VNA
Senate approves Vietnam trade agreement The US Senate on Wednesday voted 88-12 to approve a historic agreement to normalise trade relations with Vietnam and President Bush said he would sign it, Reuters reported. Calling the Senate action "a significant step" toward stronger ties between the United States and Vietnam, president Bush said: "The agreement will provide American companies with access to a large and growing market and, through the reforms it promotes, it will help create a more prosperous and engaged Vietnam...I look forward to signing it." In a quietly emotional speech, Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican who spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said he supported normalising trade relations because he could "no longer see the benefit of fighting over it." "America has moved on, as has Vietnam," McCain said. "Our duty and interest demand that we not allow lingering bitterness to dictate the terms of our relationship with other nations." During debate on the trade pact, Senator Robert Smith, a New Hampshire Republican, expressed regret the Senate would not vote on the Vietnam Human Rights Act. Smith said a number of senators had placed a "secret hold" on the bill to keep it from coming to the floor. **** More favourable conditions for foreign-invested enterprises to be made The government will create more favourable conditions to attract foreign investment to expand Vietnam's international economic co-operation and integration into the world. At a get-together in Hanoi on October 3, with foreign-invested industrial enterprises from Da Nang city northwards, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Manh Cam stressed that creating these favourable conditions is the government's consistent policy. According to Industry Minister Dang Vu Chu, the foreign-invested sector in recent years has constituted 35% of the total industrial production value and recorded a high growth rate. By September this year, 1,841 foreign-invested industrial projects with a total registered capital of US $20.197 billion had been granted licences, representing 63.6% of all investment projects in Vietnam. Their investment capital was equal to that registered in 2000. For the next ten years, Vietnam's industry aims to reach an average annual growth rate of 12-13%. For this to happen, the country needs US $50-60 billion, 40% of which is expected to come from outside sources. (VNA) **** Higher education development planned Quality is the top priority and the key task in the national higher educational development plan for the 2001-2010 period. This was agreed at a three-day national tertiary educational conference in Hanoi which ended on October 3. The conference aimed to find measures to overcome weaknesses which have existed for many years. The conference also decided to develop the scale on the basis of existing conditions so as to ensure quality. Attention will be paid to post-graduate education, focusing on training highly-qualified personnel. The educational and training sector will complete a frame curriculum for the 2001-2002 school year which will serve as the standard basis for the years to come. Reforms have been made in the university entrance exams to ensure fairness, effectiveness and lower costs. Universities are encouraged to enhance their self-management and responsibility for their operation. **** Vietnam, Malaysia exchange notes on visa exemption Vietnam and Malaysia exchanged notes on visa exemption for their citizens on September 25 and 26. Vietnamese and Malaysian citizens holding diplomatic, official, and ordinary passports who come to other country for tourism, public affairs, to visit their relatives, to attend mass media and sports activities and seminars and conferences or to do business, will not need an entry visa to visit the other country within 30 days. Members of resident diplomatic corps and consulates in the other country and their family members bearing diplomatic and official passports are exempted from normal visa requirements throughout their terms of office. This bilateral visa exemption agreement between the two countries will become effective as of November 25, 2001. Vietnam has to date allowed citizens of Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia to enter the country without visas. **** Indonesia defence academy delegation visits President Phung Huu Phu of the Hanoi People's Council has affirmed that Hanoi always attaches importance to the friendship and co-operation with regional countries, particularly Indonesia. Mr Phu told Major General Bachtial Lutfi Syukri, who is leading a delegation of the Indonesia National Defence Academy on a working visit to Vietnam, at a reception in Hanoi on October 2. He welcomed the delegation's visit as a new important landmark in the Vietnam-Indonesia relationship and informed his guests of the city's socio-economic development. Major General Syukri thanked the city's official for his hospitality and expressed his fine impression on the city's development. He said that Hanoi's experience in urban development would be a precious lesson for Indonesia in future development. (VNA) **** Vietnam, Cuba to promote IT co-operation: deputy PM Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem has praised Cuba's information technology and bio-technology and called on both countries to devise specific plans to promote bilateral co-operation in these fields. Mr Khiem expressed these sentiments at a reception for visiting Cuban Minister of Science, Technology, and Environment Rosa Elena Simeon Negrin, held in Hanoi on October 3. He noted with pleasure the results of both ministries' working sessions and both countries' co-operation in science and technology, agriculture, information technology, and construction. He expressed his hope that the two countries would continue to boost scientific and technological co-operation for socio-economic development in their respective countries. Cuban Minister Negrin conveyed President Fidel Castro's best regards to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and other Vietnamese leaders. She expressed her delight at the many common interests and goals both countries share in their science and technology development strategies and her wish for further co-operation and mutual assistance in these fields. (VNA) **** Scientific co-operation with Russia, China promoted Minister Chu Tuan Nha of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment, has paid working visits to Russia and China. While in Russia, Minister Nha held working sessions with senior officials of the Ministry of Industry, Science, and Technology; the Ministry of Atomic Energy; and the Russian Academy of Sciences, studying Russia's scientific and technological development policy. Both sides discussed measures to further promote their countries' co-operation in science and technology, information technology, new materials, and atomic energy. The minister and his delegation also visited the Lomonosov National University, the International Science and Technology Information Centre, and a number of cultural and historical sites in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. During the delegation's visit to China, Minister Nha held talks with senior officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Science Institute of China. He attended the opening ceremony of the Technology Fair held in Suzhou. The delegation also visited a number of high-tech zones in order to study how China is using science and technology in its production processes. (VNA) _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
