Support the real

Having married at 17, Luong Thi Dan’s (33) life has been revolving around her two children and the kitchen for the past 15 years. As a woman from the Xa Pho ethnic group in Dong Ve village of Lao Cai province, she had never set foot outside Van Ban district.

However, her life turned around for the better three years ago when she joined a ramie group – an economic development project launched by the district Women’s Union with help from the Australian government’s Gender Responsive Equitable Agriculture and Tourism (GREAT) project to raise up women through financial independence and addressing the backward stereotypes still abundant in rural and remote areas.

The ramie planting project supports local women with training on plantation and organisation to grow ramie, a plant commonly used as textile material that generates many times the economic value of food crops, as well as gender equality.

Since 2019, Dan has participated in many training courses to learn about new economic models, gender issues, and cooperating with other women in the village. The lessons payed out not in her newfound financial independence, but also endowed her with a sense of being stronger and more valuable. She can now cover her children’s tuition fees from her own earnings, take care of her family, and even plan for things she never dared to dream about before – like rewarding herself with her first-ever trip.

Dan’s story is just one of the threads showing subtle changes in the social weave of ethnic minority communities in Vietnam. More and more women are now taking the initiative to grow from shy and marginalised bystanders into a person of their own. Backward stereotypes that have been holding back not only women but entire communities like the complete financial dependence on the husband or women being inferior are being addressed and rolled back on a growing scale – by women who dare to take the first step.

Proving that poverty needs not be a threat looming over their heads every day and that it can be replaced with the optimism of learning, growing, and changing, pioneer ethnic minority women like Dan are becoming role models for their entire communities.

The right to make decisions

As one of the first six households in Dong Ve village to participate in the ramie planting project, Luong Thi Dien (58) said at first she was very worried about the true efficiency of this cultivar. However, in the past three years, the ramie crop has earned her family thousands of dollars each year – and transformed her from a shy woman who did not dare to speak to crowds into the leader of the ramie group in Dong Ve village, now counting 30 households.

“In the first year, we earned VND120-160 million ($5,200-6,700) per hectare from the ramie crop. After expenses, we made a profit of VND40-60 million ($1,700-2,600) per hectare, five times as much as from maize and cassava,” said Dien.

Her greatest delight was not the money, but her newfound connection to the women and the narrowing gap between men and women in Dong Ve village – not only from the enjoyment of the fruits together, but from the higher regard earned from men by the women’s work and learning.

While the ramie plantation project primarily targets women’s economic development, allowing them to be the main participants in planting and taking care of the crop. However, men are nowhere near barred – and males from all 30 households participate in production now, assuming a supporting role.

“Under the project, women can join training courses, learn about selling, marketing, and are invited to speak more,” shared Dien.

As for Hoang Thi Hue, a Tay woman living in Ma village, Khanh Yen town, wrapping banh chung (traditional sticky rice cakes) has gone from a part-time job into a full-time profession with support and sponsorship from GREAT and her household’s main source of income, helping them escape poverty and even generate wealth for the larger community.

Hue said that in the past, she prepared a few dozen banh chung each morning to sell to local shops, earning around VND2-3 million ($85-130) per month. In 2018, seeing the increasing popularity of her products, Hue has decided to expand her little side business – and now sells 300-400 cakes a day. Some of her cakes have even appeared on the shelves of minimarts in Hanoi and neighbouring provinces.

With her successful business, Hue can now afford a TV, refrigerators, and a washing machine, and visit the places she had always wanted to see, and could even remodel her home. She could even employ 10 other local workers, paying them VND3-6 million ($130-260) a month. Her banh chung business has gradually made her the breadwinner of the family and her opinions are also heard and respected more than before. Under her persuasion, her husband also gradually gave up farm work to spend more time helping her business.

Women are taking their fates into their own hands

Let go of invisible pressure

As household finances improve through the labours of female members, ethnic minority men and women are slowly but surely sloughing off backward stereotypes and traditions like child marriage, the pressure for women to have many children at a young age, or for them to submit to men.

Growing up in a Dao family with three sisters and a younger brother, Dang Thi Dien, currently living in Phuong Cong village, understands the struggles of a large family and children. Her father died early, so from the age of 12-13, she had to follow her mother to work as a labourer. At 15, she had to drop out of school due to her family’s financial difficulties. She got married at the age of 17 and now has two daughters, an 11-year-old and a 5-year-old. She got married early because she thought that there would be more people to share the housework, but if she could choose again, she would rather go to school.

“I don’t want to walk the same path as my parents. I don’t want my children to have a childhood like mine. Although many people are urging us to try for a son, we have agreed with my husband that are our two daughters are enough. We will not keep trying. Instead, we will make make sure our girls have all the conditions to be fully educated,” Dien said.

Many ethnic minority women in Van Ban and across Vietnam are gradually seeing positive changes in their power. Instead of looking for approval from their husband, family, or the community first, they now actively negotiate and share their opinions, especially in matters of finance and children.

According to Vi Thi Loan, vice chairman of the Women’s Union of Van Ban district, the notions of women being inferior to men or the absolute need to have a son still exist, especially among upland ethnic minority communities. However, through gender equality campaigns and regular activities at women’s clubs, these prejudices are slowly being eliminated.

By taking part in training courses sponsored by GREAT, the young Tay, Dao, and Xa Pho women in Van Ban have been receiving new notions that break with tradition. Now they see equality as not simply a 50-50 division of the work and responsibilities with the husband – it is more about empowering everyone to do what they love and are best at.

For the time ahead, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) will keep a proactive and flexible monetary policy basing on market developments and forecasts for the macro-economy, SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu told a meeting on April 22.

PANO – In 1972, the situation in the USA was so disorderly and the war in Vietnam plunged the USA into a serious socio-economic crisis with a high rate of unemployment and deep internal contradictions. Meanwhile, explicit and implicit struggles between the Vietnamese Government and US Administration inside and outside the Paris Talks remained fierce through August, September and October 1972.

On October 8th, 1972, the Vietnamese side proposed a draft Agreement, which all sides accepted and agreed to initial in Hanoi on October 22nd, 1972 and October 31st, 1972.

Plan on large exterminatory bombing

However, in December 1972, the Peace Talks reached an impasse. In an attempt to reach an agreement that would allow US troops to withdraw from the war with “honour”, US President Nixon threatened to launch a large destructive bombing campaign against the North of Vietnam. Yet, after the US unilateral postponement of the signing of the draft Agreement, pressure from the US Congress and people on Nixon and his Administration increased, leading to deep differences among the US Legislature, Enforcement and Justice.

At the Paris Talks, the Vietnamese side strongly reacted to the US decision. Under these circumstances, President Nixon ordered the bombing campaign, named Linebacker II, to be carried out against the North of Vietnam, in an attempt to influence the result of the Paris Peace Talks in his favour.

Nixon took a risk with this decision, as he obviously knew his action would face strong domestic and international protest. However, he and his Administration considered that they should use B52s to extensively bomb Hanoi and northern seaports in an effort to change some terms in the draft Agreement, to annihilate key Vietnamese projects in the North and to demonstrate their air power, threatening to use it again in case the Sai Gon regime were in danger in the future. Nixon also wanted to send Vietnam and the world a message “The USA does as it says!”

During the 12 days and nights of the US bombing operations, as many as 20,000 tonnes of US bombs were dropped on Hanoi and Hai Phong, and the US Air Force could mobilize an unlimited number of its B52 strategic bombers for the first time in a campaign. According to US military experts’ estimates, US air operations could reduce northern Vietnam’s residential hubs and military targets and Hanoi and Hai Phong (the two most important cities in the North) into piles of debris. In his book “Vietnam Verdict: A Citizen’s History”, Joseph A. Amter wrote that the bombing operations on Hanoi and Hai Phong were the most cruel in the Vietnam War’s history.

When the operations started, reporters from the western press and media and photographers flocked to Hanoi. Some reporters often received information from SAC and Pentagon. But what they reported from reality showed the Americans and people around the world the most terrifying and dirtiest bombing operation, where they used B52s to carpet bomb Hanoi, Hai Phong and other localities in the North of Vietnam.

Strong support for Vietnam

The cruel US air operation deeply touched people around the world. International opinion strongly rejected the action of the US Administration. People, including leaders of countries and organizations, politicians, artists, scientists, ordinary people, as well as US allies and Americans, voiced protests against the US and advocated for Vietnam.

ITASS announced that the Soviet people strongly denounced the new aggressive acts of the invaders, asked them to immediately halt their actions and quickly returned to the Paris Peace Talks to sign the Agreement, ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam.

At the same time, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that if the US Administration bypassed the peace desire of the Vietnamese people, the Americans and other peoples across the world and pursued aggressive war, the Chinese people would persistently carry out its international duties and mobilize efforts to back the Vietnamese national resistance war against the American invaders to the final victory.

Other governments around the world also voiced serious accusations regarding the large-scale devastating bombing operation that Nixon was carrying out in an attempt to force Vietnam to accept their irrational conditions, permanently dividing the country and maintaining the puppet Government in the South. US Communist Party General Secretary Gus Hall underlined that the second US bombing operations resulted in US prestige around the world dropping to the lowest-ever level.

In France, demonstrations supporting Vietnam took place in many major cities. The French Communist Party continuously made speeches on T.V. channels praising the just war of the Vietnamese people against the US invaders. French leftist newspapers disclosed the US real plot, the dishonesty of Nixon, saying that in spite of any explanations, they could not defend their continuous and extensive massacres. One daily even declared that anyone who wanted to lessen Nixon’s sin was his follower.

In Austria, the Austrian Social Party strictly asked the US Administration to immediately end the people-killing bombing operations on a small country and sign a cease-fire agreement.

In Italy, Dante Cruych, a member of the local government of Bologna sent a confidential letter to representatives of the Vietnamese Government at the Paris Peace Talks, saying that they were always on the Vietnamese side, even in such a terrible time. He reported that tens of thousands of Italian people went out to protest under heavy rain. “The great Vietnamese nation is always in our hearts,” he concluded.

The US crimes and their swindle continued to be unveiled, resulting in international opinion taking the side of Vietnam against the USA.

Translated by Thu Nguyen

At the workshop, experts said social housing nearly disappeared from the current market; therefore, they suggested some solutions to tackle the present difficulties in the real estate market in a bid to help low income earners to settle down.

According to the Ministry of Construction, the country has so far completed 249 social housing projects comprising more than 104,200 apartments in a total area of about 5.4 million square meters for low-income people in urban areas, workers in industrial zones.

Besides, localities are continuing to deploy 264 projects including 219,000 apartments. However, this number is still low compared to the plan, only reaching 42 percent of the National Housing Development Strategy’s goal.

In particular, the number of social housing in the total housing supply in localities is only accounting for 1.02 percent. In fact, statistics have shown that the number of low-priced houses under VND2 billion has decreased sharply since 2020. Currently, there are not many projects with apartments pricing below VND25 million per square meters. For instance, in Hanoi, a few social housing projects with the price below VND20 million per square meters are on sale in areas far from the center and in underdeveloped infrastructure districts such as Thanh Tri, Tu Liem, Dong Anh and Ha Dong meanwhile there are almost no apartment projects with prices below VND25 million per square meter in Ho Chi Minh City.

Presently, according to information recently announced by the real estate trading floors, real estate prices are still increasing in all segments, in which low-priced apartments have the highest increase. According to a survey of the Project on Construction of General Social Policies in Vietnam in the period 2021-2030, supported by Korea International Cooperation Agency in Vietnam, called KOICA, (Korea), in the last 5 years, the price of social places in Ho Chi Minh City has been increase about 20 percent.

The demand has continued to far outpace the supply leading to unlawful purchase and trade of social housing. Recently, real estate agents have offered to sell for VND150 million for a social house in Ha Dinh social housing project in Thanh Xuan District and the NHS Trung Van project in Nam Tu Liem District in Hanoi although they are not eligible to open for sale. Many people agreed to buy despite the risks.

Director of Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department Bui Xuan Dung said the supply of affordable housing still fails to meet increasing demand of low-income earners because the development of social housing is facing many problems. First of all, the budget allocated to the Bank for Social Policies is low with about VND2,163 / 9,000 billion satisfying 24 percent of the demand in the 2016-2020 period. Meanwhile, the capital source to compensate the interest rates for credit institutions to provide loans for the implementation of social places policy has not been provided so far.

In some localities, in urban planning, industrial zones, the land fund for social place development is not clearly defined, regulations on spending 20 percent of the land fund in commercial housing projects to develop social places have not been strictly implemented. or arranged but located in unfavorable locations or the ground clearance has not been completed. Besides, the mechanisms and policies for development of social places are not synchronous and not strong enough. Worse, some improper policies are not consistent with the market mechanism, not encourage investors to pour money to build social houses.

