Golden age dawns for Vietnam’s two and three star hotels

A survey suggests that the Great Recession brought a shift in the preferences of hotel customers here that may persist though the economy’s again expanding strongly.

Roses for mid-level star hotels

A survey on hotel service released in mid-June by the Grant Thornton business advisory firm reveals two distinct tendencies. Business at two and three star hotels held up well during the Great Recession and now their business is booming. Business at four and five star establishments on the other hand, tanked in 2009 and has yet to recover.

The survey covered 50 hotels and resorts across the country, offering a total of 7911 rooms.

Room occupancy at three star hotels in 2009 was two percent above 2008; occupancy fell about ten percent at the elite hotels. Revenue per available room at the three star hotels increased by 0.9 percent in 2009, but fell at the elite hotels.

“We are seeing a pronounced shift in the preferences of clients” said Ken Atkinson, Managing Director of Grant Thornton in Vietnam. The tourism expert predicts the tendency will continue in 2010

Director Phan Dinh Hue of the Vong Trong Viet agency concurs. He reports that about 60 percent of his firm’s foreign tourist clients are choosing two or three star hotels, while nearly 70 percent of domestic travelers chose medium class hotels.

“Foreign travelers used to always ask for four star hotels. Nowadays they mostly choose to stay at three star hotels.” Hue said.

A representative of Vietravel adds that in the first six months of the 2010year, 60 percent of the firm’s clients chose three star hotels.

Tran Kim Long, General Director of Bong Sen Co., says that the company’s three star Bong Sen Saigon and two star Bong Sen Annex now have clients who previously always put up at elite hotels. Another HCMC hotelier, Thuy Cung at the three star Sapphire, confirms that business is improving steadily.

The Thornton survey found that the average cost of a room at a three star hotel in 2009 was $43, off only two percent from 2008. At four star hotels, the average room cost $75, off 12 percent from the previous year. At the five stars, average room prices fell to $130, a drop of 33 percent.

Elite hotels face a sea of troubles

Sven von Moock, a senior executive at the Norfolk Hotel on HCM City’s Nguyen Du street, said that in 2009 his establishment saw a 38 percent decrease in room occupancy even though the hotel reduced its rates by an average 18 percent.

“Most of our clients are businessmen,” Moock said, “and it is understandable that they have to cut down expenses during a difficult period. Scaling back their hotel outlays is a typical strategy.”

Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon newspaper reports that four and five star hotels in HCM City all have seen their hotel room occupancy drop significantly. Some hotels are only forty to fifty percent booked.

The Grant Thornton report said that in 2009 the occupancy ratio of five star hotels decreased by 6.3 percent on average. Business was off a whopping 14 percent at four star hotels.

Notwithstanding current difficulties, luxury hoteliers remain optimistic. “When the economy fully recovers, clients will surely return to 4-5 star hotels,” said Moock at the Norfolk.

Hue from Vong Tron Viet also judges that the difficulties of high grade hotels are just temporary. “Clients will choose the hotels which can provide better services even though when they have to pay more money,” Hue said.

“Therefore, I think foreign tourists will soon return to four and five star hotels, while the percentage of Vietnamese travelers who choose three-star hotels will be as much as fifty percent in one or two years,” he added.

Source: Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon

• Exhibition featuring the beauty of rural Vietnam
• HCM City seriously lacking teachers for primary sc...
• Commercial banks fail to “conquer” traditional mar...

Exhibition featuring the beauty of rural Vietnam

Dang Van Ty and Nguyen Van Cuong’s 34 paintings are now on display at “Meeting” exhibition in the resort city of Da Lat.

Artist Dang Van Ty

The exhibition is organized at the Hoa Binh Centre from August 6-12.

Dang Van Ty was born in 1954 in the southern province of Tay Ninh. At the age of 13, he suffered from an accident in the war and since then he sits in a wheelchair. In 1968 he left Vietnam to settle in Oslo, Norway.

After graduating from the National Industrial Art and Handicraft School in Oslo in 1986, Ty began drawing. Since 1981 he has had many exhibitions in Norway, some European countries and Vietnam.

