Monthly Archives: August 2009

Gov’t vows to boost IT cooperation

 

The Hanoi Times – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung pledged to pay special attention to encouraging international IT and its applications, to create a dynamic IT market before a forum opened in Hanoi.


Addressing 1,500 representatives from over 70 countries and territories at the World Information Technology Forum-2009 (WITFOR-2009), Dung emphasised that participating countries should carefully consider the role played by IT in solving challenges to sustainable development such as the use of energy, the depletion of natural resources, climate change, epidemics and poverty.


The Prime Minister, also honorary Chairman of the forum, expressed his expectation that participants would offer initiatives and recommend programmes of cooperation o­n new technologies to sustain socio-economic development.


Basie von Solms, President of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) said he expected Vietnam as a new IFIP member would make active contributions to the world IT network.

The three-day forum covers a wide range of topics from strategies and roles played by the business circle and the society in the application and development of the IT industry, to State-private cooperation, IT in service of sustainable development and IT trends.

The topics o­n e-government, telecommunication infrastructure, human resources, IT solutions to and application of lessons in various fields such as healthcare, agriculture, environment, education and trade and business are also being covered.


On the sidelines there will be numerous events, including trade promotion and community activities in an effort to make IT accessible to ordinary people.


The national IT and communication industry last year recorded over 10 billion USD in revenue. Internet users now constitute 25 percent of the national population, while mobile phones have become ubiquitous.

The country is working o­n a development strategy to make it an international IT power, focusing o­n the legal environment and human resources for the hi-tech industry.

San pham dieu khac Dong

Product
Website
Name
Address
 
Tel. Number
Email Address
San pham dieu khac Dong
Lang nghe duc dong
Tran Lam, Y Yen ,
Nam Dinh, Viet Nam
(+84)3557329-30-31
ducdongnamdinh@yahoo.com
Product Introduction

 

 

The copper product was first originated 900 years ago, the main production province in Vietnam is Nam Dinh. The sculptures are very delicate and precise, most often seen shapes are sculptures of Buddha for religion purpose.

 

 

Not only Chinese people will buy it, bust also Vietnamese will have one at home for religion ceremony. It is not solid but hollow in the middle.

ADONG SILK

Product
Website
Name
Address
 
 
 
 
 
Tel. Number
 
 
Email Address
 
ADONG SILK
A Dong
Show room:
62 Tran Hung Dao,
Hoi An, Viet Nam.
Sale Office :
40 Le Loi,
Hoi An, Viet Nam
Tel : (84) 510.3910579
Tel : (84) 3861386  / 3863170
Fax : (84) 510.3917229
sales@adongsilk.com
adongsilk@vnn.vn
Product Introduction

A DONG SILK is a family business employing many well known Hoi An tailors. It is owned by a tailor and designer: Mr. Tran Thai Do, whose family has a tradition of garments, clothing and silk for over 50 years.

A Dong Silk prides itself on the professionalism of it’s team of highly skilled tailors. The tailoring process used is manual, and executed with high degree of accuracy and perfection. This results in the completion of even the very complex of garments within a short period of time to the satisfaction of the most demanding of customers.

Hoianhandicraft

Product
Website
Name
Address
 
 
 
Tel. Number
 
 
Email Address
Hoianhandicraft
Hoi An
Số 9, Nguyễn Thái Học,
Thị xã Hội An,
Tỉnh Quảng Nam,
Việt Nam
Điện thoại: (84)510.910216
Fax: (84)510.910216
(84)511.830477
sales@hoianhandicraft.com
Product Introduction

Back in Sixteen century, a group called Le at Ching Wah Province made the first hat with leaves of palm tree.

The color of the hat is white or green; the red ribbon is made of cotton, the color can be changed. The hat usually used with traditional dress such as “Ao Dai” during festivals.

Gom Bat Trang

Product
Website
Name
Address
 
Tel. Number
 
Email Address
 
Gom Bat Trang
Bat Trang
Battrang, Gia Lam,
Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: (84-4) 38744263
Fax: (84-4) 38744264
haphubt@vnn.vn
maytredan@yahoo.com
Product Introduction

 

People cannot help talking about Bat Trang, when they discuss about pottery of Vietnam.

