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Vietnam Opens its Securities Companies to Foreign Investors

 

The Southeast Asian nation takes first steps to increase competition as its economy and stock market slow | ECONOMICS REPORT

 

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
 
Vietnam is planning to open its markets to more foreign-owned securities companies. The plan is part of a larger effort to reduce government control of businesses and increase foreign investment. But a number of corruption cases are a concern for many Vietnamese. And rising prices could be a threat to economic growth.
 
The Vietnamese economy has slowed after about ten years of fast growth. And debt is a problem for the country’s banks. Small businesses are struggling to get loans, and some people have lost jobs.
 
In July, the government announced plans to restructure some of the biggest state-owned groups. They include the country’s biggest oil producer, PetroVietnam.
 
But the recent arrest of banker Nguyen Duc Kien for financial crimes shocked investors. Stock prices dropped sharply immediately after his arrest.
 
In September, officials announced a change in rules for foreign ownership of Vietnamese securities companies. Under the new rules, foreign banks, investment and insurance companies can buy up to one hundred percent of the shares in an existing securities company. Economists say the move provides support for privatization.
 
Vuong Quan Hoang is an economist with the University of Brussels. He says the move is an important step for Vietnam.
 
VUONG QUAN HOANG: “For foreign securities companies, I think this is going to be a good thing.”
 
But Vuong Quan Hoang says the changes will likely not be felt for another twelve months, when the economy is stronger. He says there is a lot of work to be done now. And, he adds, there could be trouble in the Vietnamese real estate market.
 
VUONG QUAN HOANG: “Right now there are issues with the real estate market, which is something big, and the interconnection between the real estate market, the securities market and the banking system.”
 
There are already growing signs of public dissatisfaction with the economy. Recently, a group of students protested near the offices of PetroVietnam and the gas company Petrolimex. One student says rising fuel prices hit poor people hardest.
 
And there is growing anger over corruption.
 
(SOUND)
 
This student says people are expected to pay bribes, providing money or gifts to officials to get the most basic services, like hospital care. Observers have welcomed the actions Vietnam has taken. But politics and the economy are linked in the country. And how well reforms will work remains unclear.
 
And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report. I’m Barbara Klein.
 
____________
 
Adapted from a report by Marianne Brown

Cave formations in the Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns National Park near Carlsbad, New Mexico

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Another World, Underground.txt

Christopher Columbus explored what is now Cuba and believed it was part of the east coast of Asia | THE MAKING OF A NATIONxChristopher Columbus explored what is now Cuba and believed it was part of the east coast of Asia | THE MAKING OF A NATION

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American History: Columbus Discovers the New World

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.
 
Generations of schoolchildren have been taught that Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. In fact, the second Monday in October is celebrated as a national holiday, Columbus Day, to honor the European explorer.
 
But October's page on the calendar also has a lesser known observance. October ninth is Leif Erickson Day. Leif Erickson was a Norse explorer who sailed around the northeastern coast of what we now call North America about one thousand years ago. He and his crew returned to Greenland with news of a place he called "Vinland."
 
Following his explorations, a few settlements were built. Experts digging in eastern Canada in the nineteen sixties found the remains of a village with houses like those in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. But the Norse did not establish any permanent settlements in North America.
 
Today, as we relaunch our series, we begin with the story of early European explorers in North America.
 
(MUSIC)
 
In the eleventh century, Europe was beginning a period of great change. One reason was the religious wars known as the Crusades. These were military campaigns by Christians to force Muslims out of the Holy Land in the Middle East. The Crusades began at the end of the eleventh century. They continued for about two hundred years.
 
One effect of the presence of European armies in the Middle East was to increase trade. This trade was controlled by businessmen in Venice and other city-states in Italy. The businessmen earned large profits by supplying the warring armies and by bringing goods from the East into Europe.

When the European crusaders returned home, they brought with them some new and useful products. These included spices, perfumes, silk cloth and steel products. These goods became highly valued all over Europe. The increased trade with the East led to the creation and growth of towns along the supply roads. It also created a large number of rich European businessmen.
 
The European nations were growing. They developed armies and governments. These had to be paid for with taxes collected from the people. By the fifteenth century, European countries were ready to explore new parts of the world.
 
The first explorers were the Portuguese. By fourteen hundred, they wanted to control the Eastern spice trade. European businessmen did not want to continue paying Venetian and Arab traders for their costly spices. They wanted to set up trade themselves. If they could sail to Asia directly for these products, the resulting trade would bring huge profits.
 
The leader of Portugal's exploration efforts was Prince Henry, a son of King John the first. He was interested in sea travel and exploration. He became known as Henry the Navigator.
 
