51 bài dịch báo tiếng anh hay

Bài 58: Tourist turns to sustainable tourism
When Frédéric Tiberghien Frédo first visited Vietnam 20 years ago
as a tourist, he wanted to see more of the country.
He was already linked to the country, being born to a French
father and Vietnamese mother, but he lost both of them in an
accident in France when he was young, and was raised by his
maternal grandmother, according to a 2011 report in the Kien
Thuc (Knowledge) online newspaper. He worked as a carpenter
and a horse keeper in France and England before deciding to visit
his mother's native country.
In his fifties now, he is no longer a tourist. Vietnam has become
home. And, he is known as Frédo Binh.
Frédo's transformation from a curious tourist to a charmed one
and to a tour operator himself has been accompanied by a
motivation to preserve the country's beauty, the culture of its
ethnic minority residents and improve the living standards of
communities in a sustainable manner.
Over the years he has initiated community projects in many
localities in the northern highlands.
In Cao Bang Province, he established a small museum introducing
local culture to foreign tourists. In Lao Cai Province, he built a
bridge that made it easier and safer for children to attend school.
In Yen Bai Province, he founded a nursery school and a
community "culture house."He has also helped improve sanitary
facilities like toilets and septic tanks at various localities.
His most impressive achievement, however, is probably the ecotourism project he began in 2006 in Yen Bai Province's Ngoi Tu
Village, which is home to Dao ethnic families.
Because of the project, locals are able to augment their incomes
from farming by participating in the tourism industry. They have
also developed a better awareness of environment protection.
===>>>>>1

Many villagers have become professional tour guides able to
speak foreign languages.
"It is slow but lastingly effective to promote Vietnam's image
through sustainable tourism," Frédo told the An ninh thu do
(Capital security) newspaper.
"Green tourism is not only about sustaining the environment
where it happens, but also about how local culture is conveyed to
visitors,"he said.
When he first arrived in Vietnam and visited Hanoi's famous Old
Quarter, he felt the "depth of the culture of the peaceful country."
In 1994, he took adventurous trips to the northern highlands on a
Minsk a motorbike produced in Belarus. During those trips, he was
not only charmed by the beautiful landscape but also the culture
of ethnic minority people he met.
"Then I suddenly thought about doing tourism to earn a living,"
he said.
Frédo said he printed ads about his motorcycle tours and posted
them at places frequented by foreign tourists in Hanoi.
"Unexpectedly,"it was "effective,"as he received many phone
calls and bookings, he said.
In 1997, he founded a travel company called Compagine
Bourlingue, which was also known as Freewheeling Tours in
English. He asked the ethnic minority residents to join him in
offering homestay experiences for foreign tourists in their
villages.

===>>>>>2

Years later, he came upon Ngoi Tu Village on the banks of the
Thac Ba Lake in Vu Linh Commune. He was totally captivated by
the scenery and the way local people preserved their traditions
and customs.
So, he bought a stilt house there and developed it into an ecolodge that can accommodate 60 people.
Once again, he invited local people to join him in the eco-tourism
project. He taught them French and English. He also sent them to
Hanoi, where they were trained in being tour guides as well as
other aspects of the hospitality industry.
He also worked to raise their awareness about protecting
environment and their culture, and earning a living in sustainable
ways.
Speaking about his project, Luong Xuan Hoi, secretary of Vu Linh
Commune's Party Unit, said local people's life has changed a lot
since they began participating in tourism.
Previously, it was not easy for them to earn more than VND2
million ($94.65) a month, as they only did farm work, but now,
that has changed.
The way Frédo has done tourism, moreover, has contributed to
the preservation of local culture, the official said.
Frédo himself has changed a lot over the years.
He can speak both Vietnamese and the Dao people's language
fluently. Although he is based in Hanoi, he visits and stays in the

===>>>>>3


village often, and has learnt a lot about the Dao culture, from the
meaning of pillars in their traditional houses to the practice of

burning incense and offering chicken to the spirits before building
houses.
He loves in particular the festival that Dao people celebrate at the
beginning of the spring to mark the start of a new rice season.
"It is a beautiful aspect of culture,"he said. "People thank the
plants, heaven and the earth for giving them a good life and
harvest."
He regularly takes his 10-year-old son to Ngoi Tu, where the boy
plays with local children. And, like his father, he has learnt to
speak Vietnamese and the Dao language very well. Frédo is
divorced and has two children.

