cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12699782

Vietnamese lore tells us that over two thousand years ago the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam was home to powerful indigenous kingdoms, fortified capitals, and exquisite bronze craftsmanship. In contrast, the neighboring Chinese Han Empire claimed the region was inhabited by unsophisticated “barbarians” in need of “civilizing”, prompting imperial annexation of the region. This lecture explores the region’s archaeological record and what it means for scholarly debates, as well as for Vietnam’s national imagination, cultural heritage, and descendant identities.

This is a post created to showcase the solidarity of Vietnamese artists with the Palestinians through the hashtag #VIETNAMwithHandala. The movement is still relatively obscure but is getting more and more attention from the Vietnamese art community.

#VIETNAMwithHandala is a subset of a larger movement on the Internet #withHandala. Artists around the world participate in the movement by drawing their characters standing still with their back turned towards the viewers, in the recognizable pose that Handala, a cartoon character, has in several artworks created by Paslestinian political cartoonist Naji Al-Ali. The movement has a strong presence across various social media. You can find more information about the movement by searching #with Handala, but most Vietnamese participants are active on Facebook. I believe that the earliest record of the movement in Vietnam could be traced back to this post by R-Posting.

You could also check out other Southeast Asian artists works that follow this hashtag by searching #SEAwithHandala.

So, without any further ado, here they are:

nobody is free until everybody is free. Artist: hà nguyễn

Từ sông sâu ra biển lớn, và Palestine sẽ được tự do!. Artist: Chung Tịch Bất Mị

Artist: Dulce Coco

Tis nothing much but its honest work. Artist: Đỗ Phúc

"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". Artist: Lan Hoàng

Artist: Mai Mỹ Bảo

Political much? Always has been

Ellie stands with Palestine. Artist: Minh Đăng

If you know any other Vietnamese artists who participate in the movement, you're more than welcome to link them in the comment section. Please follow, and participate in the movement #withHandala.

Save Tam Đảo is an Environmental Conservation Organization in Vietnam.

This is a re-post from one of Facebook posts on Save Tam Đảo page. For some reasons I could not find the link of the original post so I urge you to visit the page to read them first hand.

Here is the original post:

CÙNG XEM LẠI NHỮNG HÌNH ẢNH Ở KHU VỰC LÀM DỰ ÁN CỦA SUN GROUP

Đây là một hành trình chứng kiến những đau thương nhất của VQG Tam Đảo của chúng tôi từ cuối năm 2017.

Vốn là những người thích leo núi chúng tôi có những hành trình chinh phục ba đỉnh Tam Đảo, được ngắm những biển mây, cây cối xanh mướt, chúng tôi thuộc hết những đoạn đường mòn bắt đầu từ nhà sàn có tên là nhà hàng Thiên Đường. Tôi còn nhớ như in lần ngủ qua đêm ở ngay khu Tam Đảo 2, khi đó chỉ có hai anh em, ngủ qua đêm ở đây đúng là một trải nghiệm có một không hai, nửa đêm trời rất lạnh chỉ có tiếng gió rừng, tuy nhiên xung quanh lại rất sáng như hàng trăm ngọn nến, anh Phương (người bản địa) đi cùng tôi nói rằng đó là phản quang từ lá khô, đến khoảng 2h sáng thì biển mây từ phía Thái Nguyên tràn sang, lướt qua chỗ chúng tôi, trông như tiên cảnh.

Sáng sớm, ánh nắng chiếu lên thảm rêu xanh phủ khắp cánh rừng từ ngọn cây cho đến những tảng đá tạo thành một khung cảnh vô cùng kỳ diệu…

Và còn nhiều lần khác, chúng tôi đi bằng nhiều con đường khác nhau để lên khu Tam Đảo 2, sau đó mới chinh phục ba đỉnh, cho đến ngày Sun Group cho làm cánh cổng cấm người qua lại.

Những hành trình ấy khiến chúng tôi yêu Tam Đảo thêm rất nhiều, hình ảnh về rừng cây nguyên sinh, những chú lợn rừng, gà gô hay thỏ mà chúng tôi thi thoảng vẫn bắt gặp. Nhưng rồi dần dần về sau hình ảnh đọng lại trong tâm trí chúng tôi là hàng loạt cây gỗ bị chặt hạ, con đường mòn chúng tôi hay đi bị máy xúc, máy ủi san phẳng, những hố cáp treo được đánh dấu khắp cánh rừng.

Xin được khẳng định lại rằng, khu vực Tam Đảo 2 là khu rừng đẹp và quý giá nhất của Vườn Quốc gia Tam Đảo, là một tiên cảnh của hạ giới, nó xứng đáng được bảo vệ cho tất cả mọi người và thế hệ sau, chứ không phải quây lại để dành cho một số người tham lam giàu có. [Xem bài viết này tồn tại được bao lâu nhé, mọi người có thể lưu lại trước khi bài bị biến mất hoặc page bị bay màu]

Hidden off of Bangkok's Sukhumvit 23, there's a Vietnamese restaurant where it's still turn-of-the-century French Saigon. It's in a building literally disassembled piece-by-piece in Vietnam, brought to Bangkok, and rebuilt- and inside, that's exactly what happened to the family behind Le Dalat.

