HA NOI

HCM City-listed Vinpearl Tourism and Trading Co (VPL) announced it would issue an additional 80 million shares to raise the company’s charter capital to VND1.8 trillion (US$94.2 million) in the second quarter of this year.

Of the 80 million shares, 13 million will be used to pay dividends at a ratio of 100:13. The company will offer another 67 million to the existing shareholders at a ratio of 100:67 priced at VND10,000 ($0.52) each.

Shares from the new issue would be tradeable, the company said.

The company has also said it plans to use VND800 billion ($42 million) of capital raised through the share issue to fund its property development activities, particularly its Royal City, Green City, Vinpearland ecological tourism resort complex and a hotel project in the Van Lang Park project the Vinpearland ecological tourism resort.

In 2009, it earned a total revenue of more than VND485.8 billion ($25.4 million) with an after-tax profit of VND61.7 billion ($3.2 million). Its earnings per share came in at VND550 ($0.03).

VPL yesterday closed unchanged at VND42,600 ($2.23) on a volume of 149,750 shares traded.

VNS

HA NOI

Da Nang is determined to be among the leading cities to make an all-out effort to become industrialised by 2020.
Local officials also showed their determination to fulfil the goal which would help see the nation become industrialised within the next decade, yesterday on the 35lh anniversary of the city’s liberation day.
"We have been making efforts to become an industrialised city, a quality service centre, a key international transport gateway and a top-ranking city," said the secretary of the municipal Party Committee, Nguyen Ba Thanh, in his address at the ceremony.
Thanh recalled the historic victory that liberated the city on March 29, 1975.
After being a large enemy military base, Da Nang has since tackled various challenges to overcome the war’s aftermath and develop the city’s socio-economic and political life, he said.
The city has now become a first-class, industrial city under the central administration. It is the region’s service centre and an important international gateway.
The city’s economy has swiftly been restructured to be mainly dependent on services, various industries and agriculture, growing at an average pace of more than 11 per cent annually. Its annual per capita income is expected to hit US$2,000 this year and its export revenue to pass the $1 billion threshold.
Da Nang’ s competitiveness index has remained in the top position nationwide for the last two consecutive years.
Truong Tan Sang, Politburo member and permanent member of the Secretariat of the Communist
Party of Viet Nam Central Committee, urged Da Nang’s authorities to speed up the construction of hi-tech industrial facilities, especially those focused on IT.
"As the key city of the central region. Da Nang needs to be industrialised a head of the targeted time," said Sang, urging the city to catch up with Ha Noi and HCM City to become the country’s top three hi-tech centres.
The Government had always provided Da Nang with significant support, yet the city needed to come up with its own initiatives to co-operate effectively with other localities and contribute more to the growth of the central economic zone and the whole nation, he said.

VNS

HA NOI

Vietnamese and Lao leaders met yesterday to discuss measures to promote special solidarity and comprehensive co-operation, especially in economics, trade and investment.
Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan yesterday held talks with her Lao counterpart Bunnhang Volachit, who is paying an official visit to Viet Nam.
The two leaders reviewed the progress made in their countries’relations and confirmed the determination to retain their close and trustworthy relationship.
Doan and her visiting Lao counterpart agreed on effectively implementing the signed agreements on strengthening political relationship, security and defence co-operation and the exchange of delegations at all levels. They also agreed to speed up the compiling of Vietnamese-Lao history and the construction of the late President Ho Chi Minn memorial in Laos.
The two leaders agreed that the border area would be turned into a zone of peace, friendship and co-operation, which would give favour to the border trade.
The co-operation between Viet Nam and Laos, which is based on the political relationship and economic effectiveness, would be maintained.
The two sides also exchanged views on several regional and international issues of mutual concern, agreeing to more effectively co-ordinate on sharing information and activities on regional and international forums.
Earlier yesterday, Volachit and his entourage visited the northern province of Vinh Phuc, which has been helping a number of Lao provinces with significant construction projects, as well as giving their students financial support to study in Viet Nam.
Local authorities confirmed with the visiting Vice President that they would continue their comprehensive co-operation with Lao provinces in socio-economic development in order to inspire other provinces from both countries to integrate and develop.
Volachit has called on Vinh Phuc to share with Lao provinces experiences in investment and service industry development.

VNS

HA NOI

Vietnamese and Spanish diplomatic passport holders no longer need visas to visit the other’s country.
An agreement to waive the visas was signed last year and approved last week.
The two countries established diplomatic ties on May 23, 1977.
Two-way trade between them increased from US$470 million in 2005 to more than $1.1 billion in 2008.
Spain ranks sixth among countries that provides development assistance for Viet Nam.