 

some materials indicate that Bat Trang pottery items appeared in 16th and 17th centuries. Of which, the most precious pottery items, which have been famous in Vietnam and in the world, are pottery items with gem enamel (in Ly and Tran Dynasties), pottery items with brown enamel (by the end of Tran Dynasty and at the beginning of Le Dynasty), pottery items with crazed enamel (in Le-Trinh Dynasty) and pottery items with deep blue flowered enamel (by the end of Le Dynasty and at the beginning of Nguyen Dynasty). In the past centuries, Bat Trang pottery items were considered as high-ranking, precious and rare ones. In order to satisfy the demand of the market, Bat Trang Pottery Village makes many family use items from baked clay. Besides, plenty of pottery items with various kinds and designs make us admire the skill of craftsmen in Bat Trang Pottery Village, where there are people who make soil and fire change into gem enamel for life.

Hoianhandicraft

Product
Website
Name
Address
 
 
 
Tel. Number
 
 
Email Address
Hoianhandicraft
Hoi An
Số 9, Nguyễn Thái Học,
Thị xã Hội An,
Tỉnh Quảng Nam,
Việt Nam
Điện thoại: (84)510.910216
Fax: (84)510.910216
(84)511.830477
sales@hoianhandicraft.com
Product Introduction

Chiếu is first seen in fourteen century, and it became very popular at the beginning of twenty century. There are two kinds of chiếu, usually it is white in color, also it can be custom made according to customer’s preferences, different colors and patterns can be inked upon the chiếu. The chiếu material is jute, usually required two to three workers to make one chiếu, and usually two to three chiếu are made with three workers per day.

USAID assists handicapped people to study IT

 

The Hanoi Times - The Hanoi College of Information Technology (HCIT) and the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a contractor of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), are joining efforts in a USAID-funded program to support Vietnamese disabled people to study IT.

 

The program is aimed at providing the local disabled with international standard training courses, including those o­n IT management and software engineering for 12 months.

 

After finishing the courses, the handicapped can be independent of their own lives.

 

This program is established as a model for other initiatives to help disabled people.

 

So far 103 students have registered for courses both in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and 75 o­nes have completed o­ne-year courses in Hanoi, including 64 finding out jobs or chances for apprenticeship.

 

At least 125 Vietnamese handicapped youngsters will finish the software engineering course when the program expires in 2010. Besides, 200 blind and deaf students will complete courses of fundamental computer skill.

Open university teaches street children how to avoid HIV

VietNamNet Bridge – “Should we keep the child if her mother has HIV? And when its parents die, who will take care of it?”

The young man burst into tears as he asked these questions of social workers during a forum for homeless teenagers at HCM City Open University last weekend.

The youth, who is a drug addict and also HIV positive, was one of many people who expressed high anxiety about their state of health and the future that awaits them.

The seminar seeking to promote a healthy life for street teenagers in the city was organised by the university’s Centre for Applied Social Work.

More than 60 street teens addicted to drugs or infected with HIV or both were invited to listen to doctors and social workers on how to quit their drug habits and get information about organisations that could support them.

Several such seminars have been held over the past year under a project launched by the university to help more young addicts to kick their habit and give them the information needed to prevent epidemics, especially of sexually transmitted diseases.

Lost limbs

Dr Nguyen Dang Phan of the Binh Dan Hospital, who spoke to the teenagers during the seminar, said he has witnessed many people die and others lose their limbs because of drug abuse.

During 2004 and 2006, he had witnessed 85 HIV/AIDS patients die at the Mai Khoi Charity Medical Centre. Ninety-three per cent of them were male drug users.

Phan said 66 per cent of HIV positive people were infected through drug abuse, and 18 per cent got the virus through unsafe sexual intercourse.

About 70 per cent of them are from poor or broken families, he said.

Le Thi My Hien, director of the Centre for Applied Social Work and sociology lecturer at the university, said a group of 15 former drug users was established under the project last September.

They were given the responsibility of inviting other drug-using teenagers they know to join the club for further support.

