The Ministry of Defense has repudiated international reports that Vietnam was one of the countries participating in joint-military exercises organized by the Indian Navy from February 1-6.

Vu Chien Thang, chief of the ministry’s Diplomatic Department, said Vietnam did not attend the Milan exercise as an observer, either.

According to Thang, the source of the mistaken reports was yet to be known.

The ministry has been unable to reach the Indian Embassy in Hanoi to learn more about the situation and India’s defense attaché was not currently in Vietnam, he said.

Previously, Indian media reported that 14 countries of the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam, would take part in the exercises organized off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A report in New Dehli quoted local officials as saying that the exercises would be focused on maritime terrorism, piracy and poaching, as well as practicing for humanitarian missions, such as search and rescue operations, and "capacity building."

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Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will chair a meeting next week on a headline-grabbing land revocation case that turned violent last month in the northern port city of Hai Phong, the government website has said.

The report quoted the letter from the Government Office issued on Thursday as saying that several central agencies like the Ministry of Public Security will also attend the meeting together with the city’s authorities.

On January 5, some 100 local police and soldiers from Tien Lang District stormed the house of 52-year-old Doan Van Vuon to force him to return a 19.5-hectare swampland allotted to him in 1997.

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However, Vuon and his family resisted, having been led to believe earlier that a compromise had been reached where he would no longer be asked to vacate the land.

Later four members of the family, including Vuon, were taken in on charges of murder and two others were let free to be investigated on charges of “acting against people on public mission.” Police said two other members who fled the scene are still at large.

Since then the case has drawn a great deal of public attention and criticism from local experts who said the revocation was illegal, given that under Vietnam’s Land Law, the right to use aquaculture land is valid for 20 years.

Dang Hung Vo, former deputy minister of Natural Resources and Environment, told the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that Vuon should be eligible to use the land until 2017, not 2009, as claimed by the district’s authorities.

Tien Lang authorities were also criticized for ordering the forces to destroy Vuon’s house which wasn’t located on the targeted land.

In the meantime, since the confrontation the district’s authorities held two press conferences in which they kept denying the accusations.

Le Van Hien, chairman of the Tien Lang People’s Committee, the local government,  for example, argued that Vuon was given the land lot on October 4, 1993, just 15 days before the Land Law of 1993 took effect, replacing the Land Law of 1987.

Although the latter stipulated that aquaculture land would be allotted for a fixed period of 20 years, Hien said Tien Lang District had every right to revoke land after 14 years as originally contracted.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has voiced its protest against China’s unilateral promulgation of a ban on fishing in the East Sea, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Ministry spokesperson Luong Thanh Nghi on Friday told the press that Vietnamese representatives had met with Chinese side to protest the ban by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture.

On January 17, a Chinese fisheries website posted the announcement by the ministry saying China will conduct the ban on fishing in the East Sea, including some marine areas of Vietnam, between May 16 and August 1.

Nghi told the press the ban violated Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands and its sovereign and jurisdiction rights over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

He added that the ban violated the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and made situation in the East Sea more complicated.

“Vietnam has undisputed sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes, and sovereign and jurisdiction rights over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the spokesman said.

Vietnam will continue to take the US as a leading development partners, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Thursday in meeting with John McCain and other US senators on a Southeast Asia visit.

He said Vietnam and the US in the coming time need to boost further cooperation in commerce and investment, and asking the senators to help persuade the US government to apply the Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP, to Vietnam.

GSP is a system of exemption that obliges World Trade Organization member countries to treat the imports of all other member countries no worse than they treat the imports of their “most favored” trading partner.

The PM also asked for greater US support to deal with aftermath of war, especially the impacts of Agent Orange, as well as with modern problems such as climate change and the rising sea levels, according to a Vietnam News Agency report.

McCain, a senior Republic senator from Arizona and a former pilot who was imprisoned for five and a half years in Hanoi during the Vietnam War, promised he would work to increase US assistance in many areas.

He said the US could help Vietnam protect the Mekong River water resource from the impacts of hydropower plants and mitigate the impacts of climate change, as well as improve the skills of Vietnamese forces working to maintain marine security.

The senator, also a vice chairman of the US Armed Services Committee, was in Vietnam for a three day visit ending Friday with three other senators Joseph Lieberman, Sheldon Whitehouse and Kelly Ayott.

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The delegation also met with Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Minister of National Defense Phung Quang Thanh.

Thanh lauded recent growth in military cooperation between Vietnam and the US, including an agreement on establishing formal military medical partnership between the two countries signed last  August.

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The Asia Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday signed a US$24.8 million support agreement to foster Vietnam’s "inclusive growth" and thus aid further poverty reduction in the country, the bank said in a press release.

Through the support agreement, ADB will provide parallel financing to the Poverty Reduction Support Credit framework supported by a number of development partners.

The framework helps the Vietnamese government carry out a wide range of policy reforms in business development, social inclusion and natural resource management to implement the ten-year Socioeconomic Development Strategy until 2020, and the Socioeconomic Development Plan 2011-2015, the press release said.

Tomoyuki Kimura, ADB Country Director for Vietnam, was cited in the release as saying that inclusive economic growth is essential for poverty reduction.

He said further efforts should be made to accelerate reforms to strengthen institutional and human capacity, governance, and policies in Vietnam to promote economic growth and address the development challenges.

Vietnam’s poverty rate declined from 15.5 percent in 2006 to 9.5 percent in 2010 as a result of rapid economic growth and improved social protection programs. But certain groups remain vulnerable to poverty. The poverty incidence among ethnic minority groups remains very high at more than 50 percent in 2009.

High inflation due to the macroeconomic imbalances has hindered Vietnam’s poverty reduction efforts in recent years. To overcome the macroeconomic difficulties and adverse impacts of the global economic crisis, the Vietnamese government has said it is committed to implementing more reforms with a focus on macroeconomic stabilization and economic restructuring.

Kimura said ADB would continue to be a reliable partner of Vietnam’s efforts to reduce poverty and promote economic growth.

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“Peace, stability and development are the shared wish of the regional countries. […] Vietnam will cooperate with other countries for these purposes,” Nghi said.

Since it was announced, the new US military strategy has provoked mixed responses. While China’s state media has expressed concerns and criticisms about the plan, other countries like Japan and India have welcomed it, saying that it will give Asia more options, according to the VnExpress report.

The World Bank agreed Thursday to lend US$ 973.5 million to Vietnam for three poverty reduction and infrastructure projects.

The projects are the $613.5-million Da Nang – Quang Ngai Expressway, $210-million Medium Cities Development project, and the $150-million 10th Poverty Reduction Support Credit. 

“It is the first time that the World Bank is financing an expressway in Vietnam," said Victoria Kwakwa, the bank’s country director in Vietnam.

"This is in recognition of Vietnam’s need for modern infrastructure as it addresses emerging challenges of a lower middle income country.”

“The other credits signed today are expected to provide urban infrastructure in three medium [sized] cities with potential for development in their region, and contribute to implementation of Vietnam’s reforms.”

The Da Nang – Quang Ngai highway is expected to reduce the incidence of accidents, and facilitate domestic and international trade.

The Medium Cities Development project is expected to provide better urban infrastructure for 520,000 residents in the cities of Lao Cai, Phu Ly and Vinh.

The 10th Poverty Reduction Support Credit will support policy and institutional reform under four main themes of the 2006 – 2011 Social Economic Development Plan — business development, social inclusion, natural resources management, and modern governance.

More than one fifth of Vietnam’s total area is contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO) and it woud take 300 years to complete decontamination at the current pace, an official said.

However, concerned authorities are looking to reduce the period to 100 years, said major general Pham Quang Xuan, Commander of the Defense Ministry’s Engineer Corps.

Xuan made the statement during a conference held January 6 to announce a plan to decontaminate UXOs in 2012 prepared by Committee 504, the national agency assigned to deal with UXO consequences between 2010 – 2015 (Committee 504).

According to Xuan, around 6.6 million hectares (16,308,888 acres) – equal to 21 percent of the country’s total land area, was contaminated with 800,000 tons of UXO, not including those at sea.

The Committee 504 has set a target to clear UXOs in the next 100 years after calculating that the work would be done in 300 years at the current pace.

“In the next five years, decontamination work will focus on six provinces with high density of UXO – Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien – Hue, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai,” VnExpress quoted Xuan as saying.

He said a detailed map of UXO-tainted areas nationwide would be drawn up by 2015.

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According to the Committee 504, the US Army discharged more than 15 million tons of bombs, landmines and other explosive materials on Vietnam with around 800,000 tons of UXO left behind after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

Between 1975 and 2000, UXOs killed more than 40,000 people and injured 60,000 others in Vietnam. The nation spends about US$100 million a year on UXO decontamination.

A man (L) stands in front of an ATM while a homeless man sleeps in front of an advertisement on a street in Hanoi January 3. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has acknowledged the surging influence interest groups have on the policymaking process, calling for increased transparency to tackle the issue.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has become the second Vietnamese leader in the past three months to acknowledge the surging influence interest groups have on the policymaking process, arguing for increased transparency to tackle the issue.

“These interest groups could sway the decision making process [of the government],” Dung wrote in an article conveying his New Year message.

Dung has been the second leader to point the finger at this pervasive nuisance since Vietnam embarked on new economic reforms three months ago, exhibiting the country’s determination to ward off one of the toughest hindrances standing in the way of fulfilling the intent of the shakeup.

At a meeting of the Party Central Committee in October, Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong stressed the necessity to restructure the economy along with overhauling the growth model, chalking out three priorities: public investment, finance and state-owned enterprises.

“The investment strategies, planning, and policies must not be swayed by interest groups,” Trong said at that time.

Analysts have expressed concern that the reform path, albeit touted as a significant step, could face fierce resistance because it aims to loosen the grip powerful interest groups have on the political process. They add that special interests groups operate from behind the scenes, making their influence difficult to trace. For instance, golf courses and hydropower projects, which accrue profits for only a few interested parties, continue to sprout up in the country despite widespread public outcry.

“The execution of transparency and integrity [in the government decision-making process] will enable the public to have more of a chance to monitor government agencies, playing a crucial role in fending off the influence of interest groups,” Dung wrote in his article. “That would ensure every government decision is made… for the sake of the entire country.”

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“Vietnam has made great strides in improving transparency in many areas, but there remains a long way to go,” Victoria Kwakwa, the World Bank country director for Vietnam, said.

The Vietnam Development Report 2010, prepared by the World Bank together with other partners, pointed out that although a great many laws call for certain information to be public, in reality information is often difficult to obtain.

“Whether it is the unofficial payments that beset firms and citizens or the misappropriation of funds in state-owned enterprises, corruption forces the honest and hard-working people of Vietnam to run uphill; lack of transparency forces them to do it in the fog,” Kwakwa said.

Analysts concurred that access to information is the key to curbing the unwanted authority of special interest groups.

“In Vietnam… too many public policy decisions are shrouded in secrecy,” Jonathan Pincus, a Ho Chi Minh City-based economist with the Vietnam Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, said.

“[The State Bank of Vietnam’s] foreign exchange reserves are a state secret. This should be public information. The activities of state-owned enterprises [SOEs] are [also] state secrets,” Pincus said.

“But how can we make SOE managers more accountable if these companies are not forced to release information about their activities to the public? What is the point of being a public company if information is not given to the public?”

Experts have blamed Vietnam’s economic woes, including 18.13 percent inflation for 2011, on excessive investment in inefficient state-owned corporations, which gobble up capital and diversify from their core competencies into sectors such as property and stocks – both of which have faltered.

“The government needs to come out with a plan to barricade itself from influence of business interests but at the same time the government also needs to take care that Vietnamese businesses develop and prosper under fair rules for all,” David Koh, a Vietnam analyst at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said.

But the bottom line is, according to analysts, the existence and influence of interest groups is not foreign to Vietnam, or any other modern government.

“Basically, everybody who should know already knows such a thing exists in Vietnam,” Koh said.

“Ultimately, people will hear whatever the government says, but will only listen to whatever the government does.”