Five countries in Southeast Asia will send players to Viet Nam’s Open Men’s Singles Tennis Championships, from March 31 to April 4 at the Tanimex Sports and Culture Centre in Tan Binh District.

Two players each from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia will compete against 35 local players, including top-rated and defending champion Do Minh Quan and teenager Nguyen Hoang Thien.

Indonesia will send Christoper Rungat, 20, and Nesa Artha, 28, who paired up to win a double bronze medal at the 25th SEA Games in Laos last December.

Malaysia will send third-ranked Ariez Elyaas Deen Hishaam and fourth-ranked Mohd Assri Merzuki. Both are included in Malaysia’s Davis Cup squad. Nguyen Van Ngoan, vice head of the organising committee, said Indonesian players were strong and would pose a big challenge to local players.

Ngoan also appreciated the Malaysian players’ skills.

Thailand’s second-ranked Pongsiri Niroj, who exited the quarter finals last year, will come back to the tournament, along with countryman Grittaboon Prahmanee.

Laos and Cambodia will send players who represented their country at the 25th SEA Games.

The singles event winner will receive a cash prize of US$2,500, the runners-up $1,700 and third place $900, while prizes for the doubles events will be $1,500, $900 and $400.

Parallel to the tournament, there will also be a tennis competition for amateur players, which has attracted 110 entries.

Nguyen Minh Tam, head of the organising committee and president of the HCM City Tennis Association, said that next year the tournament might be upgraded to the Southeast Asia Tennis Championships, to feature players from all countries in the region.

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Viet Nam and Mozambique have actively promoted co-operation in various fields, particularly agriculture.

Many Vietnamese experts were sent to Mozambique to help the country develop agriculture and train officials in the field, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat at his talks held with Mozambique Minister of Agriculture Soares Nhaca yesterday.

A group of Vietnamese experts would visit Mozambique in April to help continue a rice production project with assistance from Japan, he said.

Meanwhile, other experts would be sent to the country to help establish a rice production research centre with a capital investment of US$6 million, he said, adding that the centre would help provide different varieties of rice to help the country ensure food security.

In 2009, Viet Nam provided training on agricultural production and fisheries for 35 experts from Mozambique and 30 more are expected to receive training this year.

For his part, the Mozambique Minister said his country would create conditions to make information available for Vietnamese businesses looking for co-operations in his country.

The two ministers expressed their wish to promote the two countries’ co-operation in many other fields, including education and training, health care, science and technology and security.

On the same day, Minister Nhaca also met with Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat Truong Tan Sang.

At the meeting, Nhaca conveyed greetings from the Frelimo Party’s leaders to leaders of the Vietnamese Party.

He informed Sang of the outcome of his meetings with Minister Phat and with other relevant offices in the implementation of signed agreements. Nhaca said Mozambique always wanted to further foster the multi-faceted co-operation with Viet Nam.

Sang took the occasion to congratulate the Frelimo Party for its success in the presidential, parliamentary and people’s councils election and highly valued the achievements of the Mozambique Government in their nation’s building and development.

He affirmed Viet Nam’s determination to strengthen co-operation with Mozambique for mutual benefit.

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HA NOI

The Ministry of Education and Training recently called on universities and colleges to set up websites providing students with information about their educatiohal institutions.
The Ministry in a cicular ordered all educadonal institutions to install e-mail systems and provide free mailbox to lecturers, students and other staff. They are also encouraged to set up their own websites.
This is of crucial importance to indicate their capacity, responsibility and transparency to the students, the circular reads.
Websites would have to provide adequate, exact and up-to-date information, such as commitments to training quality, school facilities, financial conditions as well as the contact details of lecturers and schools managers.
Quach Tuan Ngoc, director of the ministry’s Department of the Information Technology, said that the ministry would assess and rate the quality of universities through their websites and mail box operation.
"The most important clement in liigher education renewal management is to foster the application of information technology. Websites are an indication of universities’ ranking," Ngoc said.
Nguyen Quang Kim, rector of the Ha Noi Water Resources University, said that it was quite a good idea since it would encourage all universities to develop websites.
He said that the website of his university, www.wru.edu.vn, went online aboul six years ago. The university had to invest considerable amounts of human resources and finance to keep the website running, he said, but it was worth it for any high-quality university.
"All the necessary information is there, students can easily find their results or content of the lectures they want." he said.
The website was also useful for partners who wish to co-operate with the university in training, Kim added.
Vu Kim Hoa, a fresher at the Genetic Computer School, said it was quite easy for her to learn about the school through its website when slie had to make a choice of which universities to go for.
"I was able to find information I needed to decide if the college would be best for me," she said.
Lectures, reference documents and even her marks were always available to her on the website, Hoa said.

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DAK NONG

Water released from the Buon Tua Sah Hydroelectric Plant has allegedly caused landslides along 15km of the Krong No River’s banks in four communes in Krong No District, in Ihe Central Highland province of Dak Nong.
The landslides had damaged dozens of hectares of farmlands over the last three months, said Dang Thanh Quang, vice chairman of the district’s People’s Committee.
The communes include Dac Nang, Duc Xuyen, Buon Choa and Nam N’dir, located along the lower part of the river. These communes had experienced increased floods and landslides since the plant’s second generator began operations last December, he said.
In Du Xuyen Commune, up to March 18, nearly 10ha of crops including rice, corn and vegetables were damaged due lo landslides and another 5ha of land regularly flooded.
In Nam N’dir Commune, floods had damaged about 20ha of crops, and the affected areas were increasing day by day.
Nguyen Van Quoc, head of the district’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said thai unusual ups and downs in the river’s water levels had made the banks unstable. When the waters went down, they took away the lands and the crops grown on them as well.
When the plant released water at 9-1 lam and 6-9pm every day, the river’s water levels went up. causing floods. But when the plant stored water, the river became so dry that local farmers could not pump enough water for their crops, said an official at Duc Xuyen Commune.
Early this month, the department urged the plant to adjust its water volume to mitigale damage to local residents crops, said Quoc.
The Buon Kuop Hydroelectric Joint Stocks Company, which was in charge of the plant, said in a feedback document that the company could not change its schedule of storing or releasing water, or the volume of water, without directions from the Electricity of Viet Nam. The company would ask EVN to inspect and compensate for local residents’ losses.

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SINGAPORE

The Singapore Commodity Exchange is set to begin robusta futures trading on April 22 this year for the coffee variety in Asia.
"The launch of Singapore Coffee Futures Contract (SICOM Coffee) is timely as Southeast Asia has grown to become the largest producer and exporter of robusta coffee. SICOM Coffee is set to play a key role in establishing an Asian benchmark price for robusta coffee," Jeremy Ang, CEO of SICOM, said.
It is a physical delivery futures contract, traded in five metric tonnes per lot. Delivery will be made via warehouse receipts representing coffee stored in bonded warehouses in HCM City or Singapore.
This delivery mechanism provides for a short delivery period and simplified logistics.
Angeline Koh, deputy director, Sector Division, Financial Markets Strategy Department of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said: "With Viet Nam and Indonesia being the world’s two largest robusta coffee producers, there are many coffee exporters and traders based in Asia.
"A well-designed coffee futures contract will serve as an effective risk management instrument for the coffee industry based in Asia. As part of the development of Singapore’s commodity derivatives market, we welcome the launch of unique Asian-centric contracts. "
Luong Van Tu, chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, said: "The launch of SICOM Robusta Coffee deliverable to bonded warehouses in Viet Nam is representative of Asian trade which will benefit Vietnamese coffee growers and exporters."
Victor Mah, president of the Singapore Coffee Association, said: "Asia and in particular Southeast Asia is a key player in the global robusta coffee market but lacks an Asian price discovery platform. SICOM’s Coffee will offer international market participants an effective hedging tool to manage their price risk."

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