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Luggage loss nightmare
haunts overseas Vietnamese as time to travel home nears
A
passenger complains about a cut on her luggage after arriving at Tan Son Nhat
International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on June 11, 2015.Tuoi Tre
Having their luggage lost,
damaged or stolen on their trips to Vietnam remains a grave concern for
passengers, especially overseas Vietnamese or those studying abroad, who are
set to return home for the upcoming Tet festival.
Besides these
people’s joy of celebrating Vietnam’s Lunar New Year at home, there are
worries about whether their baggage, mostly containing gifts bought overseas,
could make it through the flights without being stolen or discreetly searched
by airport staff, many readers have told Tuoi
Tre (Youth)
newspaper.
The Lunar New Year
falls on February 8 this year, with festive preparations and celebrations
customarily going on one week before and after that date.
They have reason to
worry: there were 1,346 cases of damaged luggage recorded at Tan Son Nhat
International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City in the first nine months of this
year, according to an airport report.
The security center
at Tan Son Nhat also detected 15 cases in which ground service employees
stole possessions from passengers’ baggage, eight cases where passengers
stole one another’s luggage, and seven incidents in which people lost their
mobile phones in public areas at the Ho Chi Minh City airdrome.
Nguyen Lam Vi, a
Vietnamese student in the U.S., recounted her experience of losing some
cosmetic gifts she bought for family and friends on a recent flight home.
“Upon claiming my
baggage at Tan Son Nhat, I realized that the lock on my suitcase was broken,
and several lipsticks and makeup powder boxes were gone,” she said.
Vi added she had
been warned of baggage loss risks at the airport by her friends, but would
never believe it until she faced the problem first-hand.
“Now I know service
at Vietnamese airports are so bad,” she said.
“The lost gifts are
not so valuable but the trouble still drove me mad.”
Nguyen Phuc Dat, an
overseas Vietnamese residing in Australia, also had some presents stolen at
Tan Son Nhat, as his luggage was cut and all the items were taken away.
“The thieves were so
‘meticulous’ that they even used tape to cover the cut after taking all of
the gifts, as if they had been worried that my other items would fall off,”
he mocked.
Vu Thi Hong Ngoc, a
former teacher at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, said valuable
gifts or assets are not the only to be at risk of being stolen.
“A cousin of mine
once had a music CD and a piano coursebook stolen from her luggage,” she told Tuoi Tre on the phone.
“The luggage was cut
open, and re-sealed with tape, and we did not know whom we should complain
to.”
Ngoc added that
there is no much hope contacting the lost and found office because “what you
can do is leave your information there and go, as you cannot spend the whole
day waiting for the result.”
The owner of a
forwarding agent in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, said the company’s
consignments usually get lost when transported by air.
“We had to
compensate customers as we did not have any evidence to lodge a complaint,”
he said.
Ngoc said the
repeated luggage loss will ruin the image of Vietnam in the eyes of overseas
Vietnamese or international visitors.
“The lost assets may
not be so precious but it is still an unpleasant experience for passengers,
who may not return to Vietnam after such an impression,” she said.
Lawyer Huynh Phuoc
Hiep, from the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, said there are few cases
where passengers are able to figure out how and by whom their belongings were
stolen, so they cannot claim any compensation or get their lost assets back.
“Passengers always
want their baggage to be secured during their flights, so what matters is the
airlines have to prevent such incidents from happening,” he told Tuoi Tre.
“Carriers should
have their own solutions for determining why certain luggage is lost, and who
is to be held responsible,” he said.
TUOI TRE
NEWS
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Thứ Hai, 28 tháng 12, 2015
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Developer illegally fills Nha
Trang Bay for tourism project
The
developer of a US$30-million tourism project has been caught dumping
construction materials into the renowned Nha Trang Bay in an apparent attempt
to expand the construction area, local media reported.
Local officials said at a meeting Friday
that the entertainment and sports complex known as Nha Trang Sao has carried
out land reclamation work without permission and managed to illegally fill up
more than 23,000 square meters of the bay.
In order to protect the new, expanded
area, a rock embankment has been built along the site.
Construction officials inspected the site
last week and requested that Khanh Hoa Province fine the developer, Nha Trang
Sao JSC, VND225 million ($10,000) and order it to fix the violations.
