Department cuts costs to balance inflation

The city's Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs saved more than VND1.5 billion (US$72,463) during the first two quarters after all municipal departments were ordered to cut expenditures this year by 10 per cent.

In February, the city's People's Committee asked all departments to cut expenses in response to rising inflation as well as other costs, including electricity fees.

In an aim to cut costs, the department has also reviewed the status of12 projects, particularly for those that are not urgent.

These included the upgrading of several centres, including Phu Van Health Centre, as well as cemeteries for revolutionary martyrs and other facilities.

In addition, the department has been working with authorities to support the poor and other residents who are under the city's sponsorship.

Since February, the city has provided an additional VND8 billion ($386,000) for subsidies to a total of more than 8,000 poor families.

The department has also allocated more money for poor residents to pay their electricity bills.

Le Thanh Tam, the department's head, said all of the measures would be carried out for the remainder of the year to ensure budget efficiency and social welfare for the city's poorest residents.

Sunk boat’s owner pays additional $48,000 in compensation

Din Ky Restaurant Private Enterprise has paid an additional compensation of US$48,000 to the families of 4 Chinese people who died when its boat sunk on the Saigon River in Binh Duong Province on May 20, killing 16 people.

The amount, which is for “mental damage,” was reached after many negotiations between the Chinese families and Din Ky in the past two months. Earlier, at a meeting on June 8, the families lowered their previous claim from $50,000 to $30,000 per victim.
Din Ky, however, said it could only pay US$7,000 per victim, saying that under current regulations, compensation cannot exceed 60 times the minimum wage or VND830,000 ($40.4).
However, after further negotiations, the two sides finally agreed on the rate of $12,000 per victim.
Earlier, Din Ky had already paid a total $68,200 to these families.
As for the 12 Vietnamese victims who also died in the accident, Din Ky has paid each family VND58 million ($2.828) and is expected to pay another VND70 million ($3,393) per family.
On May 20, 32 people went aboard Din Ky’s 2-storey restaurant boat to celebrate a birthday party for a 3-year-old son of Quach Luong Tai, a Chinese businessman in Thuan An Town.
When the boat was 100 m from the quay, it was hit by heavy rain and strong winds and was capsized and sank. 16 people, including the boy and 8 other members of Tai’s family, died.
The Chinese who died in the accident are Zhuo Ying Hua, Jiang Li, Guo Dong Hui and Guo De Cai.
Their bodies were incinerated on June 8 and sent back to China one day later.

Police rescue 2 gamblers from Cambodia loan shark

Vietnamese police yesterday, Aug 4, rescued two people from a loan shark who had held them in Cambodia after they failed to repay her.
With the assistance of the Cambodian police, they also arrested the loan shark, Pham Thi Kim Oanh, 37, a Vietnamese national from southern Tay Ninh Province, who was working for a casino in Bavet in Cambodia’s border province of Svay Rieng.
One of the two rescued people, Tran Thi Dieu, 49, of Ho Chi Minh City, lost VND12 million (US$584) gambling. She then borrowed $2,000 from Oanh at an exorbitant interest rate and lost it gambling too.
The other, Nguyen Van Chien, 51, of Dong Nai Province, also borrowed $2,000 from Oanh after losing VND5 million gambling.
Oanh admitted to the police that she lent money to gamblers at the casino at 20-30 percent interest per day.
She and her people would then detain anyone who failed to repay until their relatives brought money from Vietnam, she said.

VAST helps Congo produce malaria vaccine

The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) is producing Artemisinin for Congo under a US$1 million contract signed with its Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

Accordingly, VAST will support Congo in planting, harvesting and preserving wormwood extras for vaccine production using modern technology.

It will also help the country to build a laboratory and a production line capable of producing 3 million doses a year.

