in Vietnam, Laos and northern Thailand after spreading rapidly from Cambodia, scientists warned on Monday. 

Using genomic surveillance to track the spread of drug-resistant malaria, the scientists found that the strain, known as KEL1/PLA1, has also evolved and picked up new genetic mutations which may make it yet more resistant to drugs.

"We discovered (it) had spread aggressively, replacing local malaria parasites, and had become the dominant strain in Vietnam, Laos and northeastern Thailand," said Roberto Amato, who worked with a team from Britain's Wellcome Sanger Institute and Oxford University and Thailand's Mahidol University.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites which are carried by mosquitoes and spread through their blood-sucking bites.

Almost 220 million people were infected with malaria in 2017, according to World Health Organization estimates, and the disease killed 400,000 of them. The vast majority of cases and deaths are among babies and children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Malaria can be successfully treated with medicines if it's caught early enough, but resistance to anti-malarial drugs is growing in many parts of the world, especially in Southeast Asia.

The first-line treatment for malaria in many parts of Asia in the last decade has been a combination of dihydroartemisinin and piperaquine, also known as DHA-PPQ. Researchers found in previous work that a strain of malaria had evolved and spread across Cambodia between 2007 and 2013. This latest research, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, found it has crossed borders and tightened its grip.

"The speed at which these resistant malaria parasites have spread in Southeast Asia is very worrying," said Olivo Miotto, who co-led the work.

"Other drugs may be effective at the moment but the situation is extremely fragile and this study highlights that urgent action is needed," he said.

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Vietnam swine fever cull surges, 1.7 million pigs dead

HANOI - Vietnam culled a further 500,000 pigs over the past two weeks to tackle an outbreak of African swine fever, taking the total killed so far to 1.7 million, or 5% of the country's herd, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.

Pork accounts for three-quarters of total meat consumption in Vietnam, a country of 95 million people where most of its 30 million farm-raised pigs are consumed domestically.

The virus, first detected in the Southeast Asian country in February, has spread to 42 of the country's 63 provinces, the agriculture ministry's Livestock Production Department said in a statement on its website.

"The African swine fever outbreak is the most dangerous and costly of its kind in the husbandry industry of Vietnam," agriculture minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said in the statement.

"Though the virus first appeared nearly 100 years ago, there has been no vaccine and no medicine for treating the disease".

China, the world's largest pork producer, which has also been hit by the virus, said on Friday it will start work on clinical trials of a vaccine for African swine fever, which is fatal to animals but not harmful to humans.

Cuong said it is difficult to contain the outbreak given that the virus remains dormant in the environment for a long time and can spread through complex and varied means.

Earlier this month, Vietnam said it will mobilize its military and police forces to help combat the outbreak.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in March advised Vietnam to declare the swine fever outbreak as a national emergency.

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Kim Jong Un to arrive in Vietnam on Feb. 25 ahead of Trump summit

HANOI - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will arrive in Vietnam on Feb. 25 ahead of a planned second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, three sources with direct knowledge of Kim's schedule told Reuters on Saturday.

Trump and Kim are due to meet in Hanoi on Feb. 27 and 28 following their historic first meeting last June in Singapore. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday Washington aims to "get as far down the road as we can" at the summit.

Kim will meet with Vietnamese officials when he arrives in Hanoi, said the sources, who requested anonymity citing the sensitivity and secrecy surrounding the movements of the North Korean leader.

He will also visit the Vietnamese manufacturing base of Bac Ninh and the industrial port town of Hai Phong, one source said.

Vietnam's president and general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, will meet Kim ahead of a planned trip by Trong to neighboring Laos, one of the sources with direct knowledge told Reuters.

A Reuters witness saw Kim's close aide, Kim Chang Son, in Hanoi on Saturday visiting a government guesthouse and the Metropole and Melia hotels in the center of the capital.

Reuters was first to report last month that Hanoi was preparing to receive Kim for a state visit this month.

Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has embraced economic reforms and developed close diplomatic ties with its former foe the United States, has been widely touted as a model of reform for isolated and impoverished North Korea.

