Techcombank issues bonds equal to $123 mln

Techcombank said Monday that it had raised VND2.1 trillion (more than US$123 million) by issuing three-year bonds on Oct. 22, and the proceeds would be added into its working capital.

The face value, as ruled, is VND100,000.

The bonds, which will be due on Oct. 22, 2012, carry a coupon of 10.5 percent for the first year. The coupon on the remaining two years is floating, equal to the average rate on 12-month savings paid by four state-run banks (Agribank, Vietcombank, VietinBank and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam) plus 2.8 percentage points.

Techcombank said if the floating rate is higher than the State Bank of Vietnam’s ceiling rate, the ceiling level will be applied.

Techcombank, with 20 percent of capital owned by British banking group HSBC, plans to raise its registered capital to VND5.68 trillion dong by the year of this year from a current VND5.4 trillion.

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US newspaper circulation slide accelerates

Daily circulation figures for US newspapers released on Monday provided more bad news for an industry battling the flight of readers to the Web and battered by a steep decline in advertising revenue.

Newspaper salesman Dallas Ayers waits for customers at his kiosk in San Francisco, California in September 2009. (AFP Photo)

Average daily circulation fell more than 10 percent in the April-September period compared with the same period last year, accelerating a slide that has led to bankruptcies, closures and cutbacks in newsrooms across the country.
  
 Average Sunday circulation for 562 newspapers was down 7.49 percent.
   
The figures from Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) also confirmed that The Wall Street Journal has become the largest US newspaper by weekday circulation, leapfrogging USA Today.
   
Of the top 25 US newspapers, the News Corp.-owned Journal was the only one to increase Monday-Friday circulation, gaining 0.61 percent to 2.02 million.
   
USA Today’s circulation fell 17.5 percent to 1.9 million.
   
The Journal is one of the few US papers to charge readers online and Web subscriptions are counted in its circulation figures.
   
Two other top 25 newspapers, The Denver Post and The Seattle Times, also gained circulation but only after their competitors, The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer respectively — closed down.
   
The New York Times remained the third-largest newspaper in the country but its circulation declined 7.28 percent to 927,851, the first time it has fallen below one million in more than 20 years.
   
Average daily circulation for 379 daily newspapers was down 10.62 percent at the end of September to 30.39 million from 34.0 million at the end of September 2008, according to the ABC.
   
The slide was greater than the 7.09 percent registered during the October to March period and the 4.64 percent decline during April to September last year.
   
The San Francisco Chronicle, whose owner Hearst Corp. threatened in February to close the daily if unions did not agree to steep cutbacks, suffered the biggest circulation drop, shedding 25.82 percent to 251,782.
   
Other big losers were the Newark Star-Ledger, down 22.22 percent to 246,006, and the Dallas Morning News, down 22.16 percent to 263,810.
   
The News Corp.-owned New York Post lost 18.77 percent to 508,042 while The Boston Globe, owned by the New York Times Co., shed 18.48 percent to 264,105.
   
The Los Angeles Times, owned by the bankrupt Tribune Co., saw its circulation fall 11.05 percent to 657,467 while the Tribune Co. flagship Chicago Tribune lost 9.72 percent to 465,892.
   
The Washington Post’s circulation dropped 6.40 percent to 582,844.
   
Newsday, which announced plans last week to begin charging readers online, lost 5.40 percent to 357,124.
   
Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism school based in Florida, said he had been expecting particularly poor circulation figures for the six-month period.
   
“I thought they’d be especially bad this time, which does seem to be the case,” Edmonds told AFP.
   
He chalked up the weak performance to several factors including the continued “movement over time from print to online.”
   
Edmonds said there has also been a trend among some metropolitan dailies of “pulling back from trying to serve distant areas that are expensive to serve and don’t have a lot of value to advertisers.”
   
“In essence they’re just letting that kind of circulation go,” he said, citing the San Francisco Chronicle as a case in point.
   
“We’re also looking at a period that reflects the economy itself being down,” Edmonds said. “A lot of people are out of work, cutting back here and there, and at least some of these are going to be cutting newspaper purchases.”

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Palestinian farmers struggle with water crisis

Once a proud grower of bananas, Abdullah Naji has been harvesting little more than dust in recent years. He blames his ill-fortune both on drought and on Israel’s water policies.

A Palestinian man is seen in his farm in the West Bank village of al-Auja, the heart of the West Bank’s traditionally fertile Jordan Valley. (AFP Photo)

“Every day I pray for water,” says Naji, 40.
   
But his village of Auja, in the heart of the West Bank’s traditionally fertile Jordan Valley, is bone dry. Even the goats cannot find food amid the rocks and dust.
   
Naji gave up his banana plantation two years ago and converted to herding sheep.
   
“At least now he can complain to his animals,” a neighbour jokes.
   
But even feeding the livestock has become a problem, as it is in much of the Middle East which is suffering its worst sustained drought in decades.
   
Auja villagers and their animals have survived in recent months thanks to fodder donated by the Oxfam aid group, which has also been delivering storage tanks and water to impoverished communities in the area.
   
“They, on the other hand,” Naji says, pointing in the direction of a nearby Israeli settlement, “have all the water they want.”
   
A canal runs alongside the village, but locals say it has not channelled any water since May. The spring that used to serve thousands of people in the area throughout the year has dried up.
   
Aid groups blame this on the construction of a new well that serves the 175 Israelis who make up the Yitav settlement.
   
Jewish settlements boast well-irrigated farms, orchards and vineyards, in sharp contrast to the dusty Palestinian villages and the surrounding rocky desert dotted with dirt-poor Bedouin encampments.
   
Amnesty International says in a report issued on Tuesday that discriminatory Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories are the root cause of the striking disparity in access to water between Palestinians and Israelis.
   
“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies,” says Amnesty researcher Donatela Robera.
  
 A World Bank study earlier this year blamed the dire water shortages in part on Israeli restrictions, but also on bad Palestinian management.
   
Responding to the Amnesty report, Israel squarely blames the Palestinians.
   
“Israel uses less today than it did in 1967,” when it occupied the Palestinian territories, even though its population has grown, government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.
   
“Palestinians received billions of dollars in aid. Why wasn’t it used for more efficient infrastructure?”
   
But Palestinians are not allowed to drill new wells or rehabilitate old ones without permits from the Israeli authorities, which are often impossible to obtain. Many rural communities rely on water tankers.
   
“This area is rich in water below the ground,” says Auja resident Khader Zawahra, 37.
   
“But we can’t get to it. Most of the water is at a depth of 500 metres (1,650 feet), but Israel only allows us to rehabilitate a well at 100 metres where there is little water.”
   
His brother Suleiman Zawahra says he can remember the days, about 10 years ago, when life was still good.
   
“There was water all year around. There were a lot of fields and enough barley for the animals,” he says, watching his three scrawny camels chew on straw.
 

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US Senate to debate wider government health care role

President Barack Obama’s top Senate ally announced plans Monday to start debate on historic legislation to remake US health care, including a controversial government-backed insurance plan.

After months of often fevered nationwide debate, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate would soon take up a bill that includes a so-called “public option” to compete with private insurers.
   
“It will protect consumers, keep insurers honest and ensure competition. And that’s why we intend to include it in the bill that will be submitted to the Senate,” said the Nevada senator.
   
Supporters of such a plan, which could bring the United States more in line with other industrialized democracies, say it’s the best way to tame runaway US health costs and help the country’s roughly 46 million uninsured people.
   
Opponents, chiefly Obama’s Republican foes but also about a dozen swing-vote Democrats in the 100-seat Senate, say it risks competing unfairly with private insurers, driving them out of business and leading to rationed care.
   
Reid said the public option was “not a silver bullet” but pointed to recent public opinion polls that showed a majority of Americans support the option to pick a government-backed insurance plan.
   
“I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system,” he said.
   
The Senate debate on the bill, a compromise between legislation from two Senate committees, will begin as soon as congressional budget analysts formally estimates how much the measure will cost — most likely later this week — according to Reid.
   
His announcement, welcomed by the White House and condemned by its Republican opponents, made it increasingly likely that Obama’s historic drive to overhaul US health care this year will result in a wider government role.
   
Obama, who wants to complete health care reform this year, believes “we’re closer than we’ve ever been to solving this decades-old problem,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
  
 ”The president is pleased at the progress that Congress has made. He’s also pleased that the Senate has decided to include a public option for health coverage, in this case with an allowance for states to opt out.”
   
Republicans, who have historically opposed creating new government health care programs, waged a months-long blitz to defeat the public option and have moved to delay the Democratic health care drive.
   