Nguyen Van Cuong, 52, graduated from Hanoi Art University in 1989. He has had 12 solo exhibitions and dozens of joint exhibitions at home and abroad.

After their first joint exhibition at the HCM City Art Museum in 2003, the two painters have become close friends. Through Ty, Cuong has joined many exhibitions in Norway and Europe in recent years.

They organize “Meeting” to show their harmony in arts.

“A beautiful day” by Nguyen Van Cuong.

“Non la” by Dang Van Ty.

“Bandama” by Dang Van Ty.

“Summer noon” by Nguyen Van Cuong.

“Flying a kite 1” by Nguyen Van Cuong.

“Friendship” by Nguyen Van Cuong.

“Little girls” by Nguyen Van Cuong.

PV

HCM City seriously lacking teachers for primary schools

The HCM City Education and Training Department (HETD) has announced it needs to recruit 304 teachers for primary schools

VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City Education and Training Department (HETD) has announced it needs to recruit 304 teachers for primary schools. However, it is foreseeable that the recruitment plan is unfeasible.

Constantly lacking teachers

HETD looked for primary school teachers for the 2010-2011 school year several months ago. However, the number of teachers schools now have still cannot meet the expected demand, so on August 23 the department officially launched a new recruitment campaign.

Sixteen districts in HCM City need to recruit new teachers, but Binh Chanh district lacks teachers the most. The recruitment announcement on the official website of HETD says the district needs 96 more teachers.

An official of the Binh Chanh district’s education sub-department said this school year has 3,000 students more than the previous year, so the district needs 126 more teachers. However, only 30 teachers were recruited in the first recruitment campaign and the district hopes the second campaign will help ease the teacher shortage.

Tan Phu district is not seriously lacking teachers like Binh Chanh, but the district’s education sub-department’s officials are also worried that it cannot enroll enough teachers. Ta Tan, Head of the district’s education sub-department said the district is looking for 28 teachers. Under current regulations, there must be on average 1.2-1.5 teachers for every class, while schools in the district now have on average less than one teacher per class.

In fact, the demand for teachers is very high, but the sub-department has just registered to recruit a moderate number of teachers, because the sub-department knows that there will not be many candidates, according to Tan.

Van Cong Sang, Head of the Personnel Division under the HCM City Education and Training Department, said the demand for primary school teachers in the city is always very high, but the city has never been able to employ enough teachers.

Since the city foresees that there would not be enough primary school teachers to recruit, the city has announced that it will accept secondary and high school teachers to work as primary school teachers, although Sang admitted that secondary and high school teachers cannot meet the requirements for teaching primary school students.

According to Le Ngoc Diep, Head of the Primary Education Division under the HCM City Education and Training Department, it is not difficult to teach information to primary school students. However, teachers need to have teaching skills and a strong awareness of student psychology. Primary school teachers who do not have good teaching methods will inhibit students and badly affect their psychology for their entire lives.

What to do?

Diep said that the city has been seriously lacking primary school teachers in the last few years, since the new Residence Law took effect. People from other localities have been flocking to HCM City, which has led to a higher demand for education in the city. The newly built schools and newly recruited teachers cannot catch up with the increasingly high demand for education.

Meanwhile, experts have pointed out that high school graduates nowadays do not want to register to study at pedagogical universities to become teachers, especially at nursery and primary schools. Primary school teachers have heavy responsibilities, while salaries are not high.

A new graduate, for example, has an income of only 2.2 million dong a month. Therefore, in order to settle the problem of a lack of primary school teachers, the city needs to have a special policy that ensures a reasonable income for primary school teachers.

Source: Nguoi lao dong

Commercial banks fail to “conquer” traditional markets

Commercial banks have been trying to provide loans to small merchants at traditional markets for the last 15 years. However, though offering loans with lower interest rates, they still cannot dislodge individual lenders from their prominent positions.

Tran Thi Kim, the owner of the ready-made clothes shop at Tan Binh Market, admitted the loan interest rates she must pay to individual lenders is now higher by 1-4 percent than the same period of 2009. As for six month and longer term loans, individual lenders charge three percent per month. Loyal clients can borrow at five percent per month for shorter term loans, but new borrowers must pay seven percent.