The former Cold War allies, which share a similar socialist ideology and exchanged military and political support during the Vietnam War, are eyeing a new chapter in relations following Hanoi's opening up and embrace of the West. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Vietnam wins Miss Earth 2018

Miss Earth 2018 Phuong Khanh Nguyen of Vietnam (second right) joins (from left) Miss Earth-Fire Melissa Flores of Mexico, Miss Earth-Water Valeria Ayos of Colombia, and Miss Earth-Air Melanie Mader of Austria during the grand coronation night of the Miss Earth 2018 pageant held at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on Saturday. 

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Kicking gaming addiction with Vietnam's martial art

HO CHI MINH - An's folly was "League of Legends", a fantasy fight game that consumed her for 18 hours a day until she joined a school for troubled teens which features the real-world hard knocks of Vietnam's homegrown martial art.

With no phone or console and 5:30 am wake-up calls, the 16-year-old initially struggled to adjust to the rigors of life at the boarding school on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. 

She also didn't take to Vovinam, the acrobatic, high-kicking martial art created in the 1930s by borrowing elements of kung fu and other Asian disciplines. 

But she had little choice.

An is among around 300 teens at the Research Institute for Vovinam and Sport Development (IVS), where the physical and emotional control demanded by Vovinam is used to wean kids off screens and addictions to booze and drugs, and to ease depression.

After a few dark weeks, An -- full name Tran Nguyen Nhat An -- finally started to emerge from her malaise.

"I was just depressed, in my room. I never exercised, I never talked to anyone... here I can talk to everybody," she said, wearing her blue two-piece Vovinam uniform as classmates sparred on mats nearby. 

"I practise (Vovinam), exercise, so my health is getting better. Maybe that's helping my emotions getting better too."

Millions of youngsters like An are glued to online gaming in Vietnam, where some 30 percent of the population of 93 million have smartphones and about half have internet access. 

League of Legends and "Dota" are favorites, especially among the booming population of under-30s. 

Though no nationwide official data on gaming addiction exists, pediatric psychiatrist Lam Hieu Minh says he's seen a rise in visits from kids hooked on screens. 

They usually suffer from anxiety and sleeping disorders, attention deficit issues and even depression and eating disorders. 

The World Health Organization agrees: earlier this year it said "gaming disorder" would be added to its compendium of illnesses. 

Sport can be an important part of treatment.

"Physical activities such as martial arts are very good for children to help them get healthy entertainment and meet friends," said Minh. 

'I'M A NEW PERSON'  

IVS was set up in 2009 by Vovinam Master Pham Quang Long to treat unruly youngsters aged from 13 to 19.

Inspired by a Soviet educator who ran orphanages based on the principles of collective education and character-building work for children, Quang adopted a similarly tough-love approach. 

There are around 1,000 kids enrolled at all five IVS campuses, where tuition costs about $330 a month and pupils are allowed a visit by parents once a month.

Students must adhere to a strict schedule from dawn until bedtime around 10:00 pm that includes academic courses, music lessons and physical exercise.

Most days, that includes Vovinam.

"They have to overcome (personal) difficulties by practising martial arts, it gets rid of old habits and laziness," said IVS deputy director Dang Le Anh. 

"Military discipline and martial arts help the student to become better and better".

Early Vovinam protagonists were inspired by nationalist movements during the French occupation, eager to learn self-defense and develop a uniquely Vietnamese martial art. 

But the sport was forced underground in the 1950s by French rulers who wanted to extinguish nationalist sentiment of any kind.

It reemerged in the 1970s, eventually becoming a global movement. Today, there are Vovinam federations all over the world.

Nguyen Quang Hieu says the sport has transformed him from a gaming-addicted rebel to a disciplined young man. 

Before he arrived at the school 3 years ago, he was gaming for up to 14 hours a day, leaving the house for long stretches and spending countless hours at internet cafes. 

"I live an orderly life now and I don't try to disobey my parents," said 16-year-old Hieu, who now competes in Vovinam tournaments.

"I've given up games and become a new person."


source: news.abs-cbn.com