Prince Henry brought experts to his country and studied the sciences involved in exploration. He built an observatory to study the stars. Portuguese sea captains sailed their ships down the west coast of Africa hoping to find a path to India and East Asia. They finally found the end of the African continent, the area called the Cape of Good Hope.
 
It took the Portuguese only about fifty years to take control of the spice trade. They established trading colonies in Africa, the Persian Gulf, India and China.
 
Improvements in technology helped them succeed. One improvement was a new kind of ship. It could sail more easily through storms and winds.
 
Other inventions like the compass allowed them to sail out of sight of land. The Portuguese also armed their ships with modern cannon. They used these weapons to battle Muslim and East Asian traders.
 
(MUSIC)
 
The other European nations would not let Portugal control this spice trade for long, however. Spain's Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand agreed to provide ships, crew and supplies for an exploration by an Italian named Christopher Columbus.
 
Columbus thought the shortest way to reach the East was to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean. He was right. But he also was wrong. He believed the world was much smaller than it is. He did not imagine the existence of another continent -- and another huge ocean -- between Europe and East Asia.

Columbus and a crew of eighty-eight men left Spain on August third, fourteen ninety-two, in three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. By October twelfth, the sailors stood on land again on an island that Columbus named San Salvador.
 
He explored that island and the nearby islands of what are now known as Cuba and Hispaniola. He believed they were part of the coast of East Asia, which was then called the Indies. He called the people he found there Indians.
 
Columbus left about forty men on San Salvador island to build a fort from the wood of one of the ships. He returned to Spain with birds, plants, gold -- and people captured from the land he explored. Columbus was welcomed as a hero when he returned to Spain in March of fourteen ninety-three.
 
Columbus sailed again across the Atlantic to the Caribbean five months later. He found that the fort built by his men had been destroyed by fire. Columbus did not find any of his men. But this time, he had many more men and all the animals and equipment needed to start a colony on Hispaniola.
 
Seven months later, he sent five ships back to Spain. They carried Indians to be sold as slaves. Columbus himself also returned to Spain.
 
Christopher Columbus made another trip in fourteen ninety-eight. This time he saw the coast of South America.
 
But the settlers on Hispaniola were so unhappy with conditions in their new colony, they sent Columbus back to Spain as a prisoner. Spain's rulers pardoned him.
 
In fifteen two, Columbus made his final voyage to what some by then were calling the New World. He stayed on the island of Jamaica until he returned home two years later.
 
During all his trips, Columbus explored islands and waterways, searching for that passage to the Indies. He never found it. Nor did he find spices or great amounts of gold. Yet, he always believed that he had found the Indies. He refused to recognize that it really was a new world.
 
Evidence of this was all around him -- strange plants unknown in either Europe or Asia. And a different people who did not understand any language spoken in the East.
 
Columbus' voyages, however, opened up the new world. Others later explored all of North America.
 
You may be wondering about the name of this new land. If Christopher Columbus led the explorations, then why is it called "America"? The answer lies with the name of another Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.
 
He visited the coast of South America in fourteen ninety-nine. He wrote stories about his experiences that were widely read in Europe.
 
(MUSIC)
 
In fifteen seven, a German mapmaker, Martin Waldseemueller, read Vespucci's stories. He decided that the writer had discovered the new world, and thought it should be called America in his honor. And so it was.
 
Spanish explorers sought to find gold and power in the New World. They also wanted to spread Christianity, which they considered the only true religion. 
 
The first of these Spanish explorers was Juan Ponce de Leon. He landed in North America in fifteen thirteen. He explored the eastern coast of what is now the state of Florida. He was searching for a special kind of water that Europeans believed existed. They believed that this water could make old people young again. Ponce de Leon never did find the fountain of youth.
 
Also in fifteen thirteen, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean. In fifteen nineteen, Hernan Cortes landed an army in Mexico. His army destroyed the ancient empire of the Aztec Indians.
 
That same year Ferdinand Magellan began his three-year voyage around the world. And in the fifteen thirties, the forces of Francisco Pizarro destroyed the Inca Indian empire in Peru.
 
Ten years later, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado had marched as far north as what is now the American state of Kansas and then west to the Grand Canyon. About the same time, Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River.
 
Fifty years after Columbus first landed at San Salvador, Spain claimed a huge area of America.
 
The riches of these new lands made Spain the greatest power in Europe, and the world. But other nations refused to accept Spanish claims to the New World. Explorers from England, France and Holland were also sailing to North America. That will be our story next week.

A United Nations report says world food prices stayed the same in August. Prices were unchanged after rising sharply in July.
 
A summer of drought in the United States and Russia has reduced expectations for corn and wheat supplies. As a result, a measure of food prices by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization rose six percent in July. But FAO economist Concepcion Calpe says the expected reductions did not get any worse in August.

CONCEPCION CALPE: "We're not in a bad situation, or as bad situation as we were last month because the prospects are not worsening further. And this is already good news."
 