Kim explained that the total capital needed for a consignment of goods is about 500 million dong. It takes at least three months to sell goods and earn back the money. Therefore, she must borrow money for three months and pay 15 percent in interest, or 75 million dong.

At An Dong Market, one lender offers cash at two percent per month, but only to loyal clients. New clients may pay up to five percent per month.

Thang, the owner of a footwear shop at An Dong Market, commented that, while interest rates have increased, it is not easy to borrow. A single kiosk needs several tens of millions of dong or even 100 million dong, while double kiosks need even more. Only big owners with 5-7 kiosks can borrow billions of dong.

A small merchant at Tan Binh Market revealed that she is following procedures to mortgage her kiosk at a bank so that she can borrow 200 million dong at 1.6 percent per month. However, she has not received a reply over the last week.

Commercial banks have been trying to “penetrate” these markets since 1995 after they realized the high demand for capital from small merchants. Sacombank, Dong A Bank and many others have tried to offer money to these businesses at low rates, about 1.5 percent per month.

However, over the last 15 years, commercial banks have not been able to increase loans to small merchants considerably.

According to Nguyen Hoang Anh Vu, Head of the Personal Banking Division of Eximbank, procedures prevent small merchants from accessing bank loans. While small merchants can borrow money from individual lenders with very simple procedures, at banks they must follow many complicated steps.

Vu admitted that procedures to borrow from individual lenders are quite straightforward. Borrowers just need to sign an “IOU” document in which they agree to the loans’ terms.

“Small merchants always need money immediately. They do not want to spend time to wait money from banks and follow complicated procedures,” Vu maintained.

According to Saigon Tiep Thi newspaper, over the last 15 years, banks have been providing only one banking product to these markets: loans (200-500 million dong) with kiosks as collateral. If small merchants want to borrow more, they must mortgage more valuable assets.

According to Ngoc, one of the individual lenders, all the individual lenders at markets are people who have been doing business there for many years and they well understand other small merchants. “It’s my money, therefore, I can have the right to decide whether to lend it. As the risks are high, the interest must be high. This is acceptable,” she asserted.

Recently, in an effort to expand credit at markets, some commercial banks have classified markets into several types. Credit limits depend on the classification: markets with more clients can borrow more money. However, once barriers are erected, commercial banks still find it hard to improve the situation.

Source: Saigon tiep thi

SOCIETY IN BRIEF 5/9

Quality of workforce still low; Agricultural land use tax relief to extend; Conjunctivitis occurs complicatedly in Hanoi; 28 provinces hit by blue ear in pigs; Flu vaccine available in Vietnam

Quality of workforce still low

Vietnam always confirmed that it has abundant workforce that can meet the requirements of economic-social development in the future, however, the quality of the country’s workforce is now a thorny problem, said Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Minister of Labor Invalids and Social Affairs.

The minister Ngan September 3 discussed the implementation of policies related to working abroad with supervisors of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee .

The low quality of workers also leads to difficulties in labor exports, said Mrs. Ngan.

Besides, enterprises should pay attention to the rights and interests of workers, she added.

To solve problem, the Government and the ministry need to improve vocational training programs, aiming to approach the world labor market.

To date, Vietnam has 500,000 laborers working in 40 countries and territories.

Agricultural land use tax relief to extend

The Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Finance have proposed to extend the reduction and exemption on agricultural land use taxes for the phase 2011-2020, coming to abolish the taxes.

The policy has been implemented since 2003, under a Congressional degree, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said. 11.2 million households have enjoyed agricultural taxes exemption and reduction.

Specifically, each of rural inhabitants has received an average exemption of VND50,000 a year, partly easing financial burden on poor farmers and encouraging them to focus on agricultural production.

In related news, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has ordered its departments to temporarily postpone doing surveys on poor households nationalwide until new poverty standards for the phase 2011-2015 will be issued.

The change of criteria is suitable with the current socioeconomic conditions and the price fluctuation.

According to the new standards, the poverty line has roughly VND500,000 a month or lower in urban areas and VND400,000 in rural areas. The common international poverty line has in the past been roughly $1 a day. In 2008, the World Bank came out with a revised figure of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity

With this new norms, the country will have about 16.5 millions poor people, or 3.3 million households.

The surveys are set to begin early this month.

In the old standards, applied for the phase 2006-2010, the poor are those with monthly average income of VND260,000 or below in urban areas and VND200,000 in rural areas.

Conjunctivitis occurs complicatedly in Hanoi

The disease of conjunctivitis, locally called red eye disease, still occurs complicatedly and persists in Hanoi and neighboring provinces, said the Central Eye Hospital on September 3.

In August alone, the hospital received nearly 2,000 patients suffering from the conjunctivitis, doubled over previous months.

Its doctors forecast the number of patients would increase in coming days. Conjunctivitis usually breaks out in the city and its neighbouring provinces in September when the rainy season begins in the north.

The conjunctivitis is caused by the adenovirus. It is often accompanied by a slight fever and sore throat. The patient’s eyes turn red with much irritation, itchiness and tears.

The disease is highly contagious in family, school and office environments. Hot weather also created favourable conditions for it to spread.

The doctors warn risk of conjunctivitis increases because the school opening season has come and thousands of students have come back to school.

28 provinces hit by blue ear in pigs

The Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus, also called blue ear disease in pigs, hit one more province, putting the total of affected provinces in the country to 28, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Thursday.

Gia Lai Province’s Department of Animal Health said the disease was reported from pig farming households in Chu Pah District and Ayun Pa Town.

On September 2, Quang Ninh Province also announced that the pandemic broke out again in Yen Hung District’s Lam Sinh 2 Hamlet on August 20.

Flu vaccine available in Vietnam

Flu vaccine against influenza H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B is available in preventive health centers in Vietnam, said a medical worker on August 31.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh, vice director of the country’s National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology said the vaccine can prevent influenza strains of H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B as seasonal sicknesses proliferate with more patients suffering from dangerous complications.

Residents should go to nearby preventive health centers for vaccination. The vaccine costs VND200,000 a shot.

Dr. Hanh said season flu takes place all year round so people should inject to protect themselves from the illness.

Holiday shoppers crowd supermarkets

Supermarket and shopping centres in HCM City were crowded with shoppers enjoying a long National Day holiday and the city’s promotion month offering discounts on thousands of products.

Although supermarkets had beefed up their staff and prepared additional parking lots to accommodate the predicted increase in holiday shoppers, they were still overloaded. Shoppers have had to wait in long lines at parking lots and cashier counters since Wednesday afternoon, one day prior to the National Day.

The declaration of Friday as a holiday extended the National Day holiday to four days including the weekend.

“It took me nearly 20 minutes to park my motorbike and it was not until noon that I managed to escape the long lines of people at the cashiers’ counters although I came early in the morning,” said Tran My Ha, who shopped at Big C supermarket in District 10.

The Big C supermarket chain opened its outlets 30 minutes earlier and closed 30 minutes later for the holiday, and also had additional parking lots readied. They received 30-40 per cent more customers than normal days, said Duong Thi Quynh Trang, the chain’s PR manager.

Sales at the Co.op Mart chain rose by 2-3 times on Thursday, mostly of essential products, dry, processed and fresh food, home appliances and apparel.

Shoppers also flocked to shopping centres like Sai Gon Square, Parkson Plaza and Vincom Plaza as well as electronics trade centres including Nguyen Kim, Thien Hoa and Cho Lon.

These establishments have reported a surge in sales of LCD-screen TVs, washing machines and home appliances during the holiday.

Remains of 74 Vietnamese troops found in mass grave

Soldiers and residents of Quang Tri Province’s Cam Lo District have unearthed the remains of another 40 liberation soldiers from a mass grave discovered at the end of August.

This brings the total number of remains unearthed from the grave to 74. Other objects including hammocks, uniform buttons, watches and raincoats have also been found in the mass grave.

The soldiers are believed to have been killed during the Mau Than Offensive in 1968. Identification work is now underway on the remains.

Authorities had searched unsuccessfully for the grave in the province for three years based on information provided by American veterans who’d said 158 soldiers might be buried there.

Quang Tri was on the frontlines of the Mau Than Offensive.