“No matter what you call it or how you dress it up, the Democrats’ proposal is government-run insurance,” charged Senator Jon Kyl, the number two Senate Republican.
   
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already said the lower chamber’s version would include a “robust” public option, making it all but certain that the final legislation that reaches Obama’s desk will include a broader government health care role.
   
Reid declined to say whether he had the 60 votes needed to ensure that Democrats — who control exactly that many votes — can overrun any parliamentary delaying tactics and pass the legislation.
   
But he acknowledged that including the provision would drive off the lone Republican to support Obama’s efforts thus far, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, and said he hoped she would change her mind.
   
“We’ll have to move forward on this, and there comes a time, I hope, where she sees the wisdom of supporting a health care bill after having had an opportunity, her and others, to offer amendments,” said Reid.
   
His office declined to provide a summary of the legislation, which could be made public as soon as Tuesday, but the senator himself said it would give states until 2014 to opt out of the public option.
   
Reid had been working with key senators and the White House to blend rival health care bills approved by the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

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Vietnam stocks close down 1.03%

Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index started the week on a low note following Friday’s trend, leaving investors hoping for a rally following corrections.

The shares of 179 companies and four mutual funds on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 6.34 points or 1.03 percent to close at 609.34. Trading cooled by 37 percent in volume and 35 percent in value compared to the record high last Friday.

A total of 86.9 million shares worth nearly VND4.2 trillion (US$ million) changed hands.

The result matched the forecast of 21.7 percent of responses to a survey by local newswire Vnexpress.net last week while 58.1 percent expected the index to jump past 620 points.

Declines far outnumbered gains by 139 to 32 while 12 shares remained unchanged.

According to analysts, such short-term correction is needed before the southern shares start a new rally, hopefully to 625 this week.

Declines in the southern market were led by Long An Food Processing Export Joint Stock Co. (LAF) in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, the HCMC City-based Lu Gia Mechanical Electric Joint Stock Co. (LGC), and seafood exporter NTACO Corp. (ATA) in the delta province of An Giang.

Vietnam’s largest listed brokerage Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) came back to the spot of most active shares with around 4.4 million shares changing hands, overcoming Viet-Han Corp. which produces cable wire in central Quang Nam Province and had nearly 4 million shares traded on the city bourse Monday. Saigon Commercial Bank or Sacombank (STB) remained in the top active three with 3.57 million shares traded.

The HNX-Index also fell further to 209.77, down 2.10 percent or 4.50 points over last Friday. Nearly 41.9 million shares worth VND1.95 trillion changed hands.

UPCoM-Index did not perform any better dropping 0.28 points or 0.37 percent to 74.77. The trade volume shrank to 89,700 with VND1.04 billion spent.

On the global market, Asian stocks gained, led by automakers and consumer companies.

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Miss Ethnic Vietnam runner-up to compete in Miss Earth 2009

Truong Thi May, the first runner-up of the 2007 Miss Vietnamese Ethnic Groups beauty contest, will travel to the Philippines on November 1 for the Miss Earth 2009 pageant.

The first runner-up of the 2007 Miss Vietnamese Ethnic Groups beauty contest will participate in the 2009 Miss Earth pageant in Philippines.

The beauty from the Mekong Delta province of An Giang was also the first runner-up of the 2006 Miss Vietnam Photogenic contest.

The 1.70m-tall vegan is now one of the most well-known models in the Vietnamese fashion industry.

May recently wrapped up her first role in the movie “Duong dua” (Race track) by director Trong Hai. The film will compete in Vietnamese film festivals including Canh Dieu Vang (Golden Kite) and Bong Sen Vang (Golden Lotus) at the end of the year.

Around 90 contestants from around the world are expected to compete in the upcoming Miss Earth beauty pageant.

The winner will serve as a spokesperson for the Miss Earth Foundation, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and other environmental organizations.

 

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VEA to hold series of debates on “Golden Air Route”

The Vietnam Economics Association (VEA) said the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) did not object to a debate of the proposed Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City “Golden Air Route.”

Mr. Tuan (1st, R) presents the project at the meeting with CAAV on July 9 ( Photo: SGGP)

Previously, CAAV had said that the proposed new route required a more thorough review beyond cost effectiveness, in response to a seminar on the issue.

VEA Chairman Prof. Tran Phuong said CAAV has sent two representatives to work on the project with VEA, which is a member of the Vietnam Union of Scientific and Technological Associations (VUSTA). 

Prof. Phuong stressed that his association will play only an intermediary role and hold several discussions in which CAAV members can express their opinions.

Scientists will also be invited to take part and the results will be published in the media, he added.

The aim of the discussions is for experts to analyze the project in relation to the country’s socio-economic growth and publicize the information. CAAV is also encouraged to participate, VEA said.

Following the series of discussions, VEA aims to submit an official document to the Government detailing its findings.

Related articles:
Proposal on new Hanoi-HCM City air route needs more thorough review: CAAV
CAAV turns away from ‘golden air route’
Discussions over new Hanoi-HCM City air route
Air authority accepts new flight route plans

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First death of A/H1N1 influenza reported in Hanoi

The Ministry of Health confirmed on October 25 the first death of the A/H1N1 influenza in Hanoi as a female was reported to die of the disease on October 21.

This is the 32 nd fatal case in the country and the 8 th pregnant woman who died of the disease.

The female, 21, in Can Kiem commune, Thach That district, was in her sixth month of pregnancy.

She was hospitalised on October 15 with symptoms of fever, cough and sore throat. On October 20, she was transferred from local hospital to the National Institute of Infectious and Tropical Disease because of respiratory distress and was treated with Tamiflu but she could not escape from her fate.

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Hospitals, agencies to ensure free heart surgery for kids

All Ho Chi Minh City heart patients under six years old will continue to receive free medical treatment no matter how expensive it is, Dr. Luu Thi Thanh Huyen from the city’s Social Insurance Agency said on October 24.

Children wait for examinations at Pediatrics Hopital No.1.

Sai Gon Giai Phong recently reported some city hospitals were continuing to charge fees for surgery carried out on children with heart defects.

The local Social Insurance Agency subsequently said it would step in to ensure rules weren’t being violated.

Dr. Huyen, from the Health Insurance’s Payment Survey Division, said that because the cost of some medicines and equipment were not officially listed as part of the free treatment program, hospitals were forced to charge extra fees.

Hospitals and the Social Insurance Office need to work with authorities to make a list of expenses not currently covered under the free treatment plan, Dr. Huyen said.

City Social Insurance Office officials said they collaborated with the Pediatrics Hopital No.1 and Cho Ray Hospital to resolve the issue.

In the near future, they will also work with the Tu Du and Tumor hospitals to ensure families are not charged for their child’s heart operations or follow-up treatment.

 

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Local medical equipment industry plagued with problems

Vietnam’s medical-equipment manufacturing industry is struggling due to a lack of qualified technicians, poor cooperation among departments, and a heavy reliance on foreign-made goods, experts say.

Vietnam currently produces only basic medical equipment like beds and pumps

Cao Van Diem, deputy head of the Department of Medical Equipment and Construction, said 30 years ago, the country had just one medical manufacturing company, Thai Nguyen Medical Equipment.

With nearly 1,000 hospitals and healthcare centers and a growing demand for modern medical equipment, the country now has 50 medical equipment manufacturers and trading firms.

However, the 50 firms only make around 600 types of basic, low-quality items including hand-held tools, beds, pumps, IV tubes, and autoclaves used for sterilizing equipment.

In recent years, some companies have begun manufacturing more complex devices like laser therapy apparatuses, high-frequency electric operation knives, and medical waste incinerators. However, only a few firms have taken such initiatives while the quality of the equipment is low.

A shortage of qualified engineers and technicians is partly to blame, experts say. The country has just 6 percent of the needed engineers and 35 percent of technicians necessary for Vietnam to efficiently produce its own medical equipment.

In addition, the domestic medical equipment industry has done a poor job of communicating with other sectors, slowing its progression.

A preference for foreign-made goods also works against the local manufacturing trade.

According to the Department of Medical Equipment and Construction, Vietnam imports 80 percent of its medical equipment including basic items like needles and thread.

The local healthcare industry spends hundreds of billions of Vietnam dong annually to import medical equipment, with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City investing heavily in new foreign technology.

A city hospital director said his clinic was equipped with several state-of-the-art machines including X-ray computed tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and gamma knife radiation, but said it was unfortunate that none of it was domestically made.

In the past, Vietnam also relied heavily on foreign-made medicines, but today, nearly 50 percent of the country’s pharmaceuticals are locally made with a push to eventually satisfy all domestic demand.

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