This is the story of Doan Ngoc Hoa, better known as Madame Susan, and the incredible, opulent, harrowing, one-of-a-kind story that brought her- and her food- from Vietnam to Thailand, by way of old Paris. And it's a story about a dinner party that started in the 19th century and still hasn't stopped- and one that we were lucky enough to join for an unforgettable evening.

Có thể đọc bài báo bằng tiếng Việt theo đường dẫn ờ dưới:

Tiếng Việt | English

Canned foods serve as a good reminder that the food we eat, and hence our bodies are inextricably linked to the political-economic system that conditions one's life and communities and the uncomfortable history behind them. The stories of canned food also weave a common thread between people who are on the receiving end of imperialism and global capitalism — the Moroccan laborers on the ports of Safi, the poor Tamil migrants that were pushed to poverty by European colonizers, working-class French people and Vietnamese living in the country and overseas all share a page in history, a taste of the presence and a path to the future.

Có thể thấy, đồ hộp là lời nhắc nhở rằng mỗi con người và những món ăn nuôi dưỡng họ đều có một liên hệ mật thiết. Đó chính là hệ thống kinh tế-chính trị định đoạt cuộc đời của từng người, từng cộng đồng và chương lịch sử giông bão đằng sau đó. Những câu chuyện về đồ hộp cũng dệt nên mối tương quan giữa những người đang ở chương cuối cuối chủ nghĩa đế quốc và chương đầu của chủ nghĩa tư bản toàn cầu. Họ là người lao động Maroc trên các cảng cá Safi, người di dân Tamil nghèo khổ bị bần cùng hóa bởi thực dân châu Âu, người Pháp thuộc tầng lớp lao động và người Việt trong nước cũng như ngoài nước. Tất cả chúng ta đều chia sẻ chung một trang lịch sử, cùng nếm trải một hương vị, và một con đường hướng đến tương lai.

Risk, rewards and remittances in Vietnam 's Nghe An province

"Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces are the two regions in Vietnam that account for the majority of Vietnamese working illegally or living as undocumented workers in the UK"

"The majority of those who died in Essex in 2019 were from the two provinces, and most - 21 of them - were from Nghe An."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/11068600

Nvidia (NVDA.O) wishes to establish a base in Vietnam to develop the country's semiconductor industry as it considers the Vietnamese market an important one, the Vietnamese government said, citing the U.S. chipmaker's chief executive.

In his first visit to the Southeast Asian country, Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, said the company viewed Vietnam as its home and affirmed its plans to set up a centre in the country.

"The base will be for attracting talent from around the world to contribute to the development of Vietnam's semiconductor ecosystem and digitalisation," the Vietnamese government statement cited Huang after his meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Nvidia, which has already invested $250 million in Vietnam, is set to discuss cooperation deals on semiconductors with Vietnamese tech companies and authorities in a meeting on Monday, Reuters reported on Friday.

Vietnam, which is home to large chip assembling factories including Intel's (INTC.O) biggest globally, is trying to expand into chip designing and possibly chip-making as trade tensions between the United States and China create opportunities for Vietnam in the industry.

The chipmaker has already partnered with Vietnam's leading tech companies to deploy AI in the cloud, automotive and healthcare industries, a document published by the White House in September showed when Washington upgraded diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

Excerpt from Henry Kissinger and the Vietnam War

Kissinger had a low opinion of North Vietnam, saying "I can't believe that a fourth-rate power like North Vietnam doesn't have a breaking point"... In September 1969, Kissinger in a memo advised Nixon against "de-escalation", saying that keeping U.S troops fighting in Vietnam "remains one of our few bargaining weapons". In the same memo, Kissinger stated he was "deeply disturbed" that Nixon had started pulling out U.S. troops, saying that withdrawing the troops was like "salted peanuts" to the American people, "the more U.S troops come home, the more will be demanded", giving the advantage to the enemy who merely had to "wait us out". Instead, he recommenced that the United States resume bombing North Vietnam and mine the coast. Later in September 1969, Kissinger proposed a plan for what he called a "savage, punishing" blow against North Vietnam code-named Duck Hook to Nixon, arguing that this was the best way to force North Vietnam to agree to peace on American terms.

Truong My Lan, founder and chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, has been accused of orchestrating Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank’s (SCB) operations to withdraw over VND1,066 trillion (US$43.8 billion) from the bank between 2012 and 2022.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security, Lan held no post at the bank but assumed absolute power to manipulate and control its operations.

She used the money deposited by other individuals and businesses at the bank for her expenses.

Police said that before 2011, Lan started using other people’s names to acquire 80-98 percent of the shares in three joint-stock commercial banks with the aim of establishing a bank which would fund the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem.

In January 2011, the three banks merged into SCB with the initial charter capital of over VND10 trillion ($411.9 million). SCB has a head office, 50 branches, and 184 transaction points nationwide.

Lan arranged for her family members and those with experience in finance and banking that she trusted to hold senior positions at the bank. They followed Lan’s directions and were paid VND200-500 million ($8,222-20,600) per month as wages.

According to the police’s conclusion, Lan directed SCB general directors and deputy general directors over tenures to disburse loans.

Once they faced difficulties in paying due loans, they would inform Lan.

Lan later borrowed her friends’ assets or projects and mortgaged them as collateral for loans, which were used to pay previous loans.

Most of these assets and projects were not enough to secure loans but they were gouged through appraisal.