“On a weekday, the teenagers walk around parks and public places to encourage their peers to stop the habit. So far, more than 700 teenagers have been brought to the club for frequent information exchanges with socials workers and health experts,” Hien said.

Every week, a volunteer introduces 15 to 25 teenagers to the centre. Its target this year is to help more than 1,000 people.

Join the club

Le Minh Thien, a 19-year -old street boy, said he has been homeless since he was 12, when his parents divorced. He sells lottery tickets, newspapers and polishes shoes to feed himself.

“I have used drugs for four months but I decided to stop. This is the first time I am coming here. I will ask my friends to join the club,” Thien said.

Vietnam prepares guidelines for school teachers

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training is preparing a set of guidelines for teachers in a bid to end the passive approach to teaching and learning in today’s classrooms.

The guidelines will help teachers disseminate knowledge and skills in line with the ministry’s standards for each grade, Nguyen Hai Chau, deputy director general of the Secondary Education Department, told Tuoi Tre newspaper in an interview.

Teachers will no longer have to stick solely to the textbooks but will be free to use their imagination and employ other materials too.

The brighter students will no longer be held back and the slower students will be taught at their pace, so teachers won’t have to lower their classroom standards to the lowest common denominator.

“However, to make the renovation of teaching methodology effective and improve the quality of education, we still need a specific plan and efforts at many levels, not only by the teachers,” Secondary Education Department Director General Le Quan Tan said in a different interview with Tuoi Tre.

This means teacher training schools will have to change their methodology as well, Tan said.

In addition, teachers will need an open database of reference materials, and conferences for sharing their classroom experiences.

For a long time now, many Vietnamese teachers have merely tried to stuff the contents of their textbooks into their students’ heads within a short period, without being able to identify which standards their students should attain at least, Chau explained.

So what happens in class is that the students just write down what their teachers say or read out to them.

“This gives the impression that the students are stuffed with too much knowledge and are therefore overloaded,” Chau said.

“Many teachers are under pressure to teach every theory mentioned in the textbooks, so they have no time to try other teaching methodologies or help students practice their skills,” Tan said, adding that since the last school year his ministry has increased the number of periods where students do scientific experiments or go on field trips to two weeks in total.

Neither Chau nor Tan would say when the guidelines might be published.

Arguments

While the education ministry hopes the guidelines will improve the quality of teaching and learning from primary to high school, some teachers reckon it has the wrong end of the stick.

Hong Quynh, a high school teacher in Hai Phong, said that, without a change in the current methods of testing students, any alteration of teaching methodology would mean nothing.

Quynh is referring to the common exam practice whereby students merely regurgitate what they have memorized, instead of demonstrating that they understand a problem or can apply their knowledge.

His colleague Le Van Dung agreed. “Without a synchronous renovation of everything from syllabus to teaching to examinations, teachers and students will remain trapped in a vicious circle.

“Neither the students nor the teachers are in favor of stuffing children’s heads with knowledge,” Dung said.

Asked about the widely criticized examination system, Tan from the ministry said reform was on the way and would accelerate in the upcoming school year.

Other teachers think infrastructure is the most pressing problem, among them Nguyen Hoang Trung of Duong Dong No.1 Secondary School in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.

Infrastructure is the first thing that must be fixed if teachers are to employ new teaching methodologies, which often feature information technology applications, Trung said.

“The current infrastructure at most schools is inadequate in this regard,” he said.

Literature teacher Nguyen Hoai Anh of Hanoi thinks otherwise.

“Each teaching methodology has its good points. Whether it is effective or not depends on the teachers and how they employ it with different students and subjects,” she said.

Other changes

Besides teaching guidelines, the education ministry is drawing up regulations for estimating and categorizing the performance of primary school children.

First to fifth graders won’t be tested in several subjects like music and drawing anymore; instead, their report cards will only contain their teachers’ remarks, said Le Tien Thanh, director general of the education ministry’s Primary Education Department.

For the new school year, the ministry is forming a nationwide network of the better high schools to try out new ideas like full day classes, more English periods per week, and teaching mathematics, physics and chemistry in English.