125 homes to be moved for $300m tower project

As many as 125 households and organisations in downtown HCM City must move to make way for the construction of the Ben Thanh Towers project, which begins in October.

The US$300 million project is developed by Bitexco Group on the Ben Thanh Quadrangle, an 8,600-square-metre area bordered by the streets of Le Thi Hong Gam, Calmette, Pham Ngu Lao and Pho Duc Chinh in District 1’s Nguyen Thai Binh Ward.

Le Quoc Cuong, head of the district’s board for compensation and site clearance, said the board would inform the affected households and organisations about land clearance and compensation prices, and collect their opinions next week.

The board will apply compensation rates that were approved by the municipal People’s Committee in November 2008.

The compensation price for land on Pham Ngu Lao Street is the highest, at VND165.7 million (US$8,720) per sq.m, followed by land on Pho Duc Chinh Street at VND156.9 million per square metre.

The front-street land on Le Thi Hong Gam and Calmette streets has compensation prices of VND147.8 million and VND147.2 million per sq.m, respectively, while land on the two streets’ alleys is valued at VND50million-VND50.5 million.

Compensation prices for apartments acquired by the project range from VND61-73 million per square metre.

Action soon against tax dodgers

People’s Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan has instructed HCM City tax officials to immediately identify enterprises that have neither submitted a tax declaration nor paid tax.

He also wants to know the extent to which the city’s licensed enterprises have been properly monitored.

The latest survey shows that 44,000 of 144,000 licensed enterprises in HCM City had not registered with the tax office as of July.

Work starts on $10.2m hospital

Construction of the high-tech Hue Central International Hospital began Thursday.

The estimated cost of the seven-floor hospital is VND200 billion (US$10.2 million), with 70 per cent of the money provided from loans.

The 300-bed, 200,000-sq.m. facility will include surgical, pediatric, gynaecology and rehabilitation wards for the treatment of both domestic and international patients.

Work is expected to take two years.

Blue-ear disease strikes the South

Blue-ear disease has infected pigs in 30 southern provinces, including the Mekong Delta, during the last 21 days, reports the Animal Health Department.

The latest infections were identified in southern Binh Phuoc, An Giang, Ca Mau and Tra Vinh on Thursday, it says.

The Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry has asked provincial officials to take immediate measures to suppress the outbreak.

Department’s epidemiological service’s head Van Dang Ky said more than 200,000 doses of Chinese-made blue-ear vaccine had been distributed to 21 provinces as of yesterday. Each province had received 20,000 doses.

The vaccine, which arrived last month, will be administered from Wednesday.

Japan assists Bac Giang province in education

Japanese non-governmental organisation, Pro-work Towada, directed by Nakano Shozo, will invite some of the teachers at Thang Cuong kindergarten in Yen Dung district, Bac Giang province, to visit Japanese kindergartens in order to learn about the education model from September 15 to October 13.

This kindergarten in Vietnam is a present of Pro-work Towada to poor Thang Cuong commune. It is invested at VND700 million, began construction in July 2009 and opened on January 1, 2010.

The school aims to provide educational assistance for 60 students in 400 households in this commune.

In August, the Japanese NGO equipped the kindergarten with teaching aids and Japanese teachers also taught music and provided advice on teaching methods to local colleagues.

Hanoi-Amsterdam school upgraded to regional level

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Hanoi, Nguyen The Thao, pinned a plate “Project in celebration of Thang Long-Hanoi millennium anniversary” to the gate of the Hanoi-Amsterdam High School on the inauguration of the 2010-11 academic year on September 4.

The school has been reconstructed as the most modern in Vietnam and put on a par with other leading schools in the region.

Thao said the project was an evidence of the municipal administration’s thoughtfulness and sense of responsibility to the school in an effort to nurture young talents for the capital city and the nation as a whole.

He expressed thanks to the Dutch people, especially Amsterdam citizens, for their assistance to the development cause in Vietnam, especially Hanoi.

“May such a friendship and cooperation, especially in education and training, further develop, thus contributing to improving the educational quality of the Hanoi-Amsterdam school to a new height,” said Thao.

The Dutch Ambassador said he would do his best to boost the student exchange programme between the Hanoi-Amsterdam and a school of gifted students in the Netherlands.

He also presented five scholarships for a study visit to schools in Amsterdam in next summer.

The Hanoi-Amsterdam High School was first built in September, 1985 as a gift of the Dutch capital city to Hanoi. The school has contributed over 100 international prize winners to the nation.

In 2000, the school was awarded the title “Labour Hero in the Renewal Period”, a high State honour.

The school embarked on reconstruction on May 19, 2008 at a cost of VND429 billion. It now houses 45 classes capable of accommodating some 2,000 students.

Its campus, covering 5 ha of land in the downtown street of Tran Duy Hung, includes nine classrooms specialising in fostering talented students and physical and hobby training such as music, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, football and basketball playgrounds.

Prof Chau honoured outstanding capital citizen

Prof Ngo Bao Chau was presented with the title of outstanding citizen of Hanoi 2010 on September 4 by Chairman of the Hanoi Municipal People’s Committee Nguyen The Thao.

Prof Chau thanked the Party, authorities and people of the Hanoi capital city for their due attention, expressing his honour to receive the award.

As a Hanoian, he said he always looks toward to capital city, wishing for it to be more beautiful, greener and richer.

Prof. Ngo Bao Chau, born in 1972 in Hanoi, used to be a pupil at Giang Vo experimental primary school, Trung Vuong secondary school and the Hanoi National University’s talented school.

He was awarded the 2010 Fields Medal for his proof of the Fundamental Lemma in the theory of automorphic forms, by introducing new algebro-geometric methods at International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in India on August 19.

Prof. Chau was among 11 outstanding capital citizens honoured for the first time in 2010 by Hanoi.

People memorise President Ho on National Day

Ho Chi Minh City’s leaders on National Day (September 2) paid floral tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his Memorial House on Nha Rong Wharf, where he left on a vessel to seek ways to liberate his country.

The leaders included Le Thanh Hai, Politburo member and Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee; Le Hoang Quan, Party Central Committee member and Chairman of the Municipal People’s Committee; Pham Phuong Thao, Chairperson of the Municipal People’s Council; and Duong Quan Ha, President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front HCM City chapter.

They offered incense and expressed their gratitude to President Ho for to great services he rendered to the nation as the founder of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam).

Close to 50,000 people paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum in Hanoi on September 1 and 2.

Esperanto leader honoured for his contribution to Vietnam

President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations, Vu Xuan Hong, on September 3 presented the “For Peace and Friendship among Nations” insignia to Osmo Tapani Buller, General Director of the World Esperanto Association Central Office.

Mr Buller received the distinction for his valuable contributions to Vietnam during the war against the US, as well as to the Esperanto movement in Vietnam.

When he was a student, he took part in the Finnish people’s movement against the US war in Vietnam.

Joining a young Finnish people’s Esperanto movement, he paid attention to Vietnam’s Esperanto publications and mobilised Finland to support Vietnam. He also helped Vietnam publish over 100 Vietnamese books in Esperanto.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Mr Buller expressed his pleasure at Vietnam’s achievements over 20 years of national renewal and pledged to actively cooperate with the Vietnam Esperanto Association to make preparations for the 97th Esperanto Congress to be held in Vietnam in 2012.

Quang Tri builds grand marker on Laos border

Authorities of Vietnam’s central province of Quang Tri and Salavan province of Laos on September 3 began construction of a border marker called grand marker 635 on their shared border.

Marker 635 will lie at the La Lay National Border Gate in La Lay village, A Ngo commune, Dakrong district, in Quang Tri province. The construction is expected to be completed on November 2.

From 2008 to now, Quang Tri has completed the installation of 22 out of 62 border markers on its border shared with Laos’ Salavan and Savannakhet provinces.

It plans to install an additional 14 national markers on its border with Lao localities from now to the end of this year.

As planned, Quang Tri will complete the plantation of two grand markers, 26 medium-sized markers and 34 small-sized ones along the 206km it shares with Salavan and Savannakhet provinces.

PV

Tears caused by exam season

News that several students committed suicide recently because they had failed their high school final exams or university entrance exams has stunned the public. Why did they kill themselves when they were still so young? The answer is that they were under excessive pressure in the exam season.