Brewery ordered to stop treating expired beer

The Ho Chi Minh City environmental police have ordered a brewery to stop treating a large quantity of expired beer at its waste-treatment facility though it has received approval from authorities.
The Environmental Crime Prevention and Fighting Police Department (C49) inspected Tien Dong Co Ltd’s Vinaken brewery in Cu Chi District last month and found it was not licensed to treat the 24,000 cartons of US-made Budweiser beer belonging to an importer.
The agency called a halt to it.
“Vinaken’s wastewater treatment system was set up only to treat its own wastewater, not that of the others,” Phap Luat Thanh Pho quoted the inspectors’ environmental impact assessment report as saying.
The beer, whose expiration date was in early November 2010, was from the HCMC-based Tan Chau Binh Vina Company, which had imported 77,000 cartons in late 2009.
It had managed to sell 22,000 cartons before the sell-by date.
Last June Tan Chau Binh Vina got sanction from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to get the 55,000 cartons treated at Vinaken’s plant.
It sent 26,000 of them to Vinaken, which treated almost 2,000 by July 9, C49 inspectors found.
C49 has ordered Vinaken to wait for its decision.
Dao Anh Kiet, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said his agency had done nothing wrong in giving permission since old beer is not hazardous waste, and any wastewater treatment system can treat it.
“Vinaken’s brewery has an approved wastewater treatment plant and is also licensed to discharge treated water into the environment.”
The department and C49 have yet to reach agreement on how to treat the remaining beer.

No food, no money: Vietnam ship crew seek help

A crew member of a Vietnamese ship leased to an Indian shipping company and anchored in Malaysia has appealed to Tuoi Tre for help saying there is no food or drink and the crew have not been paid for the last seven months.
Do Duc Cuong, a mechanic of the ship, called Tuoi Tre yesterday, saying the crew of Sea Home Shine were surviving on food donated by other ships and local residents.
“If the situation is not resolved soon, all of us will die of hunger.”
Tuoi Tre contacted Vu Quang of the management board of Ho Chi Minh City-based Gia Hai Shipping and Chartering Company, which owns Sea Home Shine, and was told that the Indian shipping company had not paid salaries or provided food to the crew due to its financial problems.
His company had urged its Indian partner to pay wages and provide supplies to the crew, he said.

Toyota Vietnam continues suspending whistleblower

Toyota Vietnam Thursday officially announced it would not change the decision to suspend a prominent whistleblower for three months despite protests from the suspended engineer and labor agencies.

The carmaker on Thursday sent engineer Le Van Tach a notice informing him that his three-month suspension taking effect since June 13 would be continued.

The note rejected Tach’s appeal, maintained the suspension is in line with Vietnamese labor laws and company regulations and that Tach’s complaint is groundless and wrong.

It said the suspension is meant to restore relations among company employees and not related to Tach’s whistle-blowing.

According to Toyota Vietnam, the suspension stems from Tach’s groundless accusations that negatively affected work, caused disunity among colleagues and resulted in a “bad influence”.

For example, on May 31, Tach sent a complaint to the general director that seven senior officials had insulted and threatened him. He wanted the company to apologize and compensate him.

But the general director replied that the accusations lacked evidence.

Tran Quoc Hung, head of Toyota Vietnam’s planning department, earlier said many of the employees had “only joked” while some did not remember or spoke in an individual capacity and not on behalf of the company.

As for Tach, he claimed he was punished out of revenge after he leaked information to the press and authorities about Toyota Vietnam’s technical faults.

Due to Tach’s expose, since April this year, Toyota Vietnam has recalled 73,000 cars for problems related to bolts, pressure and seats.

Tach is now discussing with his lawyer whether to sue the company or not.

Burglar steals 10kg of gold, $900,000 in Dak Nong

A thief sneaked into a gold shop in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong early yesterday morning, Aug 4, and stole 10kg of gold and a large sum of cash.

Pham Thi Ngoc Long, the owner of Ngoc Long Shop on Ba Trieu Street in Gia Nghia District told local police the burglar might have sneaked into her house at night when her family were sleeping and took the gold and a large sum of cash out of her strongbox.

10 kg of gold is worth around VND11 billion (US$536,454).

According to Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper, an estimated VND18.5 billion ($902,218) in cash was stolen.

Man arrested for stealing 191 gold-plated spoons

A worker was caught red-handed stealing 191 gold-plated spoons worth around VND200 million on Wednesday and was handed over to local police soon after.

According to police, Ho Dinh Tho, who was working at the Yujin Vina Company in the export processing zone Linh Trung 1 in Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc district, was found hiding the spoons that he stole from his company under his shoes after work.

His alleged criminal act was discovered by the security guards in the zone.

Earlier, on July 26, the guards also nabbed another worker for stealing around 100 kilos of stainless steel that he hid in his forklift truck.

Cop charged with attacking on-duty cop

Police in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday afternoon indicted mobile policeman Tran Dai Phuc and put him under custody for beating a traffic policeman who stopped him for a traffic violation last week, a source told Tuoi Tre.

He was charged with attacking on-duty officer.

Phuc was also expelled from Party membership and fired from police branch the same day.

The fight between Phuc and traffic cop Van Thanh Luan took place on July 28 on a street in Binh Thanh District.

Eyewitness Nguyen Duc Chanh said Luan beat Phuc on his shoulder after pulling him up for riding motorcycle without helmet.

Then the traffic cop made an elbow attack on Phuc’s head.

Phuc asked him “Why did you beat me?” and gave Luan a slap on his face before grabbing an iron bar to counterattack Luan. 

2-ton whale shark stuck in trap, dies

A 2-ton whale shark died after exhausting itself trying to get out of a fish trap it accidentally got caught in off the southern province of Ca Mau Wednesday.

The whale shark, which is 5.5m long, was reportedly dead just a few minutes after being taken ashore.

Soc Trang businessman indicted for swindling

Soc Trang Province’s police Wednesday indicted 59-year-old Ly Hoc Ly, a local businessman who was arrested last year for appropriating VND88 billion (nearly US$4.3 million) from many companies and banks between 1994 and 1995.

Ly, who went to hiding in Cambodia for 15 years, was arrested last September when he returned to Vietnam under a Cambodian name to continue his crime.
From 1990 to 1995, Ly was Director of Soc Trang Economic Investment and Development Company (EIDC) and was considered one of the successful businessmen in the province.
According to the case file, in June 1994, he won a bid to build infrastructure for the province and he got a loan from the Soc Trang Branch of the State Bank of Vietnam which he failed to repay.
In September 1995, Ly ordered over VND43 billion worth of sugar from Hai Phong Real Estate Trading and Investment Company (VIMPROCO) using his bank loans as warranties but never made any payment to this company.
Using the same trick, he appropriated nearly VND14 billion from Works Construction Corporation No. 8; VND6 billion from Vietnam Rattan and Bamboo Import and Export Corporation’s Da Nang Branch; VND13 billion from Hoang Le Trading Co., Ltd.; VND6 billion from Central Vietnam Food Company, and other amounts from some other companies.
In December 1995, Ly was found to have fled after appropriating a total of VND88 billion. The property he left behind amounted to just VND6.8 billion.
Ly’s crimes drove many to bankruptcy, including Can Tho General Import and Export Company. A number of banking officials were later arrested for having abetted him.
On April 1, 1996, the Ministry of Public Security put Ly on its most wanted list.
On September 28, 2010, following a tip-off from the public, the Soc Trang police arrested him in Dong Thap Province.
The police said Ly earlier returned to Vietnam under the name Sok Phay and set up Fine Chea Hung Loi, a trading and construction company in Tan Hong District, with an aim to carry out new scams.
Ly has confessed that he fled to Cambodia in late 1995, leaving his wife and two children behind. In Cambodia, he married another woman, was naturalized and got a new name.

122 Vietnamese fishermen languish in Philippines

The Vietnamese fishermen being held in the Philippines for illegal fishing have yet to receive any assistance from Vietnamese authorities after nearly two months of detention, the deputy leader of their province has said.

The Philippine police had seized seven fishing boats with 122 fishermen from Binh Thuan Province off Palawan Island May 30.

Nguyen Ngoc Hai, deputy chairman of the Binh Thuan Province people’s committee, said his province had yet to get a reply to dispatches it had sent to the Foreign Ministry and the Vietnamese embassy in the Philippines on July 17.

They had also requested Ho Chi Minh City authorities to verify if Long Hai Long Company in District 4, which had hired the boats and crews, had obtained a license to fish in Philippine waters, he said.

They had yet to reply either, he said.

However, the Aquatic Resources Exploitation and Protection Department had said Long Hai Long had not obtained a license, he added.
Nguyen Nhu, 64, from the province’s Phu Quy island, whose 34-year-old son is among those detained, told Thanh Nien the fishermen were in a prison near the port of Rio Tuba.
"My son Nguyen Van Nam called me saying that in the past two months no Vietnamese organization contacted them. If Long Hai Long failed to get a license, the fishermen may face jail sentences.”
According to a Thanh Nien source, Long Hai Long signed a contract with Philippine partner Preiere International Interfishing CORP (PIICop) to obtain its license to operate seven boats in the area.
Long Hai Long fully paid PIICop and the latter was supposed to complete the required legal procedures.
Yesterday the wife of Long Hai Long director Phan Van Thoai told Thanh Nien that her husband was in the Philippines to take up the issue with PIICop and establish the fishermen had been operating legally in the Philippines.

PIICop has hired lawyers and Thoai went to the Vietnamese embassy in Manila yesterday for help, she said.
Long Hai Long paid US$300 per day for food and drinks for the 122 fishermen and their health is normal, she said.
The company had also bailed out the seven captains so that they could take care of their boats, she added.
Wednesday a source told Thanh Nien that a Philippine court had called in 122 Vietnamese fishermen to question them about the alleged illegal fishing that led to their detention.
The detainees told the court that they and Long Hai Long were not at fault in the incident, as the Vietnamese company had paid PIICop for a fishing license under a signed contract but the latter failed to obtain such a license for them, the source said.

Meanwhile, Thanh Nien has just obtained a notice dated May 11, 2001 from PIICop to Long Hai Long confirming that all the 7 fishing boats had been licensed by the Philippine authorities. The notice also asked the boats to arrive in Palawan on May 30 for fishing operations.

Railway employee saves child from death

A railroad signalwoman in the central Phu Yen Province risked her own life to pull a 20-month-old boy from the path of a speeding train Monday.

Tran Thi Xuan, who was working at a grade crossing near Chi Thanh in Tuy An District, said: “I didn’t have time to think. All I knew was the boy’s life was in danger. I had a feeling of being hit in the leg by the train.”

According to local residents, the boy’s parents had been too busy to keep an eye on him and he had strayed on to the tracks.

Xuan added that when she regained composure she broke down and sobbed.

Illegal Vietnamese immigrants arrested in France

12 illegal immigrants from Vietnam have been arrested at the French port of Calais while attempting to enter Great Britain through the Channel Tunnel, the Belfast Telegraph reported.

On July 16, police officers from the UK Border Agency together with sniffer dogs found six Vietnamese inside a Holland-registered car which was transporting goods to Scotland.

Five days later, another group of six illegal immigrants from Vietnam were found in a truck carrying garbage. The truck was being driven by a Polish man and was heading to a depot in Coventry, West Midlands.

All of the illegal immigrants were handed over to the French Border Agency and the truck’s driver would face a £2,000 fine for each illegal immigrant.

According to the newspaper, besides sniffer dogs, the British police also use heart beat detectors and carbon dioxide probes to search for illegal immigrants or criminals hiding in vehicles.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre