Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, May 7 (Newsmekong) - While investors and their opponents argue the pros and cons of an ambitious plan to mine bauxite deposits in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region, life for the tea and coffee farmers in nearby towns has already become a whole lot more complicated.

“For ten years now, I’ve never missed a single Chinese fair,” says Ly Thi Xuan, who is of the Hoa ethnic group from Pho Bang town in Dong Van district, Ha Giang province in north-eastern Vietnam.

 The ‘Chinese fair’ is a weekly one held just five kilometres from this town -- but across the border in Yunnan, China, with which mountainous Ha Giang shares a border. Like Ly Thi Xuan, Pho Bang residents consider this fair in Ma Pung commune in Dong Cac district in Yunnan a big event, akin to a fair.

When the floodwaters in Vietnam’s southern Dong Thap Muoi region start to recede in late November and early December, it is a sign that the busiest time for fishing communities will follow shortly.

HANOI - Trafficked women and children would receive more help to return to Vietnam and integrate back into society with the release of ministry guidelines on effective use of the law, a press conference was told here on June 27.

CAN THO, Vietnam, Jun 30 (Newsmekong) - The bustling city of Can Tho is the capital of southern Vietnam’s fertile Mekong Delta and one of the country’s two main rice baskets.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Jun 3 (Newsmekong) - Vietnamese researchers have announced significant progress in their effort to develop a prototype vaccine for the H5N1 avian influenza, despite criticism from some scientists that their methods are “unorthodox”.

BANGKOK, Nov 30 (IPS Asia-Pacific) - As the temperature drops and another cool season approaches, Vietnam's duck population is coming under attention because it is suspected to have become vulnerable to the avian influenza virus.

 

QUANG TRI, Vietnam – Ho Long’s family farm has 2,000 banana trees, from which they can pick some 20 bunches of the fruit each day. But unlike other families, Ho Long does not sell the harvested bananas in his mountain farm. Instead, twice a day, he hops on his Minsk motorbike and drives some five kilometres to the crossroads to sell their produce.

 

Breakfast in Thailand, a sumptuous lunch in Laos, and dinner before an overnight stay in Vietnam, with some shopping in between. Not only is this three-country tour drawing lots of curious tourists, it is also providing communities situated along the journey brisk -- and, for some, risky -- business.

 

It was more than a century ago, in 1901, that French colonialists began to build a railway from Hai Phong in Vietnam to Kunming, in China’s south-western Yunnan province. By the time the railway construction reached the terminal in Kunming, it was Mar. 31, 1910.