===>>>>>4


Trang 59 : Lack of government support blamed as more
firms shut
The number of companies shutting up shop rose last year while
fewer new ones were incorporated, reflecting the poor business
environment and the government's failure to support business.
According to a recent report by the Vietnam Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the number of businesses that
shut down or suspended operations increased by 6.29 percent
last year to over 54,200.
Most of them were in the finance, banking, and real estate.
The number of newly established firms declined by 9.9 percent to
69,900. Their total registered capital was estimated at VND467.3
trillion (US$22.3 billion), also down 9.9 percent from 2011.
Vietnam now has just 300,000 firms, compared to nearly 700,000
during the past decade.

Most of firms operating in Vietnam now are mainly
microenterprises, which have less than 10 employees, and small
ones with 10-50 workers.
In 2011 some 39 percent of medium-sized companies reduced
their staff size and became small firms while 5 percent of small
firms became microenterprises.
The average number of staff in a Vietnamese firm decreased to
34 in 2011 from 74 in 2002.
Pham Thi Thu Hang, general secretary of the VCCI, said Vietnam
lacks medium-sized and large enterprises that take part in the
global supply chains.
Only 2.1 percent of firms are medium-sized, the report said.
Ineffective measures

===>>>>>5


The VCCI blamed the situation on the poor
business
environment
and
the
government's
ineffective
support
measures, which benefit only large firms.
According to the Doing Business 2013
report by the World Bank, Vietnam ranks
99th out of 185 economies for ease of
doing business.

The VCCI said the country's business
environment has not improved much over
the past decade and remains below
average.
Administrative procedures, despite being
reformed for many years, still remain
tortuous, hindering businesses, Vu Quoc
Tuan, chairman of the Vietnam Handicraft
Village Association, said.
The government has proposed amendments to the tax law to cut
corporate income tax and also reduced interest rates to help
businesses.
But companies said the measures have not really worked since
their biggest difficulty now is to liquidate inventories, not high tax
or interest rates. Some 73 percent of firms polled by the VCCI said
large inventories were their biggest concern.
The Ministry of Finance last week announced plans to cut
corporate income tax to 22 percent on January 1 next year from
the current 25 percent. It plans to bring it down further to 20
percent in 2016-20.
However, the 22 percent rate would apply earlier to small and
medium-sized enterprises from July as they are most vulnerable in
the depressed economy, Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai
said.

===>>>>>6


The ministry has also announced a 30-50 percent cut in value
added tax for developers of affordable housing from July. Mai said

they play an important role in helping low-income buyers and
bringing greater liquidity to the property market.
Nguyen Nhan Phuong, chairman of the Association of Small and
Medium-Sized Enterprises of Bac Ninh Province, said the tax
reduction would not benefit small and medium-sized firms that
are already in deep trouble. It benefits only firms with sound
operation that are making profits, he said.
"Most of the weak companies, which should have received
support from the government, will not benefit because they have
no profits to pay taxes,"he explained.
Small and medium-sized firms now find it hard to sell their
products, and the government should help them study and
update them on foreign markets, he said.
Many companies, whose products can be competitive in foreign
markets, have not been able to enter them, he added.
Meanwhile, the State Bank of Vietnam has cut lowered the
maximum deposit rate to 7.5 percent from 8 percent, the first cut
this year following six in 2012, raising expectations of cuts in
lending rates.
But economist Le Tham Duong said interest rate cuts no longer
excite expectations for the economy.
"Why will firms borrow when demand is weak and inventories
remain high?"he asked.
Tran Thi Hong, director of electrical home appliances maker
Phuong Hong, said interest rates, despite being cut, remain too
high especially for small firms.
Her company's bank loans carry over 12 percent interest, but all
are short-term, since she does not dare make long-term credit

===>>>>>7

decisions now. "We will borrow only when the rates go below 9
percent,"she said.
The VCCI suggested that the government should support firms by
minimizing the import of unnecessary products, thus boosting
demand for domestic products.