Whenever Lan needed money, she asked senior leaders of SCB to gather at the Times Square building in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, not the SCB headquarters, to work out solutions for taking out loans.

Former SCB leaders said they knew Lan’s acts were illegal but still obeyed her directions.

One of them, former SCB chairman Bui Anh Dung declared that Van Thinh Phat’s loan applications were signaled with ‘HSTT’ symbol so that the bank approved the credit without applying its lending process.

The loans were offered without appraising mortgaged assets, payment schedules, and customers’ background, police officers said.

Dung, while serving as SCB chairman, signed hundreds of decisions approving 207 loans totaling over VND203 trillion (8.4 billion) for 143 customers as of October 17 last year.

Vo Tan Hoang Van, former SCB general director, said he knew that Lan was the ‘real owner’ of the bank, so he followed all her directions to disburse loans although they were illicit.

Van said that loans offered to customers of the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem accounted for the majority of SCB’s lending.

Lan just made phone calls to Van whenever she needed money, Van noted, adding that the former used the money to pay her debts and loans at other banks, or invest in projects which went against lending plans.

Van inked thousands of statements related to the approval of 638 loans with the principal and interest amounting to VND405 trillion ($16.7 billion) for 402 customers of Van Thinh Phat.

Investigators from the Ministry of Public Security concluded that SCB disbursed 2,500 loans valued at VND1,000 trillion ($41.2 billion) to Lan and her accomplices between January 1, 2012 and October 7, 2022.

As of October 17 last year, SCB’s loans totaling over VND677 trillion ($27.8 billion) were bad debts with Lan’s credit making up 93 percent.

Lan directed the creation of 916 applications for loans at SCB, then appropriated over VND304 trillion ($12.5 billion), leading to a loss of accumulated interest of nearly VND130 trillion ($5.3 billion).

The Ministry of Public Security recommended charging Lan with bribery, violations of banking regulations, and embezzlement.

Lan was arrested in October last year for alleged fraud related to issuance and trading of bonds worth trillions of Vietnamese dong. (VND1 trillion = $41.2 million)

The ministry also proposed prosecuting 85 other people allegedly involved in the case, including Do Thi Nhan, former chief of the Inspectorate and Supervision Department II under the State Bank of Vietnam.

Nhan was accused of receiving bribes totaling $5.2 million, the largest-ever bribe received by an individual in a case in Vietnam, to cover up the wrongdoings of Lan and her accomplices.

The case also saw the highest number of victims, specifically 42,000 investors buying Van Thinh Phat bonds, and the highest embezzled amount of VND304 trillion ($12.5 billion).

Besides Nhan, all members of a team inspecting SCB took bribes, which ranged from VND100 million ($4,113) to VND8.7 billion ($357,695).

More than 15 years since Vietnam attracted the first billion-dollar high-tech project, the prospect of the domestic industry taking off with "eagle" investors of negotiators like Mr. Pham Chanh Live is still not successful.

In any office in the world, for every three computers in operation, at least one has a "brain" - CPU, shipped from Ho Chi Minh City. That is the result after more than 17 years of investment by Intel - the first high-tech corporation in the world, choosing Vietnam for a billion-dollar project.

The American chipmaker accounts for about 70% of the global computer CPU market share. The factory in Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park (SHTP) is assembling, testing and packaging more than half of Intel's total chips.

"Inviting Intel is an important milestone in the process of attracting FDI investment," admitted Mr. Pham Chanh Truc, former Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, Head of SHTP's first Management Board. Mr. Truc played a key role in the negotiations that lasted more than two years to bring the American semiconductor corporation into Vietnam.

After Intel, many global technology brands such as Samsung and LG also set up billion-dollar factories in Vietnam, along with a series of assembly units of Dell and Apple. From clothes to shoes, the phrase "made in Vietnam" began to appear on TVs, smartphones, smart watches, and semiconductor chips consumed globally.

Electrical and electronic equipment today has become the most important product, accounting for nearly half of Vietnam's total export value with a turnover of 155 billion USD, an increase of 5 times after 10 years. Vietnam is in the top 10 countries providing the largest electrical and electronic equipment to the world. But the billions of dollars invested by these corporations give Vietnam a new image on the trade map but cannot pull the economy up the value ladder.

"Vietnam still specializes in assembling parts and simple machining, while specialized components and equipment have not made any progress" is the conclusion about the electronics industry in the first and only industrial White Paper to date. At this time, announced by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2019.

That is not the result that the creators of the platform that attracts technology investors like Mr. Truc are aiming for.

"The high-tech park or any investor is just the initial nucleus. The final destination must be the spillover effect to the outside for our own industry to develop," he said. Clean up the nest to welcome the "eagle"

After Doi Moi, Ho Chi Minh City was the place to establish the country's first export processing zone - Tan Thuan, located south of Saigon in 1991. The model was learned from Taiwan, taking advantage of tax and customs incentives to collect revenue. Attract foreign businesses to set up processing and export factories. The first investors to come to Tan Thuan were mostly related to the textile and garment and footwear sectors - the manufacturing industry that represented the beginning of industrialization.

But the city and central leaders both realized that since integration was late, they had to find a way to develop quickly and could not stick around traditional industries.