Hi-Tech business incubators begin to lay golden eggs

VietNamNet Bridge – The Hoa Lac High-tech Business Incubator (HBI) of the Hoa Lac High-tech Park presented its first products on July 21, 2009. “There will be new breakthroughs now that the High-Tech Law became effective on July 1, 2009,” said Dr. Nguyen Van Lang, the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology and the Head of the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park Authority.

Dr. Nguyen Van Lang, the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology and the Head of the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park Authority

What were the first products of HBI?

HBI has 13 teams and 8 companies that have so far created about 30 products. Of these, many have practical applications. For example, the Green Joint Stock Company created nearly 10 products including LTH 100 that treats pollution in rivers and lakes. The AI Vietnam Company has a full range of products.

At this time, several people who have doctoral degrees from Germany are making pineapple extracts and ant-egg powder extract which is to be available soon. In the near future we will examine and appraise teams and the companies to see how good they really are. Although we don’t have the statistics, I can say that many companies are making money selling their products. LTH 100 of the Green Joint Stock Company is a hot seller and production cannot keep up with the demand. AI Vietnam earned VND20 billion annually from its online schooling which has attracted 6,000 visitors a day.

Apart from applicable products, in the HBI there are also teams that are doing basic research such as that on stem cells. How is that going?

You are referring to the research team directed by Dr. Bui Xuan Nguyen. They are making progress but stem cell research is a long-term endeavor. And we do plan to set up a private, modern research area for their research.

Conventional wisdom holds that a business will leave HBI after it attains a degree of success. Is this necessarily so?

In other parts of the world one can see that incubated businesses move on within five years. There are, however, exceptions. For example, several companies in the Republic of Korea stayed with a high-tech business incubator for more than 10 years. But generally they do move on. The Green Joint Stock Company and AI Vietnam are expected to leave HBI in the near future and the Kim Cuong Company has already left.

How does HBI benefit in its role as ‘midwife’ to high-tech businesses?

For now, we don’t mind benefits to us. They make products, sell them and get all the profit. We just create a work environment for them, help them solve difficulties and give them investment advice. Seriously, the national strategy is to incubate about one hundred businesses at the same time. Then incubated high-tech businesses will leave HBI and work independently, contributing to the development in the country.

It seems that HBI is still very ‘quiet’…

Many businesses have applied to be a part of HBI but we have had to say ‘no’ to them because we just don’t have the infrastructure. Our plan is to have a 4.1 ha area ready to go in 2010, at a cost of about VND200 billion, to host high-tech businesses and meet their needs for research and production.

There are a lot of high-tech business incubation centers in Vietnam. Are they all operating as non-profits? They seem to function differently. Would you explain that?

Any business group can establish what could be called an incubator, and that usually becomes a subsidiary company. In Vietnam there are no laws, standards or legal corridors for high-tech business incubators. Once such laws are in place, I hope that everything will run smoother.

How would you compare HBI to other high-tech business incubators in Vietnam?

Of the 20 high-tech business incubation centers in Vietnam, HBI in the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park is the best.

How will the High-tech Law, which in a way is now in effect, affect high-tech parks in general and high-tech business incubators in particular?

I believe that there are no high-tech laws in any country. At this time I don’t know how this Vietnamese High-tech Law will affect anything. I think that its almost meant to create legal corridors and directions for high-tech development and application.

But won’t this law have some affect on high-tech businesses?

Well, for now this is just a law on paper. Until guidance decrees are issued we can only guess. I am sure that the law will prioritize high-tech parks.

Who do you think will receive assistance or what we could call priorities?

Those involved in manpower training would be one area. Universities have got to start offering high-tech classes and degrees. Those who invest in high-tech parks/projects will also obtain priorities. And I expect that high-tech businesses will be given ample tax breaks.

How were high-tech parks conceived and designed?

Before the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park was built we visited many high-tech parks in foreign countries, and they vary widely. Silicon Valley in the US is very different from Hsinchu in Chinese Taipei, and high-tech parks in Japan differ from those in India and the Republic of Korea. We visited many places and made the comparisons. I think the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park is similar in many ways to high-tech parks in China and Chinese Taipei in that they link research and production. Up until now, teachers, researchers and producers have done whatever they do quite separately in Vietnam. We want to connect the classroom, researchers and producers.