VNS

By Le Quynh Anh

Librarians at Ha Noi University of Technology put books in order. A large number of the libraries are out-of-date and have inadequate materials and resources, poor infrastructure, unqualified library staff and ‘closed’ services. — VNA/VNS Photo Anh Tuan

HA NOI

Unless academic libraries become proactive, visionary and innovative in the way they deliver services, hardly any students will be interested in exploring the valuable resources that libraries have to offer in light of the information explosion, according to Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, head of the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism’s Library Department.

John Hickok, who is the Instruction/International Outreach Librarian from California State University Fullerton in the United States, highlighted the vital roles that libraries have at the academia.

According to Hickok, libraries serve as an e-resource gateway for a university and a vibrant centre for student collaboration, which train the rising generation to be ‘Information Literate’.

"However, most Vietnamese academic libraries are far from fulfilling either of those roles," Mai said.

According to a report prepared by the Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education and Training in 2009, the network of academic libraries at universities and colleges generally failed to respond properly to students’ research and academic needs.

There were more than 1,700 libraries in 369 universities and colleges nationwide. However, a large number of the libraries were out-of-date, had inadequate materials and resources, poor infrastructure, unqualified library staff and ‘closed’ services, the report stated.

Ngo Hue Minh, who is pursuing an MBA degree at Willamette University in the US, said when she was a student at the Foreign Trade University, she rarely spent any time at the library because of its inadequate collection and poorly designed space for studying.

Pham Thu Huong, who studied banking at the National Economics University, did not go to the library for similar reasons. She also said that she found interacting with librarians to be discouraging.

"Librarians seemed like they did not want to help us. I would choose to buy indispensable books if I could afford them, or I would like to search for electronic versions on the internet for those I couldn’t find. "

Mai said that academic libraries generally lacked a sense of independence because most of them came under the management of the university’s functional units.

"There has been no official regulation that stipulates the percentile of investment that should go to the library. Currently, universities make that decision on their own," she said.

"Basically, libraries don’t have regular funding and can’t take the initiative in financial accounting."

Mai also noted that their was an absence of a central office which could act as a focal point to resource analysis for the libraries.

No vision at all

"Currently, each academic library generally has to build their resources separately without having any co-operation or vision at all."

Hickok, who obtained a research grant for an entire year to investigate libraries in Asia in 2005, observed that the last five years had been an exciting time for academic libraries in Viet Nam, where there have been incredible changes and improvements taking place.

In several public universities in the south, libraries had been engaging in a new stage of development by directing their focus to users’ needs and satisfaction, said president of Vietnamese Library Association of Southern Academic Libraries (VILASAL) Nguyen Minh Hiep.

"Since the early years of this century, VILASAL’s members have tried to adopt formal librarian skills that are congruent with international standards, which is ahead of many other libraries in the country."

Hiep, who was also director of the HCM City University of Science Library, said his library was a pioneer in reforming services to be more student oriented.

In the north, Ta Quang Buu Library at the Ha Noi University of Technology is one of the few libraries that have been equipped with progressive facilities, wide spaces and more information resources.

After becoming public in 2007, it is now the largest library in Viet Nam capable of serving 3,000-4,000 patrons.

The library director Nguyen Van Thien said: "We always consider strengthening our information resources as a top priority, which is why we have formed partnerships with other libraries and outside donors and trainers in order to utilise the power of knowledge sharing."

Thien said that antiquated perceptions of libraries will dissipate soon and that students being treated more as customers would become the norm.

"Bearing that in mind, we are adapting to this new approach," he said.

According to Hickok, while more prominent university libraries have made impressive improvements, smaller and provincial libraries have not had the funding or training to make the same changes.

"So there are some academic libraries still using old or non-electronic catalogues that make libraries be like silent archives," he said.

During his year-long visit observing Asian libraries, Hickok noted a key difference between libraries occurred at the management level. Directors, who were proactive, visionary and innovative, were transforming their libraries.

"Their spirit of ‘overcoming challenges’ was inspiring," said Hickok.

More students are prone to conduct research on the internet, which has led experts to believe that the need for libraries maybe diminishing.

Hickok said students, who only use the internet alone and often copy and paste the first sites they find failed to capitalise on library’s services.

"It is vital that libraries promote themselves as leaders and partners in the internet revolution, so that students will use libraries and the Internet simultaneously," said Hickok.

VNS