===>>>>>8


Trang 60 : Chinese imports monopolize major vegetable
market
Cho Lon in Ho Chi Minh City, famous as Vietnam's Chinatown, a
repository of Chinese culture, has a rival.
The Hoa Dinh Market, around 30 kilometers from Hanoi, could well
be hailed as another Chinatown.
The market in Bac Ninh Province is one of the biggest agricultural
produce suppliers in the country, and most of its products come
from across the border.
It used to trade in local products which were famous nationwide,
but many farmers since the late 1990s have left their fields and
switched to trading Chinese produce which are several times
cheaper than local ones and thus earns them bigger profits.
A major problem with this is the lack of official supervision of the
whole process. The imports are not taxed or checked for safety.
The market trades between 200 and 400 tons of all kinds of
vegetables every day, providing stock for distributors and vendors
to sell to consumers in smaller markets in Hanoi and other
provinces, as also down south in Ho Chi Minh City.

"A hundred percent Chinese. You won't find a Vietnamese thing,"
said a trader named The.
The owns a warehouse of around 300 square meters that stores
60-70 tons of garlic and onions in packages labeled with no other
language but Chinese, and it is among many such warehouses in
the bustling market.
He told undercover Thanh Nien reporter to feel safe taking stock
from his store, as "the Chinese have special preservation methods
and their produce can be stored for a long time without getting
rotten."
The produce is transported from Tan Thanh border gate in Lang
Son Province, around 100 kilometers away, after it is imported
from Hunan, Sidong, Jiangxi and Jiangsu provinces in China.
===>>>>>9


An area more than 60,000 square meters (around 15 acres) near
the border, three times larger than Hanoi's major wholesale
market Long Bien, is used to gather the imported produce before
they are picked up by trucks.
Customs figures compiled over the first five months this year
show that Chinese carrots and potatoes are priced between
VND3,500-3,700 (around US16 cents), between two to three times
cheaper than prices in Hanoi markets.
Chinese raw produce imports to Vietnam are exempt from tariffs
and trade in fresh vegetables is free of value-added tax.
Nam, a dealer at the border who owns trucks that deliver the
Chinese produce to Bac Ninh, said suppliers like The would resell
them at prices many times higher.
"They can pocket VND140-150 million ($6,640-7,110) a trip (of

around 30 tons).
"That is not to mention times when prices of Chinese produce
drop even lower, and traders with large pockets would store a lot
of these, waiting for prices to go up and make even bigger
profits."
Vendors buying from The would accept the prices as they can mix
the products with local ones and tell buyers that they are
Vietnamese produce so that they can charge higher prices. Some
vendors do not even bother to mix them, and just sell Chinese
imports as locally produced fruits and vegetables.
They said the Chinese imports are not only cheaper, but also look
better because they are big, plump and smooth, though they do
not smell as good as locally grown produce.
Nam said dealers like him also have their own way to increase
profit by overloading their trucks, usually up to three times its
designed capacity.
A 10-ton truck would carry 30-35 tons. "The more we can carry,
the more money we make."

===>>>>>10


The trucks usually leave the border at night and arrive early in the
morning, and traders in Bac Ninh are charged VND220,000 ($10)
a ton for the delivery.
Trucks coming from around the country to buy the stock also
arrive at night.
Nguyen Van Cuong, head of Vo Cuong ward in the province's
capital town, also named Bac Ninh, said many local farmers have
become rich pretty fast with trade in Chinese produce. Some

families have been able to buy their own trucks for transporting
the goods, he said.
Cuong said there are around 20 major household businesses that
have become prominent in the region.
They earn between VND2-3 billion ($95,000-142,300) a year,
locals said. Vietnam's per capita GDP in 2012 was $1,596.
Numerous uncounted small traders also make more than $5,000 a
year, they said.
Cuong said that when local crops are out of season, between 80
to 90 percent of the supply at the market is brought from China
through Tan Thanh border gate.
Bac Ninh market managers said the traders almost always
managed to produce legal import documents and quality
certificates for their stock. So far this year, they have imposed
fines of VND8 million for the import of eight tons of garlic of
unclear origin which they seized.
But Nam said the inspections do not prove a thing as customs
officials are already bribed to let the cargo pass without close
inspection, and the traders can "buy necessary papers later."
Toxic stuff
Authorities in the Central Highlands town of Da Lat in June
dumped 26 tons of potatoes from China after samples tested
positive for excessive levels of a toxic insecticide called
chlorpyrifos, although the owner had produced adequate safety
certificates during earlier inspections.

===>>>>>11


Surveillance over two years showed the trader had been

importing potatoes from China and local vendors were mixing
these with local produce to cheat consumers.
In May this year, a wholesale market on the outskirts of Ho Chi
Minh City banned traders from selling Chinese ginger after tests
found high levels of adicarb, a highly poisonous carbamate
pesticide, in a sample.
Official figures say that Vietnam imported around 150,000 tons of
Chinese produce in the first four months this year, mostly garlic,
onions and apples.
A report on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Trade
earlier this month cited experts as saying Vietnam has a much
smaller cultivation area than China and cannot engage in the
same large-scale intensive farming.
Hence local prices cannot compete with Chinese imports, they
said.

===>>>>>12


Trang62: In Vietnam, unsustainable ‘modernization’ too
much for sanitation services
Huynh Thanh Long said he and his neighbors close all their doors
and windows whenever they are at home but that doesn’t keep
the awful stink from the Ba Bo Canal out of the house.
“Pollution often forms a thick layer of foam on the surface of the
flowing water,” said the resident of Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc
District.
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pollution in Hanoi’s rivers, the result of
untreated wastewater being discharged from series of new urban
areas built without wastewater treatment facilities.
“Over the last 20 years, the government of Vietnam has made
considerable progress on the provision of wastewater services in
urban areas, investing nearly US$250 million annually in recent
years,” said Le Duy Hung, a senior urban specialist in Hanoi.
“However, keeping pace with rapid urbanization is challenging
and it is estimated that $8.3 billion will be required to provide
wastewater services to Vietnam’s urban population between now

and 2025,” Hung, who is also a leading researcher at the World
Bank’s Vietnam Urban Wastewater Review, wrote in a report
released on January 20.
The report focuses on the specific challenges that Vietnam faces
as a result of increasing environmental pollution associated with
rapid urbanization. It also evaluates the performance of the
wastewater sector in Vietnam.

===>>>>>13


It found that although 60 percent of households dispose of
wastewater through a public sewerage system, much of this goes
to the drainage system with only 10 percent of the wastewater
treated.
Hung said estimated economic losses resulting from poor
sanitation stood at $780 million per year, or 1.3 percent of the
country’s GDP.
“Financing needs are still very high, estimated at $8.3 billion for
sewerage services to an estimated urban population of 36 million
by 2025,” he said.
Industrialization problem
Apart from untreated wastewater from residential areas, pollution
also comes from industrial zones, threatening public health and
sustainable growth.
Recently, many farmers in HCMC’s Cu Chi District complained that
they do not have water for nearly 400 hectares (988 acres) of rice
due to pollution in the Thai Cai and An Ha canals.
They accused the SEPZONE - Linh Trung 3 Industrial Zone of
discharging untreated wastewater to pollute the canal.

Vietnam’s first industrial parks opened in 1991 as part of thedoi
moi reform movement, and there are currently more than 189
industrial parks and 878 export processing zones nationwide in 57
of the country’s total 63 cities and provinces.
Vo Thanh Thu of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and
Industry’s international trade policy advisory committee said that
rapid industrialization over the past 20 years had led to a boom in
industrial parks and export processing zones.
However, it has also led to serious pollution, leading to conflicts
with local residents.
“Only half have established waste treatment plants,” Thu said at
a recent seminar on the issue, organized by the People and
Nature Reconciliation (PanNature) a Vietnamese non-profit
organization.

===>>>>>14


Thu said that toxic waste is discharged without treatment,
causing serious pollution to the environment.
The committee urged the government to review industrial park
and export processing zone zoning plans and encouraged
agencies to cooperate to improve the monitoring of environment
regulations.
Action needed
Researchers estimated that investment levels of at least $250 per
person are needed annually in the East Asia region over the next
15 years to manage wastewater and septage that is generated by
the urban population.
In another World Bank report, entitled East Asia Pacific Region

Urban Sanitation Review: Actions Needed, researchers examine
what is holding back the sector and recommend ways to expand
and improve urban sanitation services in an inclusive and
sustainable way in Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The region’s rapid urbanization is an engine of economic growth
but poor quality sanitation leads to unsustainable development,
with economic losses of 1.3, 1.5 and 2.3 percent of GDP in
Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, respectively.
“Worldwide, about 2.5 billion people lack adequate sanitation and
660 million of them live in East Asia and the Pacific Region,” said
Charles Feinstein, World Bank sector manager for energy and
water.
“Inadequate sanitation takes a tremendous toll on the quality of
peoples’ lives, the environment, and the economy,” he said. “But
the good news is investments in sanitation yield high returns.”
According to the report, poor sanitation has a significant impact
on public health in the region including chronic poor health
caused by diarrheal disease and an increased risk of disease
epidemics such as cholera.
It calls for developing people-centered policies, promoting costeffective technical solutions, developing sustainable institutions
for quality services and developing viable financial schemes.
===>>>>>15


Returns on sanitation investments are also high.
Worldwide, every US dollar invested in sanitation yields $5.50 in
return in terms of economic benefits.
In East Asia, this rate of return is even higher, with every US
dollar spent yielding $8 in return, according to the World Health
Organization.