"We must upgrade the export processing zone to access the world's advanced technologies," Mr. Pham Chanh Truc (then holding the position of Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee, in charge of foreign economic relations) recalled concluding in a meeting. between Ho Chi Minh City leaders and Chairman of the State Committee for Cooperation and Investment Dau Ngoc Xuan.

That is the premise for SHTP. Mr. Truc was also in charge of the research team that realized this idea in 1992. It took 10 years for SHTP to be officially established, becoming the first high-tech park in the country in 2002.

At that time, Mr. Truc was 62 years old, working as Deputy Head of the Central Economic Commission and preparing to retire. But when he was asked by the City Party Committee leader to become Head of the SHTP Management Board, he immediately agreed, temporarily shelving his retirement plan.

"This position is only equivalent to a department director, but I did not compare the position and accepted it immediately because I wanted to complete the unfinished project," he said.

Mr. Truc discussed with Mr. Xuan that if SHTP invites an investor on the list of the 500 largest American companies (Fortune 500), it will be a big boost for Ho Chi Minh City and the whole country.

The first name targeted was HP, because the person in charge of expanding the American computer company's production activities at that time was an overseas Vietnamese - an advantage for the city. However, this person's sudden death left the plan for HP to invest in SHTP unfinished.

After contacting a few more companies, the city was determined to attract Intel when it learned that America's largest chip manufacturing corporation was looking for a location to build a new assembly and testing plant in Asia. Vietnam is on the selection list.

In 2003, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan led a Vietnamese delegation to Intel's headquarters in the US, carrying a letter from Prime Minister Phan Van Khai inviting this group to invest, introducing two locations including Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park. (Hanoi) and SHTP.

In the next two years, Intel divided many delegations to Ho Chi Minh City to learn about infrastructure conditions, logistics, transportation, human resources, and preferential policies.

"The city has never met an investor who sets as many detailed and strict conditions as Intel," Mr. Truc said. The negotiations therefore "had to resolve many unprecedented requests", and there were company leaders speaking from the US, so the meeting ended late at night.

Once discussing electricity prices, Mr. Truc called directly to ask for the Government's opinion through Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung - the person in charge of directing negotiations at that time. With the "green light", he agreed on preferential terms with Intel.

"If I don't break the rules and send a document to EVN and the ministries to ask for opinions and then wait for the Government to conclude according to the process, I don't know when I will respond to them. Not every request can be met by the city." right away, but my commitment makes them feel confident," said the former Head of SHTP.

On the occasion of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's visit to the US in 2005, the negotiating team also went to Intel headquarters in California to discuss directly with the group's leaders. But when he arrived, Mr. Truc received news that the Chairman of Intel was in Washington D.C.

"We saw that and immediately flew to the US capital and invited the president to the Vietnamese embassy to discuss," Mr. Truc said.

It was at this meeting that Intel's top leadership confirmed that it would build a 600 million USD factory in Ho Chi Minh City, and then increase the investment to 1 billion USD when receiving the license a year later.

Fragile link

Three years after the factory's groundbreaking date, Intel shipped the first "made in Vietnam" chips in 2010. At that time, there was no domestic company capable of being a partner of the American corporation.

Today, the factory has more than 100 Vietnamese businesses in its supplier network, according to Mr. Kim Huat Ooi, Vice President of Production, Supply Chain and Operations and General Director of Intel Products Vietnam.

However, the above progress in "quantity" does not go hand in hand with "quality". After 13 years, there is still no Vietnamese enterprise that can provide direct materials for the chip assembly and packaging process such as substrate, capacitors, current flux, solder resin or glue. Neither does Intel's equipment or machinery.

The playground of domestic companies is still outside the direct production line of the semiconductor corporation. These are indirect inputs such as conveyor belts, tables and chairs, fixtures or transportation services, personnel, and security.

That is, although Vietnam is where more than half of Intel's products are manufactured, the domestic manufacturing industry has never provided any essential inputs for chips. Domestic businesses still cannot fly high with the "eagle".

Samsung is another example showing Vietnam's position in the global value chain. More than half of this brand's smartphones sold are shipped from factories in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen.

Every year, the Korean corporation publicly discloses its important suppliers, accounting for 80% of its purchasing value. 26 key Samsung suppliers are operating in Vietnam, according to last year's list. Among them, 22 are Korean, 2 Japanese, 2 Chinese, and 0 Vietnamese companies.

In the global value chain, the forward linkage ratio represents the ability of one country to provide input parts for another country's businesses to create final products. On the contrary, backward linkage shows a country's dependence on raw materials and components imported from abroad for production.

Vietnam currently has a lower forward linkage rate than many Southeast Asian countries, and it is continuing to decrease. Meanwhile, the reverse link gradually increases, showing an increasing dependence on imports to assemble finished products.

"It is almost difficult for FDI corporations to take root in Vietnam when the link with the domestic economy is very fragile," said Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Vietnam Investment Promotion and Cooperation Joint Stock Company Nguyen. Dinh Nam evaluated. Vietnam's role with foreign businesses is still mainly providing labor and capital associated with low-cost positioning.

Sharing the same opinion, Dr. Phan Huu Thang, former Director of Foreign Investment Department, Ministry of Planning and Investment, said that FDI attraction policy has long set the goal of accessing and learning core technology from industrialized countries. leading industry. But after more than 3 decades, the goal of technology transfer has still not been achieved effectively, the main reason being the lack of connection between foreign and domestic enterprises.