Trinh Cong Sy, an excellent student at the Le Khiet Gifted School in Quang Ngai province, thought he did not do well on his university entrance exams, and decided to kill himself at just 18-years-old.

In the suicide note which Sy’s parents found after his burial service, Sy wrote: “When you read these words, I am in another world, where there is no voice and smile. I once led a life with no joy, and now I fail the university entrance. I dare not confront tomorrow”.

Le Nam, a close friend of Sy, related that though Sy was majoring in mathematics, he was very good at all subjects. Sy registered to take both A (mathematics, physics and chemistry) and B-group (mathematics, chemistry and biology) exams, but he really wanted to study at the HCM City Medical University. Because Sy did not do well at the B-group exams, he was devastated and committed suicide.

Tran Dinh Voi, Deputy Headmaster at the Le Khiet Gifted School, where Sy studied, said the news about Sy’s death came as a shock to everyone. Voi said Sy was an excellent and obedient student, and no one could imagine that he would commit suicide.

Voi said that it is true that students at the Le Khiet gifted school have been under great pressure in exam season because they all want to pass the exams to be able to enroll at prestigious universities. Some students have failed the exams on their first try, but they usually attempt to repeat the exams the next year. None have taken the route Sy chose.

Tuoi tre newspaper tried to contact students at Le Khiet Gifted School and Sy’s friends to find out about the life of the students of the gifted school.

Passing university entrance exams is a must

Le Nguyen Khanh, a student in the mathematics major class, which enrolls 35 students, said all the pupils in his class worked very hard to pass the entrance exams. No one wanted to be inferior to friends, said Khanh. If someone gets lower marks than others, he would feel very discouraged.

Khanh said he has a very heavy academic workload. He goes to school in the morning, and then goes to extra classes in the afternoon.

“I always had to have my lunch on the way to extra classes. Sometimes I did not have time to have lunch and I had to learn on an empty stomach. I only went to bed at 11 pm.”

“We had to learn hard because we needed to pass the university entrance exams,” Khanh said.

Pressure from the neighborhood and families

Nguyen Quoc Cuong said he studies in a class where all his friends were excellent students, therefore, he learned very well.

Cuong said his parents did not set any requirements for him, but he personally felt he needed to study well, or he would disappoint his parents. In addition, neighbors and relatives all hoped Cuong would do well academically and continue his higher education at a university.

Cuong has an older brother who was an excellent student in his first 12 years at general school who is now a student at HCM City University of Technology. Cuong said he bears pressure from his brother, because Cuong feels he must not be inferior to him.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Le Xuan Hung also said he has two sisters who are also very good at learning, and he needs to perform well in school like his sisters. One of his two sisters has finished her studies at the HCM City Medical University, while the other is now a third year student at the HCM City Economics University.

Source: Tuoi tre

Most expensive phone numbers in Vietnam

Vietnamese believe that using good numbers they will be lucky in life and business. Based on this idea, many people pay billions of dong to own special phone numbers to get luck and to show off their “rank”.

A shop sellings SIM in Hanoi.

According to some online forums, a man recently paid $200,000 to buy the cell phone number 0903456789 (of MobiFone network). This number is expensive because 090 is the oldest network code and 3456789 is the best chain of forward numbers among ten-digit phone numbers. It is said that the price for this number is much higher now.

A SIM shop recently offered this number 01666666666 (of Viettel) at 2.5 billion dong ($132,000). This is a special phone number because 16 means luck in business, nine six numbers mean being luck forever.

VinaPhone’s number 0916888888 is fixed at 888 million dong ($46,700). It is explained that 091 is among the oldest network code in Vietnam, 168 means getting rich, and 888888 means good fortune.

People call this phone number as “Dream of Life”. It is forecast that the price of this phone number will exceed over 1 billion dong very soon.

At present, two of seven mobile networks in Vietnam have launched programs to sell “special phone numbers” to customers, Viettel and VinaPhone.

Geomancer Nguyen Tuan Kiet from the Vietnam Geomancy JS Company explained that each chain of numbers has a “soul” like the name of a person. According to geomancy, the names or numbers have influences in terms of Yin and Yang and five basic elements to the owner’s life.

