>> A quiet Vietnamese visa run (part 1) If you’ve gotta travel, you’ve gotta shop! Finally got my nifty new visa without any fuss or bother but why, oh, why do the Cambodians and the Vietnamese feel the need to fill a whole page in a passport with a ridiculously overdesigned visa sticker? My ten-year passport now needs renewing and there’s still three years left on the passport’s validity! One nice thing about both Kuala Lumpur and Phnom Penh is you don’t have to go far for shopping. Another benefit is that both cities display far more civilized behavior about pedestrians. There’s none of the ‘run you down because I refuse to acknowledge your existence’ rubbish. The traffic actually stopped to let me pass when I was running late to cross the street! I hate to say it, but I’ve mostly given up trying to buy clothes in Vietnam. It just seems as though Vietnam exports the good quality stuff and the locals deal with cheaper, poor quality clothes that just don’t last that long. Even basic T-shirts I’d purchase in Vietnam barely seem to last longer than four months. Most of my shopping is done in Phnom Penh or Malaysia. High-end market shopping malls are sprouting up almost everywhere in Phnom Penh along with luxury-style apartment blocks. However it’s a mystery to me who, apart from the government elite, can afford to live in such splendor. So then…the shopping malls. AEON, a Japanese operated mall (I think), is… [Read full story]
, published every Friday, lets readers express their opinions on a topic or issue raised by the editor. Next week: Many foreigners who come to stay in Viet Nam, whether to work as freelancers, or to retire, have been complaining about the visa renewal process, which requires them to get a new visa on a regular basis. In order to do this, they often have to go out of the country and then come back again. They say it's a lengthy and costly process. Meanwhile, many neighboring countries have offered paid visas on arrival or, in the case of Thailand,…... [read more]
(TITC) – On 22 August 2015, in Ha Noi, VNAT’s Director General, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan had a meeting with Regional Head of Business Development Asia-Pacific, VFS Global Company – Beijing Branch Office, Mr. Kwa Tjun Kyet. According to Mr. Kwa Tjun Kyet, VFS Global is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Kuoni Group, a public-listed company headquartered in Zurich. VFS Global is outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. The company's highly differentiated solutions portfolio includes dedicated visa and passport application centers, information services (call centers), web based modules, biometrics (data capture and transfer), translation, logistics…... [read more]
Roaming fees will no longer be applied in Cambodia and Laos to mobile subscribers of Viettel and its subsidiaries. Roaming fees will no longer be applied in Cambodia and Laos to mobile subscribers of Viettel and its subsidiaries. Subscribers of Viettel in Vietnam, Metfone in Cambodia, and Unitel in Laos, all of which are managed by Vietnamese military-run telecom giant Viettel Group, will now only pay domestic fees for phone calls, text messages, and data service for using any of the three networks, regardless of their location within the Indochinese region. Indochina is a geographical term referring to Southeast Asian…... [read more]
Traditional Miscellany (29-01-2006) Roots of Vietnamese culture run deep by Huu Ngoc A European friend of mine confided to me that try as he might, he could see little of the culture born three thousand years ago in the delta of the Hong (Red) River and said to be typical of Southeast Asia. Echoes of his remark can be heard among Vietnamese students, who generally are at a loss when asked to define their national identity. To highlight their confusion, they point to the fact that pagodas are covered with Chinese ideograms, that Confucius is worshipped in Ha Noi's Temple…... [read more]
Twelve state-run enterprises have submitted applications to sell their stake in businesses operating in sectors outside of their normal activities or operations to the State Capital Investment Corp (SCIC), the company's chief said Thursday. Lai Van Dao told a meeting held to recap the SCIC's first-half operations in Hanoi. They include big names such as power monopoly Vietnam Electricity, oil and gas behemoth PetroVietnam, telecom giant VNPT, and loss-making shipbuilder Vinalines, Dao elaborated, adding their applications are under consideration. "The SCIC is studying the chance of buying some of these investments," he said. The corporation has recently worked with representatives…... [read more]