Meanwhile, investors themselves also want to increase the localization rate to reduce costs compared to imports, according to Chief Representative of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Ho Chi Minh City Matsumoto Nobuyuki.

Mr. Nobuyuki is often asked by many Japanese corporations to "matchmaker" Vietnamese businesses to have more domestic suppliers, especially for important parts. "But very few companies meet the standards of Japanese businesses," he said.

About 97% of domestic enterprises are small and medium sized, with most capital and management capacity limited. Meanwhile, becoming a supply partner of world-class manufacturers requires large investments in technology.

"The above barrier causes most Vietnamese businesses to still stand outside the supply chain of high-tech corporations," a group of experts from the Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management once pointed out in the investment summary report of Intel in Vietnam, announced in 2016.

Large corporations, when investing in Vietnam, therefore bring in existing supplier networks from abroad, then seek and support training for domestic businesses to participate in the supply chain. But not every company has enough resources.

Earlier this year, CEO Nguyen Dinh Nam's customer - a German enterprise manufacturing medical equipment, announced that it would choose Indonesia instead of Vietnam as originally planned to build a factory.

"They went from North to South but couldn't find a supplier of chips and microchips for their devices, so they had to give up, even though they assessed Vietnam's preferential policies as very good," Mr. Nam said.

Bottom of the curve

When Intel agreed to invest 17 years ago, some senior leaders asked the US corporation to deploy more research and development (R&D) activities in Vietnam. But Mr. Pham Chanh Truc knows that is almost impossible. "No one easily brings their core technology to the outside for fear of being copied," he said.

Reality has proven that up to now, only Samsung and LG are two high-tech FDI corporations opening large-scale R&D centers in Vietnam.

The life cycle of a technology product starts from R&D, then proceeds to purchasing parts, complete assembly, distribution, branding, sales and after-sales. These activities lie on a parabolic line from left to right according to the corresponding added value.

This is called the "smiling curve" - a concept first introduced by Acer computer company founder Stan Shih in 1992 to describe the value chain. In particular, assembly is at the bottom of the curve - meaning the lowest added value, which is also the step that most factories of technology corporations in Vietnam are performing.

For example, with a high-end Samsung smartphone, the assembly and testing stages performed in Vietnam only account for 5% of the production cost, according to results from TechInsights, a technology research company based in Canada. 2020 analysis.

"Every country wants to undertake high-value processes, but multinational corporations will allocate activities appropriate to each country's capacity," said Mr. Do Thien Anh Tuan, co-author of the research on operations. Fulbright's Intel operation in Vietnam acknowledged.

In the chip industry, after design, the production process takes place in two types of factories: manufacturing (Fab) and assembly, testing, packaging (ATM). Intel has 5 manufacturing plants in the US, Ireland, Israel and 4 packaging plants in Costa Rica, China, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Mr. Kim Huat Ooi said the group's plan is to continue focusing on assembly and testing at the facility in Ho Chi Minh City. Accounting for the largest output among ATM factories, Vietnam plays an important role in the company's production process.

However, Malaysia is the first place outside the US that Intel has chosen to deploy its most advanced 3D chip packaging technology. Unlike Vietnam, Malaysia has a complete semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem with domestic businesses taking care of all stages from design, manufacturing to chip assembly and testing.

In addition to Malaysia, Singapore also has chip manufacturing factories. These two countries, along with Thailand and the Philippines, rank above Vietnam in ECI - an index showing the ability to produce complex products, calculated by Harvard University. Despite being one of the fastest-growing countries in the past 20 years, Vietnam only ranks 61/133 in the world on this index, higher than Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia in Southeast Asia.

Although Vietnam is the most attractive destination for Japanese businesses that want to implement the "China + 1" strategy to diversify production bases outside the world's most populous country, it still only attracts assembly section.

"If we want to move up the ladder, Vietnam should forget low-productivity jobs and focus on added value," Mr. Nobyuki said.

This recommendation is not new, but is increasingly urgent when the advantage of labor - the main attractive force for assembly and processing activities - is declining along with the fastest population aging rate in the region. The peak of the golden population period has passed, and the number of Vietnamese workers will begin to decline in the next 15 years, according to forecast models of the United Nations Population Fund.

According to Mr. Do Thien Anh Tuan, Vietnamese labor productivity is still slow to improve, lagging behind ASEAN countries, and wages continue to increase, making the actual labor costs associated with productivity not cheap. "Investing in people and science and technology to move up the value chain must therefore be the number one priority," he said.

More than 30 years since he sketched the first ideas of a high-tech park, Mr. Pham Chanh Truc has still not seen an advanced manufacturing industry as expected.

"We already have a few high-tech enterprises, but there are too few, most still assemble. If we keep going at the current pace, how will we achieve the goal of becoming a rich country?" Mr. Truc wondered.

Content: Viet Duc Graphics: Hoang Khanh - Thanh Ha

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/3569824

Dumped air-cons refer to those produced by various brands that do not meet the minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) in the brands' own domestic markets. They end up being exported to places with less stringent standards.

In its study published in September, CLASP examined the sale of inefficient room air-cons in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

It found that out of 8.3 million units sold in the six countries in 2021, nearly three in four, or 6.2 million units, were of low efficiency.