He recommended people choose phone numbers based on geomancy. At present, numbers 8, 9 and 1 are considered good ones and Kiet recommended numbers with 8, 9 and 1 at the bottom.

According to Kiet, numbers that benefit users must be fit the users in terms of five basic elements. For example, if a person was born in 1978, he belongs to element fire so his phone number should not include number 1.

Therefore, good numbers depend on the user’s basic element.

PV

Forbes calls Vinamilk an ‘udder success’

In its current issue, the American business magazine, Forbes, lists its choices for the ‘best Asian companies worth under $1 billion.’ One of them is Vietnam’s Vinamilk, which is profiled in a Forbes story by Lan Anh Nguyen.

Vietnam Dairy Products, known as Vinamilk, is the sector leader in a young and rapidly growing market of 86 million people. With revenues doubled and net profit up fourfold in the last four years, it is the most successful of Vietnam’s privatized state-owned enterprises.

The nation’s dairy products market, estimated at $1.5 billion in 2009, is expected to grow 25% this year. Holding a one-third market share, Vinamilk had net profit jump 67% to $90 million and revenue climb by half to $389 million through the first half of 2010. “Vinamilk has been successful in the competition with foreign brands. It has created a very strong Vietnamese brand, a solid footing in the local market, and it has been able to tap into the rising demand for nutrition products,” said Trinh Hoai Giang, chief operating official of HSC Securities, one of Vietnam’s three biggest brokerage houses.

Vinamilk is Vietnam’s first entry on the Forbes Best Under A Billion list and outside the usual mold. It is still 48% government-held, and the state’s share is represented by its chairwoman, 57-year-old Mai Kieu Lien. But Lien, in guiding the Ho Chi Minh City company since 1993, has established her own credentials.

Born in France to physician parents who heeded President Ho’s call to return, she was raised in Hanoi and sent off to learn meat and dairy processing in Moscow. She returned in 1976, joining the Southern Milk & Café Co., a state collective of dairy factories from the prewar south. Later she got economics training at Leningrad University and was made general director of the operation, now called Vinamilk. Her moment to shine came as Vietnam began its “equitization” process of state firms a decade ago.

For many years Vinamilk mostly produced condensed milk, cookies and candies. It was not considered a cash cow when the government decided to privatize it in 2003. Many Vinamilk employees didn’t buy shares then. Lien took only a 0.12% stake but used her new authority to hire a professional branding and marketing team, at multinational-level salaries. Also, Vinamilk broadened its product offerings to include yogurt, powdered milk and baby formula. It had a domestic competitor, Dutch Lady, but Vinamilk got the jump on its rival with fresh milk in 2007.

The management team, led by Tran Bao Minh, has aimed at higher margins. And indeed Vinamilk’s operating margin has increased to 20% from 10% in 2006. Its wares no longer suffer by comparison with imports. “We have been pursuing a strategy of brand development, distribution renovation and expansion, as well as controlling and enhancing product quality,” Lien explains.

Success has brought challenges: Minh and his team left Vinamilk suddenly last year amid talk that their pay demands had become a rub. He joined a new rival, TH Milk, also captained by a woman, Thai Huong, chairman of North Asia, a Vietnamese bank. TH Milk’s ramp-up calls for importing 28,000 cows, with fresh-milk production to start next year. (Vinamilk mostly still relies on imports from New Zealand.) According to Minh, import costs are 15% lower than using fresh milk, but he maintains that with demand soaring, “If we don’t raise cows in Asia, we won’t have milk.”

Vinamilk is responding. In August it started on a $120 million dairy plant near Ho Chi Minh City that is expected to be the biggest in Southeast Asia. Vinamilk owns five farms in Vietnam but is also looking to invest in more overseas sourcing. “Competition and material sources are the main challenge,” says Lien.

Foreign investors don’t appear spooked. They hold their maximum allowable 49% stake under Vietnamese law, but Vinamilk shares rarely trade. According to HSC Securities, these holders seldom want to sell. The departed Minh pays tribute to Lien: “She is very sharp, very decisive and determined. If she left the company, the leadership crisis would be a significant blow.”

Source: Forbes