===>>>>>16


Trang 63 : Doing good to feel good
Over the last 12 years, the life of Marc De Muynck, a 64-year-old
French veteran, has been ruled by the simple desire to help those
less fortunate than him.
When he came to Vietnam in 2001 after retiring from the military,
he was a tourist, but also on a mission of delivering gifts from a
French veteran association to an orphanage in the Mekong Delta
province of Dong Thap.

The Frenchman was stricken by the plight of the abandoned
children. After the three-month trip, he returned to his home,
Arras in Northern France, and interned with a volunteer
organization engaged in humanitarian activities around the world.

He worked with several non-governments until 2007 when he
returned to Vietnam and started projects on his own.

"My volunteering experience with some NGOs did not satisfy me. I
did not really find my place. Very often, a volunteer is given a
specific task and has very little or no involvement in projects or
decision-making,"said Muynck, whose friends call him Minh.

During his first years in Vietnam, Muynck initiated several
different projects, from helping upgrade a nursery in his
residential neighborhood in Ho Chi Minh City which was often
flooded during torrential rains, to building houses for poor people

in the southern province of Dong Nai.

The projects were conducted in cooperation with humanitarian
organizations or his friends, acquaintances and even tourists who
donated medicines, school stationeries, and toys.

===>>>>>17


Two years later, he founded the association Les Enfants du
Dragon (The Children of the Dragon) with his friend, Bui Huy Lan,
a Vietnamese-French dentist based in Northern France, to help
poor people and orphans in the Mekong Delta and part of the
central region.

With 11 core members, a dozen volunteers, and the support of
local governments, other NGOs, and numerous fundraisers, the
association tries to meet every need of the needy.

It has built houses, bridges, ensured clean water supply to poor
localities,
provided scholarships and bicycles, opened free
English and French courses for children, supported teacher
training projects, supplied walking sticks for the elderly,
entertained sick children and organized camping trips for
orphans.

Les Enfants du Dragon also runs farms that culture spirulina a
kind of nutritious algae usually recommended as food supplement
to combat malnutrition and supplies it to orphanages and centers.

About one-third of the farms' output is for sale to generate funds
for the association's activities.

What motivates him is, Muynck said, the smiles of children when
they are given gifts like bicycles, and the tears of happiness of a
poor family when given a roof above their heads.

"Man can only feel happy when helping people who are less lucky
than himself, when bringing joy to kids without parents."

After 12 years, what does he feel about his work?

===>>>>>18


"I have not finished my mission yet."

He said his "foremost"desire now is to carry out the association's
"heart project" an orphanage for about 100 children in the
southern province of Long An.

When the project is finished, he will see if he wants to take a short
rest, he said.

"But, for now I still have enough energy to help other people. ["¦]
There is always more to do, to do better."

Sweet lifestyle

While most of the association's core members are French and

Swiss nationals living in their own countries, Muynck, despite
having his own family in France, is among the few members who
are based in HCMC so that they can work directly with local
governments, volunteers, and beneficiaries.

"I am retired, and I like the sweetness of the Vietnamese lifestyle,
and the southern heat."

He said one of difficulties he faced at the beginning was building
a stable network of volunteers.

Initially lots of people volunteered, but many would also retreat
quickly, either because they found the work hard and timeconsuming, or because they did not get the recognition they

===>>>>>19


expected from the association's leaders, and perhaps even more
from beneficiaries, he said.

"But, in the end, we managed to form a small but strong and
united team of loyal members."

Currently, there are a dozen of full time volunteers, both
Vietnamese and French expats, working with Les Enfants du
Dragon.

Occasionally, foreign donors also come to visit their beneficiaries
and take part in volunteer work like building houses for the poor,
and playing with children they had adopted by providing financial

assistance.

These days Muynck is busy checking the progress of construction
sites, visiting beneficiary families, attending meetings organized
by local authorities, and updating the association's website and
his personal blog to keep members and supporters informed.

He also joins other members in finding partners and donors
online.

Dr. Lan, who is in charge of the association's work in France, said
Muynck has done his job "very well," and thanks to him, Les
Enfants du Dragon's activities are always "transparent."

Lan, who has always wanted to contribute to his home country,
said he has found a kindred spirit.

===>>>>>20


"Muynck has a heart for Vietnam and its people."

===>>>>>21


Trang 64 : Vietnam economists warn against addiction to
foreign investment
Belatedly, Vietnamese experts wake up to the danger of being
addicted to foreign investment and resultant loss of self-reliance

A worker in an assembly line at a South Korean mobile phone
factory in northern Vietnam
Vietnam is opening its doors wider to attract foreign investment
hoping that will help its economy recover, but economists warn
against undue dependence on overseas investors.

Vietnam is in active negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Strategic
Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) and plans to allow more
foreigners to buy housing in the country.

Nguyen Dinh Cung, head of the Central Institute for Economic
Management (CIEM), said: “It is now the time to review what
negative and positive impacts FDI has on Vietnam.”

According to international norms, FDI should account for only 5
percent of gross capital formation, he said, but in Vietnam, it now
makes up 25 percent, which may cause risks to the economy.

Economist Pham Chi Lan concurred, saying: “The development of
an economy cannot rely on foreign firms, only local ones. Foreign
investors could leave Vietnam for other markets when the country
no longer has advantages or offers them the incentives it does
now.

===>>>>>22


“What will happen to our economy if investors leave Vietnam en
masse like they did in Thailand in 1997? The reliance on FDI is a
big challenge to economic development.”

Current policies only benefit foreign firms and cause difficulties to
local private businesses, she said.

Equal treatment

“No country offers incentives to foreign investors like Vietnam. We
should review our policies, cutting out too generous incentives for
foreign investors and providing equal treatment to local private
firms.”

Bui Kien Thanh, another economist, said many provinces, which
want to compete with others in attracting FDI, offer them too
many incentives but do not know if the projects are useful.

“They are exempt from corporate tax and get thousands of
square meters of land free in industrial parks for many years.

“On the other hand, local firms find it hard to get even 100 sq.m
for their workshops.

“Authorities should reconsider the issue. Why do we cause
difficulties for our local firms? FDI should support development of
our products instead of overwhelming Vietnamese firms. Our
firms are being crushed by foreign firms.”

===>>>>>23


Unable to compete with foreign rivals, many local firms have

disappeared from the market. Some firms with good brand names
have been bought up by foreign rivals in the last two years when
they faced financial difficulties.

Thanh urged the government not to let local firms with good
products, good markets, and good management be in a position
where they cannot compete with foreign firms only because they
cannot get bank loans.

“The government should implement a monetary policy which
ensures enough money flows for the economy’s development,” he
said.

“Private firms should play the leading role in the economy. Stateowned enterprises should work to serve the development of
private firms, while foreign invested firms should support it.”

Limited contribution

Lan said the country has been too friendly in inviting in foreign
investors, and the economy has lost much and gained little with
this approach.

Many foreign companies are benefiting from cheap Vietnamese
resources, including labor, but abuse transfer pricing and
announce losses to avoid paying taxes, she said.

Economist Dinh The Hien said foreign businesses' contribution to
the country is not worth the damage caused to the country's
resources and environment.

===>>>>>24


The FDI sector was the best performer in the country with a trade
surplus of $14 billion last year compared to a deficit of $13.1
billion made by the state and domestic private sectors.

But its importance to the country's overall growth was not high
because its exports had little to no added value, the General
Statistic Office said.

Economist Nguyen Minh Phong said the biggest disappointment
with FDI projects is that they have done very little technology
transfer to benefit Vietnam.

Foreign investors tend to keep their technologies secret while
local authorities do not demand them, he said.

The lack of technology transfer might not be a good thing but the
situation can actually be worse if Vietnam becomes a dumping
ground for outdated technologies.

Many foreign investors focus on exploiting cheap natural
resources at low prices, and use outdated technologies, harming
the environment.

Fourteen percent of foreign businesses use outdated
technologies, more than twice the number that use high-tech
methods and equipment.

Thanh said the country needs to tweak its FDI policies, forcing
foreign investors to use new technologies and be content with
fewer incentives, and offer more incentives to local private firms.
===>>>>>25