Indonesia and the Philippines were the most exposed to dated technology, with 97 per cent and 78 per cent of room air-cons sold in the two countries respectively deemed inefficient. The figure in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam was around 60 per cent.

In Singapore, 21 per cent of total sales were low-efficiency models.

The urban area project in area 10B by Do Gia Capital Co., Ltd. is pouring land directly, without embankments, into the sea area in the buffer zone of the World Natural Heritage of Ha Long Bay - special protection zone no. 2 in Ha Long Bay.

On the morning of November 6, talking to Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper, the leader of the Ha Long Bay Management Board said that the unit had sent a document to the Quang Ninh Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Quang Ninh Department of Culture and Sports and the Cam Pha City People's Committee to organize a coordinated inspection into the Urban area project in Area 10B in Quang Hanh Ward, Cam Pha City.

A series of limestone mountains were surrounded to make "rockeries"

According to people's feedback, recently, local people discovered that on the Ha Long - Cam Pha coastal route, the section passing through Ha Phong - Cam Pha ward, a series of "tiger pouncing" trucks appeared following each other, carrying soil and stones for leveling for the Urban Area Project in Area 10B (Urban Area 10B) showed signs of overload without a single tarpaulin covering, causing dust and dirt to be scattered all over the road surface.

To implement the 10B Urban Area project within the boundaries of Quang Hanh ward, Cam Pha City, the investor, Do Gia Capital Co., Ltd. (address in Cam Pha City) poured soil to create a road more than 1 km long. from the coastline of Ha Long - Cam Pha to the sea. Notably, many rocky mountains are surrounded to form "rockeries", and the soil and rocks are leveled, making the sea water turbid and discolored.

The leader of the Ha Long Bay Management Board further informed through environmental monitoring work along the coast of Ha Long Bay (September 19) that the urban area project in area 10B by Do Gia Capital Co., Ltd. is pouring land directly into the sea area of the buffer zone of the World Natural Heritage of Ha Long Bay, protection zone 2 of the Ha Long Bay Special National Monument without any embankment.

Dumping soil directly into the waters of Ha Long Bay without environmental protection measures will pollute the water environment, affecting the ecosystems of natural heritage areas - special national monuments in Ha Long Bay.

This violates regulations on environmental protection and heritage protection according to the Law on Environmental Protection, the Law on Cultural Heritage, and the project's environmental impact assessment report approved by the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province.

The project encroaches on Ha Long Bay for a kilometer from the Ha Long - Cam Pha sea boundary

Confronting with the incident, the Ha Long Bay Management Board requested the Quang Ninh Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Quang Ninh Department of Culture and Sports, and the Cam Pha City People's Committee to inspect and request construction units to comply with the law on environmental and heritage protection. At the same time, there must be solutions to prevent substances that pollute the environment and ecology of Ha Long Bay.

Quang Ninh Department of Construction also requested Do Gia Capital Co., Ltd. to comply with the design documents and construction permits that had been evaluated and licensed. They are required to have appropriate construction measures to ensure water circulation in the areas of sea mangroves on both sides of route No. 1. The company must take actions to minimize the impact on the overall landscape and environment of the World Natural Heritage Ha Long Bay

It is recommended that the People's Committee of Cam Pha City perform the state management function on construction order for the 10B urban area project: Inspect and supervise the construction process to ensure compliance with design documents, construction permits that have been appraised and licensed, and environmental impact assessment reports approved by the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province; promptly take measures to prevent and handle violations of construction order and activities that affect the environment and landscape of the world natural heritage of Ha Long Bay.

According to the project's environmental impact assessment approval, the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province stated: "The total project area is about 31.8 hectares, of which 3.88 hectares is in the buffer zone, area 2 of the World Natural Heritage of Ha Long Bay. The scale of project items includes: 451 villas and adjacent houses; rough construction and finishing of the exterior of 52 villas. There are also commercial and service projects. , including 7-story hotels. The population is estimated to be roughly 2,524 people."

Ha Long Bay Management Board affirmed that the location of the 10B Urban Area project is located in the buffer zone of Ha Long Bay.

This land has a starting price of 1,145.3 billion VND and Do Gia Capital Co., Ltd. won the auction for the right to use the land with an auction value of 1,192 billion VND (46 billion VND higher than the starting price).

It is known that Do Gia Capital Company Limited was established on November 18, 2021 with a charter capital of 200 billion VND, led by Mr. T.H.T. be a director. However, by December 30, 2021 (the time the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province recognized the winning results of the land use rights auction), this business was only "42 days old" and had eliminated 8 serious opponents to win the auction for a land with a value of trillions dong.

Through research, it is known that in the past few years, UNESCO has repeatedly warned that Ha Long Bay Heritage is under a lot of pressure from tourism activities, shipping and especially rapid urbanization in several areas of Quang Ninh, causing the bay environment to be affected.

According to the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, bad information about the movie Đất rừng phương Nam (Song of the South) is not accurate and should be considered and handled if there is offensive or defamatory behavior.

At the questioning session of Government members on the afternoon of November 7, National Assembly delegate To Thi Bich Chau (Secretary of District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) asked Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to provide solutions to protect individuals and organizations when being attacked. abusive social network community.

Ms. Chau cited two recent examples: beauty queen Y Nhi was "stoned" just because of her insensitive statement, and the movie Song of the South "was beaten to a pulp by the online community". "So who protects them at that time, how to protect them, or do we have to wait for them to complain, petition, or file an application. Suggestions like beating them to death rather than beating them to death are very dangerous," Ms. Chau said, believes that this is related to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Information and Communications, and Police.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said that the Ministry has issued a code of conduct for writers and artists doing art on social networks so that they behave in a standard manner.

He also said that the film Song of the South has been licensed by the National Film Appraisal Council in accordance with the Cinema Law. The film does not violate the law. "Public opinion believes that the film has one expression or another which is not accurate. It is necessary to consider handling if there is offensive or defamatory behavior," Minister Nguyen Van Hung said.

Responding to this content, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that by the end of this year, the Government will issue a decree on social network management, which regulates the handling of invasion of privacy online. and have institutions to support people who have been abused on social networks.

Recently, the Ministry has established a national fake news handling center. "I think it is necessary to set up provincial processing centers, because most life activities are in cyberspace," he said.

The Minister of Information and Communications also proposed strict law enforcement and criminal handling of serious abuse cases, "such as the handling of Ms. Phuong Hang, which has a high deterrent effect."

"The fundamental solution is to build a digital culture. Cyberspace is a new environment for humans. We have lived in the real environment for tens of thousands of years and still have problems, let alone just joining cyberspace." about 20 years," Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said, adding that he has built a skills training platform and increased people's resistance on social networks.

The film Song of the South, directed by Nguyen Quang Dung, was released in mid-October, revolving around the character of little An searching for his father amid the uprising against the French of Southerners in the early 20th century.

The story of gangs - including Thien Dia Hoi - is given a lot of time. After that, many opinions said that the film crew caused misunderstanding by elevating the role of Thien Dia Hoi. In an article shared more than 2,300 times on social networks, literature doctor Ha Thanh Van said that the fiction in the film "falsifies history".

Citing documents, Ms. Ha Thanh Van stated that the Thien Dia Hoi's anti-French patriotic movement took place in the South, but ended in 1916, after the uprising to save Phan Xich Long - who was revered as its leader. Cochinchina secret societies. In the novel by writer Doan Gioi, the story takes place during the resistance war against the French in the South, in 1945, without mentioning these groups. The film directed by Nguyen Quang Dung is set in the 1920s-1930s, adapted from the book.

After that, the producer edited the film, removing the names Thien Dia Hoi and Nghia Hoa Doan from the dialogue, replacing them with Chinh Nghia Hoi and Nam Hoa Doan. This change is to avoid viewers associating with two Chinese Qing Dynasty groups. The film puts the words "the film is inspired by the novel Đất rừng phương Nam by writer Doan Gioi" at the top.

Delegate Trinh Xuan An said that the State management agency needs to listen to public opinion about the film Southern Forest Land to make appropriate adjustments, instead of focusing on handling it.

Là người dân Việt Nam, chúng ta rất hiểu nỗi đau dưới của chủ nghĩa thực dân khi mà tổ tiên của ta hứng chịu sự áp bức, dày xéo và bóc lột được ngụy tạo dưới những mỹ từ của sự văn minh và khai sáng. Chúng ta biết chúng đã sử dụng những lý do gì để hợp lý hóa sự hiện diện của chúng trên lãnh thổ ta, sự đốn rừng đốt ruộng để xây các cơ ngơi xa hoa cho người Pháp, và sự xóa bỏ ngôn ngữ, văn hóa và di sản của người Việt.

Bởi những lý do đó, chúng ta không thể giữ vị trí trung lập trong cuộc xung đột Israel - Palestine. Dẫu biết rằng hoàn cảnh của chúng ta, dù là trong quá khứ hay hiện tại, có nhiều điểm khác biệt với Palestine, nhưng chúng ta cùng chia sẻ trải nghiệm của chủ nghĩa thực dân và công sức diệt chủng dưới bàn tay của những kẻ nhân danh Chúa trời để thỏa sức thực hiện những hành vi vô nhân đạo Nếu ta đứng về phía Israel và các đồng minh, chúng ta đứng về phía thực dân, đứng về phía những kẻ đã trực tiếp hủy hoại bao nhiêu mạng người của tổ tiên ta trong quá khứ thuộc địa, của bố mẹ ta, của anh chị em của ta trong chủ nghĩa tư bản toàn cầu hiện tại. Vị trí trung lập, "quan ngại", cũng là tiếp tay cho sự áp bức nhân dân Palestine, bởi lẽ những kẻ côn đồ không có mong muốn gì hơn ngoài việc chúng ta chỉ im lặng khi tiếp tục hành xác những mảnh đời yếu thế.

Bởi vậy, chúng ta chỉ còn một vị trí cuối cùng: Đoàn kết với nhân dân Palestine. Ủng hộ quyền tự quyết và dành độc lập của họ một cách tuyệt đối và vô điều kiện.Hơn bất kỳ một ai khác, chúng ta đều hiểu tầm quan trọng của sự đoàn kết của nhân dân trên thế giới để chấm dứt chiến tranh tại Việt Nam, với những cuộc biểu tình và những phong trào bất tuân dân sự phản chiến.

Ở trong bài đăng này, mình muốn phổ biến một vài nguồn để các bạn có thể hỗ trợ nhân dân Palestine.Dưới đây là trang mà các bạn có thể xem để hiểu biết thêm về cuộc xung đột hiện tại giữa Israel và Palestine:

https://decolonizepalestine.com/

Để thể hiện sự đoàn kết với nhân dân Palestine với sự ảnh hưởng chính trị nhỏ bé của đa số mọi người chúng ta, các bạn có thể tham gia vào phong trào Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (Tẩy chay, Bỏ Đầu tư và Trừng phạt kinh tế).

Thông tin về phong trào này có thể được tìm thấy ở Wikipedia, nhưng về căn bản, và mình nghĩ là phương pháp có tính thực tiễn cao nhất đối với chúng ta là tẩy chay tiêu dùng các nhãn hàng được coi là có nhúng tay vào sự tiến triển của công cuộc diệt chủng của nhân dân Palestine bằng cách/và hợp tác với nhà nước Israel. Một vài nhãn hàng có thể kể tới là Puma, HP, cùng với một loạt những nhãn hàng đồ ăn nhanh như McDonald hay Starbucks.
Ngoài ra, các bạn cũng có thể ký vào đơn kiến nghị ngừng bắn ở Dải Gaza

https://sign.moveon.org/.../do-everything-you-can-to-stop...

Quyên góp cho Quỹ cứu trợ trẻ em Palestine PCRF và Bác sĩ không biên giới (Doctors without borders)

https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/general

https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/.../psearch...

Và các cách khác nữa, như được liệt kê ở trang:

https://ceasefiretoday.com/

Từ sông ra biển, nhân dân Palestine sẽ dành tự do!

Australian scientists point out that stress from rent can speed up aging by 2-8 weeks, faster than smoking or unemployment.

The study was conducted by experts from the University of Adelaide (Australia), published in the British Medical Journal in October 2023, based on the results of a survey of the lives and housing quality of 1,500 British people as well as using DNA data to evaluate each person's aging level.

The survey ensures objective factors, including property ownership (rent or buy); type of house currently lived in; government financial supports; living area and biological age of study participants at the same time.

The results showed that renters age twice as fast as unemployed people, 50% higher than the consequences of smoking. Notably, on average every year, the aging process of boarders increases by 2-8 weeks.

"Problems of not being able to afford rising rents; problems with neighbors and landlords; and discrimination when renting are causes of biological aging," Amy Clare, said the scientist who presided over the study.

He also revealed that cramped living conditions or insufficient heating, environmental pollution, and dust also negatively impact health.

Government-subsidized housing rental cases do not encounter this situation. The reason is that they do not face the same stresses as private tenants regarding money and outside relationships.

In fact, rent prices in Australia are different from the UK or the US, but Giselle Routhier, director of the medical and housing laboratory at NYU Grossman University of Medicine (USA) said that the above findings are not new.

"If staying in a home doesn't make you feel safe and secure, managing daily life is difficult, not to mention medical conditions," Ms. Giselle said.

Although the research results are impressive, the University of Adelaide researchers also emphasized that the publications are only observational and cannot confirm with certainty that rented housing will accelerate the aging process. This process is also influenced by many external factors such as staying up late, eating at night or being lazy.

Minh Phuong (According to Forbes)

Tiếng Việt

In this exclusive new diaCRITICIZE, Julie Thi Underhill offers an in-depth introduction to the sometimes fraught relationship between Chăm Americans and Vietnamese Americans. She raises difficult questions, including why Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans would rather forget the conquest of the Chăm, the continuing existence of the Chăm people, and whether or not the Chăm can be compared to Native Americans. She concludes on a hopeful note whereby Chăm Americans and Vietnamese Americans can begin filling in together the “blank pages” of shared history and memory.

Although Julie Thi Underhill has previously written for diaCRITICS about Democractic Kampuchea’s Genocide of the Chăm during the 1970s in Cambodia, this provocative diaCRITICIZE essay is the first essay published in English, since 1987, which exclusively centers the Chăm in Việt Nam and their communities and identities in the US.

This is a short article featuring an interview with a very talented Vietnamese artist, Nachi. She is known for drawing comics that spans various topics, such as astrology, supernatural, science fiction, slice of life. A significant portion of her comics is both informative and educational without being overly didactic. Notably, her art is also very beautiful :")

For those interested in exploring Nachi's works furhter, I recommend checking out her FB Page: Sideworld - Thế giới bên cạnh

If you don't want to use Facebook, you could read one of her comics here: Sun and Earth. This belongs to her ongoing series about astrology. She recently released the third chapter of the series about proton, which is very entertaining and delightful.

If you wish to support Nachi and enjoy her works at your leisure, her newest comic anthology is available for purchasehere

This is a Vietnamese translation of an article titled: "Why the communists call for ‘Intifada until victory!'".

The credit for the translation goes to VietNam Young Marxists.

Solidarity with Palestinian!

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Đây là bản dịch Tiếng Việt của một bài báo với tựa đề: "Why the communists call for ‘Intifada until victory!'".

Bản dịch thuộc về VietNam Young Marxists.

Đoàn kết với nhân dân Palestine!

This is a translated Korean article belonging to a 4-part seires written by Saebom Kim that goes in depth into Samsung's environmental and labor violations in Vietnam.

The article was translated by VietNam Young Marxists.