German business bodies sign MoU to boost trade, investment relations with Vietnamese locales

Two German business bodies in Vietnam and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance the connectivity between German firms and 18 southern Vietnamese cities and provinces.

Accordingly, with the deal reached by the Delegate of German Industry and Commerce in Vietnam (GIC/AHK), German Business Association in Vietnam (GBA), and the ministry, German firms will have the opportunity to promote their trade and investment activities in the southern part of the country.

Among the cities and provinces are Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Vinh Long, Long An, and An Giang.

Moreover, both sides will establish effective channels to exchange information between German companies and the local authorities, thus enabling the local governments to make and implement their policies in order to facilitate an efficient business environment for German firms.

This MoU is also meant to create an information channel so as to support German businesses in swiftly and effectively addressing their concerns to central and local authorities.

Meanwhile, it will help the cities and provinces find suitable partners in Germany and introduce the business potentialities of the localities to German partners.

In the future, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will coordinate with GBA and GIC/AHK to regularly organize workshops, seminars, conferences, and forums featuring the participation of German firms in the southern region.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Bui Thanh Son, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, praised the initiative jointly developed by the ministry, GBA, and GIC/AHK, as the MoU will strengthen businesses and create opportunities for both Vietnamese and German companies in finding new partners and markets.

The MoU is also a practical activity to connect Vietnamese and German firms in the context that relations between Vietnam and Germany have developed positively in the past four years.

In 2011, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to establish a strategic partnership and strengthen economic ties between the two countries via the "Hanoi Declaration,” Son said.

Germany is Vietnam’s strategic partner which supports the Southeast Asian country’s interests in the European Union, the official said, adding that it is also the largest trade partner of Vietnam in the grouping.

Bilateral trade in 2014 reached nearly US$8 billion, while the number hit $4 billion in the first six months of 2015.

Though trade growth has averaged 15-20 percent annually in the past five years, it has yet to keep up with the potentialities of the two countries, the deputy minister added.

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German business bodies sign MoU to boost trade, investment relations with Vietnamese locales

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Vietnam runs short of souvenirs for tourists

Viet Nam is facing a shortage of souvenir gifts portraying the country’s attractions, including Thang Long Citadel in Ha Noi, the Citadel of the Ho Dynasty in Thanh Hoa Province and even the world renowned Ha Long Bay.

France has an abundant supply of gifts symbolising its drawcards, such as images of the Eiffel Tower, tiny wine bottles, and copies of paintings by Monet and Van Gogh, while Malaysia uses the image of its Petronas twin towers in many souvenirs, says Nguyen Tien Cong, a researcher at the Centre of Industrial Creative-ness.

“These countries remind us that we should choose symbols relating to our own culture,” Cong says.

Viet Nam, surprisingly, has few gifts that could be described as souvenirs. Not only are these gifts suitable for tourists, they also make good presents for guests of ministries and agencies.

Tran Thanh Thuy, who has worked for the Ministry of Industry and Trade, says she has been in charge of welcoming foreign guests to the ministry and giving them a gift representing Viet Nam.

For the past decade or so, souvenirs have often been boring. They usually consisted of wooden statues and common embroidery paintings.

These designs have changed little over the years, making it difficult for Thuy to find gifts.

“These souvenirs do not represent our capital or our country,” she says.

In 2012, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched a contest to design gifts for the tourism sector nation-wide. An exhibition was held to display winning designs, but no designs have yet been chosen as gifts representing Vietnamese cities such as Ha Noi, says Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Fine Arts.

Dang Van Bai, deputy chairman of the Association of Viet Nam Culture and Heritage, says, “We should tap into arts and crafts produced by skilled artisans.”

Viet Nam has more than 2,000 craft villages, including 200 considered traditional, plus hundreds of skilled artisans.

“Handmade fine art is quintessentially part of our culture. It is a valuable resource for us to use to dev-elop our economy and popularise our national image to the world. Creativity from artisans is needed to make fine arts from these craft villages as part of our national cultural image,” says Nguyen Khac Loi, deputy director of the Ha Noi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

A conference was recently held in Ha Noi to deal with the problem.