Therefore, Mr. Dung said many difficulties and obstacles in the policy of developing social housing will be solved in the coming time. At first, the Ministry of Construction reported to competent authorities to consider and soon allocate more capital sources according to the Government’s Resolution No. 41 to balance an additional VND1,000 billion for the Bank for Social Policies and an additional VND2,000 billion to subsidize interest rates for four commercial banks to provide preferential loans for social housing purchase.

KOICA International Cooperation Agency (Korea) on April 20 handed over the results of the Project on Construction of comprehensive social housing policies in Vietnam in the period 2021-2030 using ODA grants. re-government of Korea to the Ministry of Construction. According to the project results, experts have surveyed the real situation of social housing in eight big cities such as Hanoi, the Northern City of Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, the Northern Province of Bac Ninh, the southern provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong.

From the survey results, experts forecast that the period of 2021-2030, Vietnam needs 524,576 apartments on the area of 34,756 square meters. In which, HCMC needs 198,821 apartments, equivalent to 13,035 square meters.

Korean experts also proposed some solutions including the housing savings form of the social policy bank amongst employees and workers in industrial parks. In order to attract investors, localities should adjust mechanisms and policies so that investors increase their profits when carrying out social housing projects.

Plans were shelved for many years because of various infrastructure bottlenecks, limited connectivity of the Southern region with the City center, and the Hiep Phuoc port cluster due to sedimentation of the Soai Rap river bed.

Facilities in Ganh Rai Bay

Now, the regional landscape is starting to change. East of Can Gio, along the Thi Vai river and the East bank of Ganh Rai Bay in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, a leading port-heavy industry-energy hub is being formed. It will have the largest deep-water port in Vietnam, a heavy industrial cluster in Phu My, a Long Son petrochemical center which is under construction, and a maritime industrial cluster in Vung Tau. There will also be naval industrial facilities and an aquaculture cluster around Go Gang Island. A marine economic center there will also serve as a foundation for Vietnam to become a great maritime nation.

To the west of Ganh Rai Bay, on the side of Can Thanh, the district capital of Can Gio is still a quiet town which is facing many difficulties. The reason is that the traffic connection from Can Gio to the center of Ho Chi Minh City is rather limited, and the land is not suitable for agriculture either. Furthermore, the land bank is meagre due to natural conditions, but if you look at what is happening in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, you can see another future shaping it as the most important bay area in the South.

Possibly, Ganh Rai Bay could someday become like the San Francisco Bay Area in the US, which is now a world-leading education and technology center, but still retains nearly 18,000 hectares of natural reserve South of the bay. Ganh Rai Bay can also become like IJmeer Bay, East of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, where Almere is completely rebuilt on an artificial island of Flevoland to become the greenest city in the Netherlands. Ganh Rai Bay could also possibly one day be like Shenzhen Bay, between the economic zone of China and Hong Kong, one of the most prosperous bay areas with financial centers, technology zones, and a large deep-water port, which has still retained nearly 2,000 ha of waterfront nature reserve.

Slow response

Looking at the past history of Saigon, the new Ho Chi Minh City has always been hesitant in moving towards the sea. In its 150 year history, Saigon was a trading port since Admiral Page opened up international trade. The development of this trading port has always been constrained by indecisions of authorities. The first was the delay in transferring Saigon port from a river port to a sea port such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Then there was the failure to expand the railway network to the whole of Indochina and towards Bangkok, as originally planned by the Governor-General of Indochina, Paul Doumer.

During the Doi Moi period, Saigon port still inched slowly from Tan Cang to Khanh Hoi then Cat Lai and Hiep Phuoc ports, where the location in the City and the navigation channel were not deep enough for long-term development opportunities. In the century when island ports welcomed super-tonnage ships, Singapore encroached on the sea to build the Tuas super port in the West of the island nation, while Rotterdam encroached on the sea to build the Rotterdam World Gateway port that stretches nearly eight kilometres off the coast. The boldest move was made by Shanghai when it made Duong Son port by connecting three islands 33 kms from the mainland to become the world’s largest port with capacity for 43 million containers, which is twice the volume of all Vietnamese seaports combined.

It is clear that the Southern region of Can Gio will serve Ho Chi Minh City as a better choice in international maritime connectivity, than Hiep Phuoc. Even the Cai Mep-Thi Vai deep-water port area along 13 kms of the riverbank does not have much land to expand and will not be able to accommodate super-tonnage ships.

Looking to the future, a cluster of ports in the South of Can Gio will no longer be alone between a vast area of forests and water. However, proposals for extremely large infrastructure systems have caused controversy and concern because of risk of socio-economic activity, environmental pollution and corruption. Planning does not mean that it will build in a day, but which requires a farsighted vision of twenty to thirty years, or even a hundred years. Every option should also be considered in protecting and optimizing opportunities for the future.

Farsighted planning

Can Gio has all the requirements to become more than just an eco-tourism hub because of its location in the West of Ganh Rai Bay and close to the main channel leading to the Long Tau and Thi Vai rivers. There is possibility to develop it as part tourism urban area, while the land South of Can Gio has not been fully exploited. We must look at Can Gio with a greater vision and greater aspiration.

We can learn from the development experiences of large-scale sea reclamation projects like Hulhumale in the Maldives. Can Gio can certainly become a maritime economic hub, and in the future, Can Gio will have a population of more than 300,000 people, equivalent to a grade-1 city like Vung Tau or My Tho. With such a population size, Can Gio needs to be planned as a future city, and not just a real estate project. The economy of Can Gio then should not and cannot rely solely on a few economic sectors such as tourism or real estate.

Can Gio has the natural conditions for a biosphere reserve, and has protected forest areas in the Southeast, which can be the basis for developing an economy based on environmental conservation for tourism, fisheries, real estate, and sustainable research. However, it must be a place that does not become alien for the existing local community, and hence must develop sustainably, uniquely, retain its identity, but also remain attractive to investors.

The challenges in the future are sure to be enormous. Not only are resources becoming scarcer by the day but also much more expensive, such as sand for levelling, which can make encroachment projects less attractive in terms of investment efficiency, but also create environmental challenges. Rising sea levels and increased intensity of storms caused by climate change will increase the cost of coastal protection and the cost of maintaining coastal structures.

Countries with solid coastal protection systems, such as the Netherlands or the United States, have now changed their approach and are shifting from reliance on hard infrastructure to integration with soft infrastructure and natural ecosystems. The Netherlands gradually accumulated sand dunes and planted more coastal forests to withstand the North Sea storms, while the US pumped more silt into the Mississippi estuary to expand existing mangrove areas which formed an effective shield for inland cities.

Can Gio development also needs a combination of hard infrastructure solutions that will be immediately effective, with natural solutions that are sustainable and long-term. Urban development now requires a combination of a diverse ecosystem that will create a unique landscape, and an attractive city in real estate.

Planning for a big vision takes a lot of effort. There will be many challenges in the proposed urban development and sea encroachment planning in Can Gio for experts, who will also have to decide what scale and development model would be suitable to adapt to the geological conditions, the sensitivity of the ecosystem, freshwater supply capacity, and sand leveling source. The geo-economic strategic position may explain the direction of development, but a new thorough and transparent research will help a rational strategy towards sustainable reality, including economics for investors.

Similar to what the Japanese did in Tokyo Bay, and what the South Koreans did in Incheon Bay, Can Gio can also do the same in Ganh Rai Bay. This is a great national opportunity in which just one investor cannot stand alone. There is now a greater need for coordination between regional governments, local governments, as well as the support of all communities and experts in the field of planning and implementation

The statement put forward six initiatives, urging governments to consider economic globalization as a positive force, and to work through dialogue and cooperation to reform and perfect the international economic order and global governance systems, with policies to ensure benefits of economic globalization more widely shared.

Cross-border trade and investment liberalization are the driving forces of global development, the statement said, calling on Governments to protest trade protectionism and continue with the liberalization of trade and investment as well as reform of multilateral mechanisms and governance.

International organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum should work towards a more open, inclusive, fair and equitable bilateral and multilateral trade system, while multilateral financial organizations like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were urged to improve supervision of global finance, supporting cross-border capital flows and working to lessen impacts on the real economy.

The statement also suggested that countries implement public private partnership (PPP) model flexibly to facilitate technological innovation and cross-border movement of knowledge and information.

It called for the building of an open mechanism for multilateral cooperation to ensure balance in globalization, with infrastructure and institutional and people-to-people connectivity promoted.

Under the theme “Globalization and Free Trade: The Asian Perspective”, this year’s Boao Forum attracted 1,727 delegates who are politicians, businesspersons, scholars and reporters from 50 countries and regions.

Source: VNA