India says BlackBerry must give access or face ban

A customer holds a BlackBerry handset at a mobile phone shop in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad August 26, 2010.

Photo: Reuters

India insisted on Friday it would block some BlackBerry services next week if the smartphone maker did not address security concerns, and government officials said they were hopeful for a solution soon.

Time is running out for Canada's Research In Motion to give India the means to track and read its secure email and instant messaging services that officials fear could be misused by militants and to create political instability.

Executives of the Canadian firm will meet Indian government officials for a second day on Friday in last-ditch negotiations aimed at finding a solution ahead of an August 31 deadline. The government has said it will take a final decision on Monday.

"We will only accept a solution which will enable us lawful interception of BlackBerry services in the interest of national security," a government official close to the talks told Reuters.

"The solution, if they come up with it, will have to go through field trials and satisfy our technical experts," he said. "The government's position does not change ... We are hopeful they will come up with some solution."

BlackBerry's troubles in India, which could cut it out from one of the world's fastest growing mobile phone markets, are the latest in the firm's global headaches as governments worry its encrypted services could be used for activities from terrorism to peddling pornography.

India is one of a number of countries putting pressure on RIM for the same reason its BlackBerry device is so popular with business professionals and politicians: confidentiality.

The governments of Saudi Arabia and other nations fear it could become a tool to plan militant attacks or for those breaking Islamic laws.

Security concerns

RIM has offered to lead an industry forum to look at India's need to have "lawful access" to its encrypted email and messenger in an effort to stave off the blocking of the popular services.

RIM said singling out BlackBerry for blocking would be counter-productive for India, as it would limit the efficiency and productivity of local firms.

But India says nothing short of a solution giving access to secure email would satisfy security agencies.

"I think these concerns have been addressed in other parts of the world. I see no reason why the Indian government and its agencies should take any risk at all as far as technology is concerned," junior telecoms minister Sachin Pilot said on Friday.

Pilot said he was hopeful the company would offer a solution.

A shutdown would affect about 1 million users in India out of a total 41 million BlackBerry users worldwide, allowing them to use the devices only for calls and Internet browsing.

RIM uses powerful codes to scramble, or encrypt, email messages as they travel between a BlackBerry device and a computer known as a BlackBerry Enterprise Server that is designed to secure those emails.

RIM has said BlackBerry security is based on a system where the customers create their own key and the company neither has a master key nor any "back door" to allow RIM or any third party to gain access to crucial corporate data.

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Vietnam needs to target quality FDI

Vietnam needs to adjust its policies on foreign direct investment (FDI) and target quality investors as the competition to attract investment becomes fiercer at both regional and international levels.

The Chairman of the Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises, Dr. Nguyen Mai, stated this after witnessing the slow progress of a number of FDI projects, with capital of several billion US dollars. A number of projects have already almost had their investment certificates withdrawn.

In an interview granted to the Lao Dong (Labour) daily issued on August 25, Do Nhat Hoang, Head of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), said that the agency has conducted an inspection of 24 projects captalised with more than US$1 billion across the country to select eligible investors.

Accordingly, the FIA will withdraw the licenses of virtual projects and not grant certificates to investors with only a limited capacity, said Hoang. However it will still consider supporting projects which are only now slowly making progress, due to the impact of the global economic crisis, or projects that have faced unexpected difficulties.

This year, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) plans to select and guide FDI projects into pivotal areas such as supporting industries, infrastructure development, the manufacture of high export value products and human resources projects in line with restructuring the economy.

However, said Hoang, to reach the target, more effort and responsibility are needed from the MPI as well as local agencies to attract more investment.

Therefore, localities need to improve their ability to appraise projects and the capacity of investors, while holding legal responsibility, instead of taking a back seat and performing only supervisory tasks.

According to the MPI, Vietnam will attract about $21 billion in FDI this year and disburse $14-15 billion during the global economy’s recovery.

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Foreign visitors to Vietnam rise sharply

Photo: Tuoi Tre

The number of foreign visitors to Vietnam in August rose by 38 percent over the same period of last year, reaching more than 430,000 despite the off-season.

According to the General Statistic Office, most of Vietnam’s major tourist markets still maintain high growth, including Cambodia, topping the list with a growth of 247 percent, followed by China 101 percent, Australia over 77 percent and Thailand over 74 percent.

Since the beginning of the year, Vietnam has welcomed 3.3 million international visitors, representing a year-on-year increase of 35 percent.

The experts forecast that the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam would continue to increase from now to the end of the year due to various important celebrations in the country including the 1000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi and the 2010 International Yacht Festival in Mui Ne, the southern province of Binh Thuan .

Besides, as part of the tourism stimulus programme which will be held in Ho Chi Minh City in November, the sale campaign for tourists with discounts from 10-50 percent is also considered attractive for tourists.

 

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Danang hosts series of AEM consultations

Photo: Tuoi Tre

A series of consultations took place in the central coastal city of Danang Thursday within the framework of the 42nd ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM-42), the fourth ASEAN Economic Council Meeting and related meetings.

At the ninth consultations between the AEM and the Chinese Minister of Commerce (AEM-MOFCOM), the ministers welcomed the completion of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) in Jan  with the abolishment of tariffs on 97 percent of the goods in the common list among six ASEAN nations, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, (ASEAN-6) and China.

More than 89 percent of current products are being freely traded among ASEAN-6 and China. Other remaining parties of ACFTA are implementing their pledges to reduce tariffs as scheduled in the ASEAN-China Agreement on Trade in Goods (TIG).

The conference also recognised the results of the forum on China-ASEAN Free Trade Area that was held in Nanning, China, in Jan this year to celebrate ACFTA implementation.

The ministers reached consensus on consolidating the implementation of the TIG Agreement and approved concrete rules of origin that have been transposed to HS2007 in ACFTA to be supplemented to the TIG Agreement.

They emphasised the importance of implementing the regulation to grant amended certificate of origin and said they hoped for the early signing of the second protocol on amending the TIG Agreement of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and China .

The ministers hailed China’s proposal to organise a seminar on cross-border trade payment in Chinese yuan to facilitate ASEAN-China trade and economic cooperation.

They welcomed the progress of the feasibility study of the expanded Tonkin Gulf economic cooperation and said they hoped the study would be finalised as soon as possible.

At the 16th consultations between the AEM and the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, they expressed their pleasure that the flow of foreign investment capital from Japan into ASEAN increased from US$4.7 billion in 2008 to $5.3 billion in 2009.

Japan ’s investment made up 13.4 percent of ASEAN’s total investment in 2009, they said.

They recognised the results of the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the ASEAN-Japan Economic Cooperation, the Intelligent Community Initiative, the Asian sustainable chemical safety plan, the Asian knowledge economy initiative, the future prospect of the Japan-ASEAN economic cooperation and the ASEAN-Japan Industrial and Economic Cooperation Committee.

At the second Mekong-Japan industrial economic ministerial conference, the ministers welcomed business proposals to the Mekong-Japan industrial and economic cooperation that were presented Wednesday at the dialogue forum for Mekong and Japanese businesses and government.

They discussed and approved an action plan to implement the Mekong-Japan Industrial and Economic cooperation initiative to be reported to leaders of the fourth Mekong-Japan Summit slated for October 2010 in Hanoi .

Other events include the Mekong-Japan consultations, the AEM+3 consultations, the AEM+3 consultations with the East Asia Business Council (EABC), the AEM-RoK consultations and the AEM-CER (Closer Economic Relations countries of Australia and New Zealand ) consultations.

 

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Five lose licences over long delays at Ben Tre IZ

The management board of industrial parks in Ben Tre Province has revoked the investment licenses of five companies because of delays in implementing their projects.

The companies are A&B Animal Feed Production, Greenfield Organic Fertilizer Production, Hoang Thy Concrete Production, and two seafood processing companies, Le Anh and Cao Tri.

All of the companies planned to operate at Giao Long Industrial Park in An Phuoc Commune in Chau Thanh district with total rented area of 5.5ha and investment capital of more than VND200 billion (US$10.5 million).

The licences were granted last year but no factories have been built.

Ben Tre Province has two industrial parks, Giao Long and An Hiep, located in Chau Thanh District, with 29 licensed investment projects.

Giao Long has 21 investors with total rented area of 60ha, of which 10 are operating.

Last year, the Government approved the construction of five new industrial parks in the province, covering a total area of 1,200 ha.

The province has hastened infrastructure construction in an aim to attract more investors to its industrial parks.

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Agriculture sees annual growth of 3.8 percent

The agriculture sector is striving to reach an annual GDP growth rate of 3.5-3.8 percent during the 2010-2015 period.

At the sector’s patriotic emulation conference in Hanoi Tuesday, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan said that the sector should focus on building a modern and sustainable agricultural sector which is capable of producing high quality and competitive commodities in large volumes, while ensuring the nation’s food security.

The sector plans to achieve an annual production growth of 4-4.5 percent and an increase in export turnover of 6.5-7 percent to US$21 billion per year. It will attempt to increase forest coverage to 43 percent, realise a seed crop output of 47 million tons, including 40 million tons of rice, and an annual seafood output of 4 million tons. Farmers per-capita incomes are also expected to reach VND20 million per annum.

According to the deputy minister, agriculture is the economic sector to suffer the most from climate change, disasters, epidemics and international competition, while the amount of useable land and number of workers are diminishing.

To reach this target, Tan said that the sector has put forward a number of solutions on science and technology, marketing, human resources development and investments in technical infrastructure and production.

During the 2006-2010 period, the agriculture and rural development sector made many important achievements in rice, other industrial crops, animal husbandry and seafood production, earning between VND50-200 million, VND7 billion, per hectare per year. Its added value rose by 3.4 percent per year compared with the Government’s target of 3-3.2 percent.

Also in the reviewed period, Vietnam exported almost 25 million tonnes of rice worth more than VND10 billion and ensured its food security. The nation exported more than $20.6 billion of seafood and its forest coverage has risen from 38 percent in 2006 to 39.8 percent in 2009.

From 2006-2009, the sector approved 160 ODA projects totalling almost $1.42 billion, of which non-refundable aid made up 45 percent.

A number of Vietnam’s agro-forestry and fisheries trademarks are now firmly established in domestic and foreign markets such as Mekong Delta tra fish, Vinh Long province’s Nanh Chon rice, Dien Bien rice, Nam Roi grapefruit and Buon Ma Thuot coffee.

 

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Industrial output up year-on-year

Engineers check the quality of newly-made glass products at US-invested SEMCO Company. Glass production is among the nation's most important industries and recorded high production growth in the first eight months of this year.— VNA/VNS Photo Hong Ky

HA NOI — Viet Nam's industrial output was worth VND504.2 trillion (US$26.1 billion) to the end of August - 13.7 per cent higher than for the same period last year, reports the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The figure surpassed the nation's target of 12-per-cent growth for 2010.

Industrial-production value was VND69.5 trillion ($3.6 billion) in August, up 1.6 per cent from July and 15.2 against the same month of last year.

But August growth was the lowest in five months.

Industrial output grew by 3.8 per cent in April, 3.5 per cent in May, 2 per cent in June and 3.4 per cent in July.

The foreign-invested sector achieved the highest growth - 17.3 per cent or VND212.3 trillion ($11 billion); the private sector 12.7 per cent, VND177.4 trillion ($9.2 billion); and the State-owned sector just 9 per cent, VND114.5 trillion ($5.9 billion).

Several key industries achieved high growth. Liquefied petroleum gas increased by 210 per cent; gas, 20 per cent; electricity, 21.9 per cent; powdered milk, 34.2 per cent; glass 24.3 per cent; sport shoes, 24 per cent; and refrigerators, 21.1 per cent.

Those which grew at less than 20 per cent included motorbikes,18.2 per cent; cement, 17.2 per cent; seafood, 11 per cent; and taxis, 16.4 per cent.

But crude oil fell 14.6 per cent; coal 0.2 per cent; washing machines 3.5 per cent; television receivers, 1.1 per cent; and sugar 10 per cent. The GSO attributes the declines to a fall in production. — VNS

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