Hundreds of experts and artisans agreed to build a high quality fine arts gift collection inspired from Viet Nam’s world heritage sites, including Thang Long Cit-adel, the former royal capital of Hue, the Ho Dynasty Citadel, Ha Long Bay, and ancient Hoi An, as well as One-pillar Temple, The Huc Bridge and Turtle Tower in Ha Noi or the ao dai (the long split tunic typically worn by Vietnamese women) and lotus flower.

Bui Van Manh, deputy director of Trang An Complex’s management board in the northern province of Ninh Binh, said there were abundant landscapes, heritage sites, cultural and historical attractions in the country, but at these sites, souvenirs and gifts imported from foreign countries, particularly China and Thailand, fill the shops.

“Apart from producing gifts symbolising our country, we should encourage craft villages and business units to produce popular items, so local and foreign travellers who come to visit these sites can buy them as souvenirs for their friends and relatives,” Manh said.

Nguyen Ngoc Quang, director of the Anh Nguyen souvenir company, agreed with Manh, saying, “First we should create gift items to sell to Vietnamese travellers and then popularise them with foreign guests.”

Each nation, each nationality has its own cultures, specific characteristics and traditional robes.

Women in Japan are proud of their kimono, their counterparts in Korea and India are famous for their hanbok and sari.

Vietnamese women both of the past and present wear traditional ao dai. It is the embodiment of Vietnamese nationality, reflecting the women’s dainty but glowing beauty.

One interesting website www.dodongquatang.vn produces symbols of Viet Nam, including a 20cm doll wearing an ao dai.

“This souvenir has sold very well, particularly to foreigners visiting Viet Nam,” says Truong Thuy Lan, a shop owner.

The ao dai has helped popularise the Vietnamese image across the world. It is the intangible culture heritage of Viet Nam, says Bai.

At international events occurring in the country, the split dress is worn by national leaders, he says, adding that ao dai is chosen by Vietnamese women in parties and ceremonies as it helped elevate their beauty and reflected their national pride.

Khue Van Cac , a ubiquitous symbol based on the Van Mieu Temple (Temple of Literature) is a 40cm souvenir produced by Do Dong Viet Co.

Chairman of the Asian Football Committee, Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa was very impressed when the chairman of the Viet Nam Football Federation Le Hung Dung presented him with the symbol at a recent meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for an official meeting of AFC.

Al Khalifa said: “I’ve visited Ha Noi so I know very well that it is a famous symbol of Viet Nam.”

A project, to produce 1,000 such gifts using traditional materials from craft villages, was recently launched in Ha Noi, while a contest to create souvenir designs carrying specific characteristics of HCM City was launched in the city in March this year.

Vietnam runs short of souvenirs for tourists

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Westerners cast fishing nets in Hoi An

A day living as a fisherman in Hoi An begins with a the journey along the Hoai River on a big boat. They then move to small fishing boats to learn how to cast and pull fishing nets.

To organize this tour, some travel companies have coordinated with fishermen, teach them how to welcome foreign tourists and guide them to catch fish. There are more than 10 households in Hoi An doing this service.

In Ha Long, visitors can tour the floating Vong Vieng fishing village and catch fish with nets or go to the island of Cong Do to cast nets and catch fish with fishermen.

Westerners cast fishing nets in Hoi An

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Da Nang sets sights on river tourism

Recognizing the importance of the Han River for its tourism sector, the city government has focused on the construction of a pier and introducing more tourism destinations by the end of 2016, including the upgrading of infrastructure to serve tourists and roads to different tourism sites. 

The tourism industry has been developing plans for tours on river routes and will provide literature to give tourists a better experience while on the tours. Han River Port and Thuan Phuoc River Port are also being developed as fixed tourism ports.

In opening new tours to new destinations, the Department sees river tourism as a strong advantage for Da Nang that gives visitors more options.

With the Han River flowing through the city and with beautiful islands in Danang Bay, the development of boat tours, where guests can enjoy the local scenery, is expected to earn the city’s tourism sector more revenue.

Many impressive constructions can now be found along the Han River, such as the Statue of the Carp Dragon, the Bridge of Love, and Bach Dang Walking Street.

Da Nang sets sights on river tourism

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Where have they gone? Vietnam"s tourist numbers remain low as criticism mounts

Foreign tourists at an open-air restaurant in the ancient quarter of Hanoi. Photo: Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP

The downward trend has continued.

Foreign arrivals to Vietnam reached only 626,000 in September, down 5.8 percent from August, new data from the National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) showed.

Even though that was up 8.3 percent from September last year, the overall number for the first nine months dropped 5.9 percent, to nearly 5.7 million.

While some have blamed the downturn on difficult global economic conditions, media reports have pointed out that neighboring countries such as Thailand and Cambodia continue to post impressive arrival numbers.

Thailand for instance received more than 20 million of foreign tourists in the first eight months. The country is well on its way to exceed its targets, with more than 30 million arrivals this year, despite a bomb blast that killed 14 foreigners last month in Bangkok, Reuters reported.

Based on figures released by VNAT, the drop in tourism is largely attributed to Russians and Chinese keeping away. A weakening rubble has forced many Russian travelers to scale back while China’s economic slowdown and its sovereignty tension with Vietnam may discourage Chinese tourists.

But industry insiders say the problems with Vietnam’s tourism sector actually come from within and run much deeper than that.

One of the chronic issues is a lack of effective promotional campaigns to help revive travelers’ interest.

The foreign ministry earlier this month launched a new video to promote Vietnam’s tourism and investment opportunities in various languages. “Welcome to Vietnam” lasts more than seven minutes and features famous scenes captured by fly-cams.

The video, a rare promotional attempt by a government agency, has been praised by many industry insiders. But they say one video is simply not enough.

Matthew Underwood, CEO of Ho Chi Minh City-based PR company Matterhorn Communications, told Tuoi Tre newspaper that the video has missed so many beautiful sights.

He said that people in many countries still know about Vietnam as a country still recovering from the war and living on foreign aid.

Poor support

Vietnam is spending around US$1.5 million, or 0.2 percent of its annual tourism revenues, on promotional programs, which tourism companies say is too small a sum to bring about any real changes.

Tuoi Tre cited an unnamed executive of an international tourism company operating in Vietnam as saying that it is receiving little support from the government despite the difficult time.

The executive said that after arrivals from its key market in Europe dropped sharply this year, it has been inviting reporters and tourism companies from other countries to visit and write about Vietnam.

However, major destinations and travel agencies in Vietnam have not supported this initiative and acted as if there were not a crisis, he said.

Tourism operators, once again, also claimed that the recent visa waiver policy is a strong example of how Vietnam’s government is not very keen on supporting the industry.

The government has offered visa waivers to only a few countries and their nationals are only allowed to stay for 15 days.

Travel companies said they have spent more than ten years campaigning for more favorable visa rules so that Vietnam can compete against Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, which all offer visa waivers to up to 100 countries.

They said Vietnam is late in the competition, and it has done a poor job in making them stay or come back.

Tuoi Tre reported that many first-time tourists said they would not return. Their common reasons are poor environment hygiene and public safety; unreasonable prices for several services such as street food and taxi; and boring destinations, which make the tours not worth it.

Where have they gone? Vietnam"s tourist numbers remain low as criticism mounts

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The mesmerizing beauty of Robinson Island

There is a lesser-known island in Cam Ranh, a deep-water bay in Khanh Hoa Province, named Robinson dubbed “Vietnam’s Maldives” for its beauty.

It takes around an hour to go by boat from Ba Ngoi Port in Cam Ranh to Robinson, a mesmerizing place with white sandy beaches and crystal clear jade water.

The name of the island is a nod to Robinson Crusoe and its isolated location. It is an ideal place for solo travelers who want to explore and experience local life, or for those who want to take a break from the madding crowds.

Services are still limited here, and the most popular places to stay are small, wooden houses on the sand.

Camping and teambuilding are also popular activities for visitors.

Photos by news website Kien Thuc

Tourist boats set off from Ba Ngoi Port in Cam Ranh to Robinson Island

A beach in the island

Wooden houses on the island

A beach at night

The mesmerizing beauty of Robinson Island

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In pictures: Living in fear in old French villa

Hanoi has hundreds of villas built before 1954 and they are divided into several groups. Group 1 includes the villas for strict conservation; Group 2 includes villas for basic conservation; and the third group includes villas that can be dismantled. The collapsed villa at No. 107 Tran Hung Dao belongs to group 2.

Meanwhile, HCM City has over 100 big water fountains and tens of villas built in the French colonial period or the Vietnam War. Most of them have severely deteriorated, threatening the life of surrounding residents.

One of the water fountains that must be dismantled immediately is the one on To Ky Road, District 12. Local residents said that they had seen big pieces of concrete fall from the fountain.

Many water fountains on the roads of Le Dai Hanh (District 11), Vo Van Kiet (District 5), Ho Van Hue (Phu Nhuan) … are also in very poor condition.

There are also many old French colonial villas in the city that need urgent repair.

Up to six families are living in this old villa, at No. 70 Ngo Quyen, Hanoi. Mrs. Le Thi Minh Tam has been living here for 60 years. Tam’s room, which is also the passage A 99-year-old woman lives in the living-room of the villa. This is the door between her room and Mrs. Lien’s room Hoan and his family lives on a room on the second floor of the villa. A garret is built on this room. Such garrets has affected the structure of the villa.                The villa at No. 8 Tang Bat Ho Street 17 families are living in this 200sq.m villa. Hang the washing at the window. Clothes are also hung at the middle space of the stairs. A villa at No. 6 Nguyen Du Street. This villa was built by the French at No. 8 Tang Bat Ho Street, with a floor area of 150 m2. The house is in very poor condition. The villa is now the home to many households. The wooden door is rotten and some families use fiberboard as an alternative. Mr. Phong, who lives on the 2nd floor, said: “I’ve been living here for nearly 50 years but this house has never been repaired.” Located next to modern buildings, the villa looks like a ruin. A wall on the 1st floor. The stairs. The leaky ceiling is temporarily covered with plastic. Many rotten doors have not been replaced. Another French colonial villa on Tang Bat Ho Street is also in bad condition.  The 200 m2 villa is divided into several rooms for rent. The 400 m2 villa at No. 8 Chan Cam Street was built in 1931. Now it is home to eight households. Many walls are peeling and cracked, covered by moss.  Some iron cages are installed on the 2nd floor to extend the living area. Many rotten wooden windows are replaced with glass ones. The villa At No. 70 Ngo Quyen, with four households inside. Ms. Le Tam said she has been living here since she was a child, but this house has never been repaired. The peeling walls. “During the rainy season, the villa is very humid and hsa leaked, so many residents are sick,” Tam said. “The ceiling of the staircase has many cracks so local residents have to use plastic sheets to cover it. These cracks appeared in the 1960s,” a resident said. Mr. Chu Cong Hoang, his wife and two children have been living here since 2010. Although the room on the 2nd floor was renovated, Hoang is very worried about the week structure of the house, particularly in the rainy season. The villa at No. 46 Hang Bai is approximately 400 m2 and uninhabited. The villa at No. 333 Hoang Hoa Tham Street was built in 1935. Previously there were 10 families here but now it has become a draught beer shop. The villa at No. 65 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street. The wall of the villa at 45A Lo Duc Street. It was built in 1905. Nine families are living here.  The house at No. 47 Tran Quoc Toan. The villa No. 45 Tran Quoc Toan is very famous among locals because it leans around 15o.  Mrs. Nga, 71, said she began living in the villa in 1967 and since then the villa has never been repaired.

Photo: VNN/VNE/Zing

Source: vietnamnet.vn

In pictures: Living in fear in old French villa

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