The private investor started the project
in October last year with a total investment of VND670 billion, or nearly $30
million. It has been allocated a land area of 44,152 square meters for
construction and a water surface of 59,416 square meters.
Local media quoted CEO Ngo Van Dung as
saying that materials were dumped into the bay only to stabilize the
construction area and would be removed later.
Nha Trang’s environment has been damaged
since the tourism boom began in 1999. In recent years, dozens of projects
have been licensed along Nha Trang’s northern coastline.
According to the Institute of
Oceanography, the ecology of the 500-square-kilometer Nha Trang Bay has
deteriorated rapidly due to tourism-related construction projects, leaving
many native species teetering on the verge of extinction.
Huynh Ngoc Bong, spokesman of Khanh Hoa
Province, told Tuoi Tre that "local authorities have
responsibility" in the new case.
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China police detain 12 in
connection with landslide disaster
Police in China have detained 12 people in connection with a
deadly landslide last week, including at least one executive from a company
that ran a dump for construction waste that swept through an industrial park,
state media said on Monday.
The government has blamed breaches of construction safety rules
for the disaster in the southern city of Shenzhen on Dec. 20, when the dump
overflowed and engulfed 33 buildings, and has begun an investigation.
At least seven people have been confirmed dead while more than
70 are missing.
In a brief report, the Xinhua news agency said police had taken
"coercive measures" against 12 people, including "responsible
people" from Shenzhen Yixianglong Investment Development, which ran the
dump, using an expression which generally refers to detention.
Calls to the company seeking comment went unanswered.
A Reuters reporter last week saw police raiding two of the
company's offices in Shenzhen.
Police would coordinate with the central government's
investigation and "handle in accordance with the law the criminal
suspects", Xinhua said, without elaborating.
Separately, a former senior Shenzhen official who was in charge
of an agency responsible for regulating the waste heap, has committed
suicide, police said.
The former director of the Guangming New District Urban
Management Bureau, a man surnamed Xu, had killed himself, district police
said in a microblog post, adding police had received a report that a person
had fallen from a building late on Sunday.
Police made no link between Xu's death and the disaster. The
government had warned earlier that those held responsible would be "seriously
punished in accordance with the law".
The Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper identified Xu as Xu
Yuanan.
It is unclear when Xu stepped down as director of the Guangming
New District Urban Management Bureau but the district government reported on
its web site that another person has been appointed head of the agency in
July.
The disaster is the latest deadly accident to raise questions
about China's industrial safety standards and lack of oversight over years of
rapid economic growth.
Last week, an executive with a government-appointed monitoring
agency said it had urged Yixianglong to stop work four days before the
disaster, citing safety concerns.
Reuters
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Hospitals
found burying tons of 'dangerous' waste in southern Vietnam
Police
in Binh Phuoc Province in southern Vietnam have caught several public
hospitals burying tons of medical waste including used needles and
transfusion tubes in the area.
Environment officers said they found Binh
Phuoc General Hospital had buried dozens of tons of “dangerous” waste
including used needles, syringes, drug bottles, glass debris and transfusion
tubes behind its building. The hospital also discharged untreated wastewater.
The police have taken samples of the
sewage and the buried waste to assess the pollution.
Police inspection at three smaller
hospitals found burial sites for similar waste of a total of 5.8 tons. Two of
them have been fined VND350 million (US$15,600) while punishments on the
other violators have not been announced.
Le Truong Son, chief environment police
officer of the province, said the hospitals have been ordered to dig the
waste up and sign contracts with waste treatment units to treat all the waste
properly.
Nguyen Dong Thong, director of Binh
Phuoc’s health department, said most hospitals in the province cannot afford
to build their own waste treatment plant.
Thong said the health ministry has
planned to invest in the system at several major hospitals in the province
while small hospitals are going to receive support to build incinerators.
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Vietnam launches
safeguard investigation as domestic steelmakers hurt by Chinese imports
An
employee is pictured at a steel store in Ho Chi Minh City.Tuoi Tre
The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade has launched a
safeguard investigation into imports of steel billets and bars, at a time
when domestic steelmakers are hurt by imported products, particularly from
China.
The probe is carried out to determine whether Vietnam should
take a safeguard action, such as levying higher duties on the imports,
according to the directive signed by Minister Vu Huy Hoang.