Ms. Calpe says the FAO price index remains about ten percent below its highest level, reached in February twenty-eleven. But prices are still twice as high as they were ten years ago.
 
Demand remains high for food commodities like maize and wheat. The U.N. estimates that more cereal crops will be consumed this year than will be produced. That means markets will have to use some of the supplies that have been kept in reserve. Concepcion Calpe says those reserves have been low for several years.
 
CONCEPCION CALPE: "And therefore we are very much susceptible to very quick changes because there is very little buffer on which to rely to protect ourselves should there be another bad news on the production front."
 
She says there will be ups and downs in prices until production meets the level of demand. Still, many experts do not expect a repeat of the crisis of two thousand seven and two thousand eight. Prices jumped, playing a part in civil unrest in several countries.
 
For one thing, these experts point out that energy prices are lower now. That means producing and transporting food is not as costly. And Gary Ellerts at the United States Agency for International Development says this year's bad weather has not affected another important crop: rice. Mr. Eilerts is head of the agency's Famine Early Warning System.
 
GARY EILERTS: "Rice is very calm, very nice. Prices are not volatile. There's a large supply. And so, countries that depend on that, that were hurt a great deal in two thousand eight, are not being touched right now."
 
However, economist Lourdes Adriano at the Asian Development Bank says prices could increase if India stops exporting rice because of a drought.
 
LOURDES ADRIANO: "If we have a severe monsoon in India and it starts banning again the export of rice, then we will have a major problem. Because as you know, global rice trade is very thin. There are very, very few major exporters."
 
Prices jumped when India banned rice exports in two thousand eight during the food inflation crisis.
 
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. I'm Jim Tedder.

Opposition leader Isabelle Ameganvi, on August 25, calls on Togo's women to observe a one-week

sex strike to demand the resignation of the president

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
 
Last month, women in a civil rights group in Togo called a weeklong sex strike to try to force the president of the West African nation to resign. Members of "Let's Save Togo" planned to withhold sex from their husbands to pressure the men to take action against President Faure Gnassingbe.
 
The opposition says his family has ruled Togo for too long. He became president in two thousand five, shortly after the death of his father -- who had held power for thirty-eight years.
 
Withholding sex for political goals has a long history. It was used in ancient Greece. In the play "Lysistrata," the women of Athens decide to stop having sex with their husbands until the men end the Peloponnesian War.
 
But do sex strikes work? Pepper Schwartz is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington in Seattle. She says the idea is good for making news headlines, but it takes a lot of work.
 
PEPPER SCHWARTZ: "If you're talking about a few days where women make a point, I think that works. If you're talking about turning a whole nation around because nobody's getting any, I wouldn't put hard money on that because I don't think people stick to sex strikes. Yes, it's good to bring consciousness to your mate, [but] it's probably hard to stick to. Three, if you do stick to it too long, you might lose that other person's willingness to support your issue. So it's a tricky thing. I think it's a good headline, a lot harder to put into practice."
 
But pro-democracy activists in Togo say a sex strike during the civil war in Liberia gave them cause for hope. In two thousand three, Liberia had been through fourteen years of war. Leaders of the group Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace organized a series of nonviolent actions. Those included a sex strike.
 
The actions earned the group's leader a share of the twenty-eleven Nobel Peace Prize. Leymah Gbowee shared the prize with two other women, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She became Africa's first democratically elected female president in two thousand six. The third winner was Tawakkul Karman, a women's rights activist in Yemen.
 
Yaliwe Clarke is a lecturer in gender studies at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
 
YALIWE CLARKE: "I think if there's a sharing of the gains of this approach with other African women, then it will inspire them just like in Liberia -- this, the way in which the Mass Action for Peace, the methods that the women used in Liberia for the Mass Action for Peace. They've been written about, a film has been made, so now, you know African women are saying, 'Well, we can do that, as well.'"
 
But Pepper Schwartz at the University of Washington says women need to hold real power in order for something like a sex strike to work.
 
PEPPER SCHWARTZ: "They only work in proportion to the amount of power women have in a society. In other words, you have to have a certain amount of power already to tell your husband no. In some societies your husband would pound on you or, you know, enact his own kinds of revenge, but you have to have a society where a man respects a woman's opinion and her desire to say no and will, in fact, respect her for it."
 
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. For more stories for people learning English, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
 
Thursday night, at the Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama accepted his party's nomination for a second term.
 
BARACK OBAMA: "If you believe in a country where everyone gets a fair shot and everyone does their fair share and everybody plays by the same rules, then I need your vote in November!"
 
Mr. Obama said he supports the middle class while Republican nominee Mitt Romney favors the wealthy. He said the differences between them give voters "the clearest choice of any time in a generation."
 
"Over the next few years," he said, "big decisions will be made in Washington on jobs, the economy, taxes and deficits, energy, education, war and peace." And he added, those decisions "will have a huge impact on our lives and on our children's lives for decades to come."
 
Mr. Obama told the convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, that he was mindful of his "failings."
 
BARACK OBAMA: "But know this, America. Our problems can be solved. Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place. And I'm asking you to choose that future."
 
On foreign policy, he said that "for all the progress we've made, challenges remain."
 
BARACK OBAMA: "Terrorist plots must be disrupted. Europe's crisis must be contained. Our commitment to Israel's security must not waver, and neither must our pursuit of peace. "
 
What did delegates think after the speech?
 
DELEGATES: "I do think he's going to win the important states, maybe by squeakers, but that's all that it takes!" "We are very confident as Democrats as to what's ahead of us, and we are confident as to what we must do, and we are confident as to what we know is going to happen, so we're happy. I'm excited."
 
Mr. Obama spoke after Vice President Joe Biden accepted the Democratic nomination for a second term. Mr. Biden offered two examples that he said showed the president's bravery. One was approving the operation that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The other was deciding to rescue the American auto industry.
 
JOE BIDEN: "We can now proudly say what you have heard me say the last six months: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!"
 
On Wednesday night, former President Bill Clinton urged Americans to elect Mr. Obama to another four years.
 
BILL CLINTON: "We believe that 'we're all in this together' is a far better philosophy than 'you are on your own.'"
 
MICHELLE OBAMA: "Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it."
 
On Tuesday, Michelle Obama spoke to the delegates on the first night of the convention.
 
MICHELLE OBAMA: "For Barack, success isn't about how much money you make. It's about the difference you make in people's lives."
 
For the first time a Latino gave one of the major speeches at the Democratic convention. Julian Castro is the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and a son of Mexican immigrants.
 
JULIAN CASTRO: "When it comes to getting the middle class back to work, Mitt Romney says, 'No.' When it comes to respecting women's rights, Mitt Romney says, 'No.'"
 
The election is November sixth. Opinion surveys have being showing a close race.
 
On Friday morning, the government released the jobs report for August. It showed that the economy added just ninety-six thousand jobs. The unemployment rate remained above eight percent for the forty-third month in a row.
 
Mitt Romney, on a campaign visit to Iowa, said the report shows that Mr. Obama "hasn't lived up to his promises and his policies haven't worked."
 
Mr. Obama, campaigning in New Hampshire, said the report was "not good enough." But he noted that the economy has added jobs for the past thirty months. It was losing eight hundred thousand jobs a month when he took office.
 
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

The Legal Battle Between Apple and Samsung

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
 
Samsung Electronics has won the latest case in its continuing battle with the American owned computer company Apple over property rights. A court in Japan ruled in favor of the South Korean company last week in a case involving its Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets.
 
The three-judge panel in Tokyo said the products did not violate the property rights of an Apple patent for organizing music and video across devices. The court also ordered Apple to pay all costs relating to the court case.
 
The case is just one of many in the worldwide legal battle between Apple and Samsung.

Last month, a jury in the state of California found the South Korean company guilty of willfully violating property rights on several patents owned by Apple. The California jury awarded Apple more than one billion dollars in damages.
 
The patents include so-called utility patents for Apple’s “pinch to zoom” and “tap to zoom” technology. They also include design patents on the look and shape of the iPhone, and one for the home screen design.
 
Madhavi Sunder is a professor of law at the University of California, Davis. She has also written a new book called “From Goods to a Good Life: Intellectual Property and Global Justice.” She says issues involving design patents are more complex.
 
MADHAVI SUNDER: “These design patents are much more controversial. And a big question here is isn’t that what market competition is all about.”
 
Professor Sunder says patents are meant to increase competition and support design and development.
 
MADHAVI SUNDER: “For Apple to say its design -- which becomes a new industry standard, the standard of sleek, cool, modern gadgets -- is something that only one company can have an exclusive right over, this is a real problem. And it raises the real question of whether or not we should be protecting designs with patents in the first place.”
 
She says Apple built its computer company using the same methods that it is now opposing.
 
MADHAVI SUNDER: “Steve Jobs, ironically, built Apple’s reputation on the fact that Apple freely took all the best ideas that were out there and tweaked them and modified them to create a better product. He often quoted Picasso who said ‘good artists copy but great artists steal.’ The said thing now is that Apple is saying they can do it but no one else after them can. This goes to the heart of what innovation is about.”
 
Samsung said the California court’s verdict, in its words, "should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for American consumers.”

In a rare memo to its employees, the company said it would continue its fight until its arguments are accepted.
 
On the same day as the California ruling, a court in South Korea ruled in another case that both Apple and Samsung had violated each other’s patents.
 
And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember.