Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

Some serious thoughts on the ramifications of Scientology and Monsanto for Vietnam

Learning music from the age of eight until 22, spending over 10 years with their instruments, classical musicians in Vietnam are in danger of being thwarted by not being recognized and appreciated appropriately, and by mechanisms do not allow them to be competitive and grow.

“The sooner you French investors come to the Vietnamese market, the bigger fish you can catch,” a Vietnamese senior state official told the Vietnam–France Business Forum held in Ho Chi Minh City early last week.

The Ministry of Finance is drafting the amended VAT law to be submitted to the National Assembly for ratification in the upcoming National Assembly’s 5th session. Under the draft, more products would be subject to the 5 percent tax instead of the current rate of 10 percent.

The Ninh Thuan provincial adminsitration began Thursday culling around 100,000 swifts raised for profitable nests at a local farm after the influenza A (H5N1) virus has been found among them for the first time in Vietnam and the world.

Vietnamese authorities seeking to stop a well-known democracy activist from meeting an American diplomat last weekend deployed an unusual weapon — a group of elderly ladies.

Vietnam will not be able to rescue the real estate market if it only relies on the domestic resources. The government has been urged to allow foreigners to buy houses in Vietnam to increase the demand.

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers and activists called Thursday for the United States to press Vietnam to free dissidents and allow greater religious freedom as the two nations hold talks on human rights.

The Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute has urged to build up a nuclear science & technology center, saying that this is an important link of the national program on developing nuclear power, a crucial testing for the capability of implementing the program.

Concern about birth defects is deeply rooted in the country's recent history and has brought a surge in ultrasound checks

HANOI - A Vietnamese local government official was jailed for two and a half years on Wednesday for the destruction of the home of a farmer who became a national hero for resisting eviction, state media said.

Hanoi - Education in this Southeast Asian country is meant to be free. But still some families can't afford it.

HO CHI MINH CITY — It’s 5 a.m. and the streets already are buzzing. People know that the best time to shop at open-air markets is before daybreak. And they know to ask for fresh, firm vegetables grown locally, rather than in China, where dangerous pesticides are routinely overused.

HANOI — State-owned Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, or PetroVietnam, plans to keep buying foreign oil-and-gas assets and hopes to be producing close to 100,000 barrels a day of oil overseas by 2020, four times the volume expected this year, the company's chief executive said.

HANOI - A fish farmer who became a cult hero in Vietnam after fighting off an illegal eviction with homemade guns and mines was jailed on Friday for five years for attempted murder in a case that has stirred public anger over state-backed land grabs.