Safeguard action is among three trade remedies as per
international law, besides anti-dumping action and countervailing duty
measures, according to the Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) under the
ministry.
The investigation has been initiated in the wake of a
complaint lodged by a group of four domestic steelmakers, which collectively
account for 34.2 percent of the country’s supply of the said products.
The companies, including Hoa Phat Steel JSC, Southern Steel
Corp., Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel JSC and Vietnam Italy Steel, demanded that
the trade ministry review the material injury imported products had caused to
the domestic industry between January 1, 2012 and September 30, 2015.
While only 468,000 metric tons of steel billets were imported
into Vietnam in 2012, the volume is expected to rise to 1.5 million metric
tons by the end of this year, the steelmakers said in the petition sent to
the VCA.
Similarly, steel bar imports this year are forecast to be more
than 1.12 million metric tons, compared to only 389,000 metric tons three
years ago.
Such an increase of imported products has eaten into the
market share of the domestic steelmakers, forcing them to cut production over
poor sales.
The steel billet market share of domestic players dropped from
100 percent to 86 percent in 2015, and from 100 percent to 98 percent in the
case of steel bars, according to the four companies.
In the meantime, the market share of imported steel billets
and bars has jumped 250 percent and 117 percent, respectively, in 2012-15.
Nguyen Van Sua, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Steel
Association, said domestic steel billet and bar makers have had to operate at
only half of their full capacity in the past year.
“Their sales only rose 10 to 15 percent, whereas the growth of
imported products was as strong as 150 percent,” he added.
The four firms demanded that a 45 percent and 33 percent
import duty be levied on imports of steel billets and bars, respectively.
The tariffs should be immediately imposed for 200 days, before
the trade ministry releases the final conclusion of its safeguard
investigation, according to the petition.
“The proposed import duties are justified, given the
difficulty the domestic steel industry is facing,” said Le Sy Giang, a trade
remedy expert.
“While the decision to call for the safeguard investigation
came quite late, it still indicates that Vietnamese businesses have known how
to make use of trade regulations as per international law.”
Imports are mostly Chinese
Most of the steel products that will be inspected by the
Vietnamese trade ministry were imported from China, according to sources
close to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
As of the end of November, Vietnam had spent US$6.79 billion importing
13.85 million metric tons of steel of all kinds, with Chinese products making
up 61 percent and 55 percent of the volume and value, respectively, according
to customs data.
Vietnamese steelmakers are also hurt by a trick local steel
importers employ to dodge import duties.
Vietnam currently slaps a zero tariff on imports of steel
alloyed with chromium, whereas the non-alloy products are subject to a nine
percent tax.
Many businesses therefore import alloy steel billets with a
very small content of chromium to enjoy the tariff exemption.
With the small content of chromium not affecting the quality
of the steel billets, businesses can turn them into steel products used for
construction, instead of importing the highly-taxed non-alloy steel billets.
“This is in fact a trick to evade taxes, which causes huge
damage to the state revenue,” a steel expert said.
Steel bars and billets are the fourth commodity, following
float glass, cooking oil and monosodium glutamate, to undergo safeguard
investigation since 2009.
No action was taken following a probe into imports of float
glass, while the sodium glutamate investigation is still ongoing.
Cooking oil is the only product to be taxed following the
safeguard investigation, with an import duty of five percent, applicable to
the period from May 7, 2013 to May 6, 2014.
The rate, however, will be lowered to two percent for May 7,
2016 - May 6, 2017.
TUOI TRE NEWS
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Local agriculture and seafood
industries struggle
Despite exports for
the agriculture, forestry and aquatics sector having struggled during 2015,
their annual total should still should be close to the target of US$30
billion set by the National Assembly, according to the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
At a recent
conference in Hanoi, a representative of MARD disclosed that collective total
overseas shipments for the eleven months leading up to December dipped 2.8%
year-on-year to US$27.41 billion.
On the downside, exports of
agricultural commodities fell 4% to US$12.74 billion while fish and seafood
overseas consignments dropped precipitously by 16.4% to US$6.01 billion, the
MARD representative said.
Meanwhile, forestry shipments for
the eleven-month period January-November jumped 8.2% to US$6.4 billion.
Commodity exports witnessed an
across the board decline led by the nation’s key exports of rice, coffee,
fish and seafood.
Rice posted a 3.6% increase in
volume to 6.24 million metric tons and a 4.9% drop in value to US$2.65
billion while coffee fell 27.7% in volume to 1.13 million metric tons and
30.2% in value to US$3.3 billion.
Meanwhile, a year-on-year uptick
was recorded in the relatively less important foreign shipments of peppers,
cashew nuts, cassava and cassava-based commodities, with revenue increases
ranging 2.9 to 19%.
The most significant drops in fish
and seafood exports were to the US of over 25%, Japan of 13%, and the
Republic of Korea of 14%.
Notably, the US market has been a
tough market for all fish and seafood exporting nations in the Asian region,
said the rep.
In August, USFDA inspectors set a
monthly record by refusing 72 shipments of shrimp, much of it from Malaysia,
that either tested positive for antibiotics or lacked evidence of being drug
free. Most of the shrimp was turned away from the agency's Southwest Import
District, which includes Texas ports.
Through October, the FDA had
refused 377 separate shrimp entries – from large containers to small packages
– citing antibiotics or veterinary drug residues. In all of 2014, the agency
turned away 208 shrimp shipments due to illegal drug residues, and that was
nearly four times the refusals of a year before.
So it isn’t just Vietnamese shrimp
that is being turned out of the US market, as the upturn in refusals
demonstrates that the agency is getting more vigilant at the borders and
refusing more and more shipments from all of Asia.
In the near future, the MARD
representative said the ministry planned to take remedial action in the name
of responsible aquaculture to better implement VietGap and ASC certification
to reduce the negative impact of fish and seafood farming on the nation’s
economy.
Additionally, it is taking steps to
boost marketing and advertising efforts in foreign markets, said the
representative specifically citing attempts to sell dragon fruits in the
Japanese market and chicken in Russia.
He said the ministry would also
prop up production levels to bolster quality and competitive advantages for
products of Vietnam such as rice, coffee, rubber, and fish, in addition to
peppers and cashews.
VOV
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PM asked for highest efforts to realise 2016
socio-economic targets
At the meeting (Source: VNA)
Hanoi - Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged ministries, sectors and localities to do
their best in order to fulfill socio-economic targets set for 2016.
Chairing a teleconference between the Government and representatives from 63 localities nationwide in Hanoi December 28, PM Dung stressed the need to thoroughly analyse the 2015 socio-economic performance results as foundations for figuring out appropriate measures to realise the 2016 socio-economic objectives, which will be set by the upcoming National Party Congress and the National Assembly. During the meeting, participants discussed a draft Government report on key solutions in directing and managing the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and State budget estimates in 2016. They also reviewed the inspection and settlement of complaints and denunciations, anti-corruption and administrative reform in 2015 while assessing the improvement of the business climate and national competitiveness, the implementation of e-government and the revised Investment and Enterprise Laws. The enforcement of new laws that took effect in 2015 and those will become effective in 2016 was also debated. Reports presented at the meeting showed strong efforts of the whole political system to realise the 2015 socio-economic objectives. Accordingly, the economy continued recovering, with a yearly GDP growth rate of 6.68 percent – the record figure in the last eight years –6.2 percent higher thanthe set target. The macro economywas stable with low inflation rate, up only 2.05 percent compared to 2014.Total budget collection was estimated to reach 884.7 trillion VND (40 billion USD), exceeding the yearly forecast while total spending was over 1,060 trillion VND or 92.8 percent of the estimates. All economic sectors recorded stable development, while social and political security was ensured. PM Dung said solutions for 2016 should be built on the basis of the actual socio-economic development and must be implemented promptly and comprehensively. Minister of Planning and Investment Bui QuangVinhreported that the recovery and high growth of industrial production sector and strong development of foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises were key contributors to the nation’s economic growth in 2015. Macro-economic stability, business climate improvement, and Vietnam’s participation in free trade agreements helped increase purchasing power and consumption demand during the year, he stressed. Regarding the agricultural field, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao DucPhatsaid that although the prolonged El Nino phenomenon seriously impacted the country’s agricultural production, the sector still maintained stable growth and export volume thanks to flexible and appropriate measures. The minister urged localities to increase investment in agriculture, focusing on improving infrastructure and ensuring food security, which are alsopriorities of the sector in 2016.-VNA |
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