German media: Vietnam kidnapping throughout Slovakia

It seems that last year’s visit of the Vietnamese public security minister and his entourage to Slovakia was used to cover for the abduction of a dissident Vietnamese entrepreneur who had previously emigrated to Germany.

During a meeting of Slovak and Vietnamese politicians at the Bôrik government hotel on July 26, 2017, a vehicle of people suspected of abducting a convicted Vietnamese politician and head of a state firm, Trinh Xuan Thanh, was probably parked at the hotel, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily writes. It allegedly happened three days after Thanh’s abduction, based on GPS records the German prosecution has at its disposal.

The Vietnamese secret service abducted him from Germany last summer, the Sme daily wrote on April 30, quoting German media. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung suggested that Slovakia might have helped Vietnam cover the abduction.

The Slovak Interior Ministry expressed concerns and admitted that the Vietnamese delegation had hastily changed its itinerary and therefore provided the delegation a government plane. Originally, the Vietnamese delegation was not even supposed to arrive to Slovakia but land in Vienna. Due to undisclosed reasons, they were re-routed to Prague, “because of this change and the general ensuing programme in Moscow, we offered the governmental plane to fly them from Prague to Bratislava, and then Moscow�?, Sme cited the Interior Ministry, without specifying who was onboard the plane.

What happened last summer?

Vietnamese Minister of Public Security, To Lam, held talks with then-interior minister of Slovakia, Robert Kaliňák, on July 26, 2017. The visit might have been misused for something other than working and friendly purposes, the ministerial press department wrote to the TASR newswire.

The Slovak Interior Ministry has cooperated with German investigation bodies.

“If the information provided by the German authorities is confirmed, we will view that as a manifestation of gross unfairness on the part of the Vietnamese partner, as an abuse of our hospitality for other than friendly relations, and as a destabilisation of the well-functioning bilateral relations between the two countries,�? the Interior Ministry wrote, as quoted by TASR, adding that the meeting was arranged during a previous visit the Slovak delegation paid to Vietnam with the aim of strengthening cooperation between Slovakia and the communist country.

They are also communicating with the Vietnamese side to check on the passengers onboard the plane on the given date.

Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said on TV Markíza’s special talk show on April 29 that he will require a detailed report on whether or not Slovakia was involved in the kidnapping, adding that he has no detailed information as of now.

Thanh’s background

The German media reported that Slovakia might be involved in the case of abducting the Vietnamese entrepreneur Trinh Xuan Thanh, 51, kidnapped in the summer of 2017 from Germany. According to the German media, Thanh was probably kidnapped by the Vietnamese secret service. Germany linked the case with the visit of To Lam to Slovakia, as some suspects might have appeared in Lam’s presence during his visit to Bratislava.

Thanh, who was convicted of corruption and embezzling millions of dollars by a court in Vietnam, fled the Asian country in 2016 and sought political asylum in Germany. He had ties to the previous reformist Vietnamese PM and his troubles began after the situation changed in 2016.

Berlin accused Vietnam of abducting Thanh, calling it a violation of German and international law. Vietnam denied the abduction allegation and says Thanh returned voluntarily, TASR wrote.

Vietnam is an important partner

The ruling Smer party considers Vietnam a crucial economic partner, even more important than the USA, as Economy Minister Peter Žiga said last year, as reported by the Denník N daily . It also added that the Vietnamese from the community living in Slovakia, Le Hong Quand, a special advisor of then-Slovak PM Robert Fico, invited the companies Viettel, MobiFone and VNPT to invest in Slovakia.

Currently, he is the top diplomat representing Slovakia in Vietnam, a chargé d’affaires, since the ambassadorial post is vacant. Le Hong Quand has Slovak citizenship but it is not clear how he got to work at the embassy in Hanoi, according to Denník N.

30. Apr 2018 at 14:38 | Compiled by Spectator staff</s>– No Vietnamese workers have been found injured or dead in a massive fire that broke out at a factory’s dormitory in Pingzhen District, Taoyuan city, Taiwan (China) around 9:00 pm on April 29.According to the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, the deadly blaze has claimed lives of five local firefighters and some foreign workers, but not including Vietnamese.A total of 161 Vietnamese workers are working at Chin Poon Industrial Co., a rigid printed circuit board producer in Taoyuan. At the time of the fire, most of the workers were at work while some asked for a leave from work to meet friends.Shortly after the accident occurred, the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei coordinated with the Taoyuan authority and the Vietnamese brides’ association to provide foods and water for the affected workers. The office also asked the labour brokers, who introduced the Vietnamese workers to work in Taiwan, to work with the factory to offer them temporary accommodation.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has directed the office to continue keeping a close watch on the incident and get updates on investigation findings from the local authority. The office was also tasked to cooperate with relevant agencies and companies to help the Vietnamese workers return to soon normal life.-VNA</s>BOSTON (AP) — Boston's Vietnamese community is reflecting on the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War.

The nonprofit Vietnamese American Initiative for Development, or VietAID, is hosting a Saturday evening talk by Bao Nguyen, the former mayor of Garden Grove, California. The Democrat was the Los Angeles-area city's first Vietnamese American mayor from 2014 to 2016.

Nguyen's talk at VietAID's Dorchester headquarters is entitled "Remembering Black Friday," referring to the capture of South Vietnam's capital, Saigon, by the North Vietnamese army on April 30, 1975 and the last day American troops left Vietnam.

Saigon is now called Ho Chi Minh City and April 30 is a public holiday called "Reunification Day" in Vietnam. Boston's Dorchester neighborhood was among the places thousands of Vietnamese refugees ultimately resettled.</s>– The Vietnamese Embassy in conjunction with the Vietnamese community in Mozambique organised a ceremony to celebrate the Reunification Day (April 30) and the Labour Day (May 1) in Maputo on April 29.The event was attended by a crowd of Vietnamese expats and students living and studying in the country, representatives from the mobile operator Movitel, a joint venture between Vietnamese company Viettel and Mozambique's SPI, and other enterprises, together with health, education and agricultural experts.In his opening remarks, Ambassador Le Huy Hoang highlighted the significance of the Reunification Day, saying that the April 30, 1975 victory was a pride of not only Vietnamese but also other peoples struggling for independence, freedom and unification in the world, including African countries.After more than 40 years, it remains a source of encouragement for Vietnamese people in their current national construction and defence under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, he said.He affirmed that the creativity, determination to overcome difficulties and hardships and efforts to make the most of opportunities, have helped Vietnam turn challenges into opportunities, thus promoting stable development and deeper international integration.Vietnam is a reliable partner that makes remarkable contributions to peace and development in the region and the world, he said.Hoang also praised the industrious labour spirit of staff and employees of Movitel, and Vietnamese enterprises as well as Mozambican labourers, saying that they are contributing to strengthening telecom investment cooperation and the economic-trade bonds between the two countries in general.Overseas Vietnamese attending the event expressed their joy at the stability and strong development of the homeland over the last 43 years, and wished to make more contributions to the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Mozambique.On the occasion, the embassy also organised art performance and a programme introducing Vietnamese food to international friends.-VNA</s>Hanoi (VNA) – An article published on The Diplomat magazine has looked for the reason behind an increasing number of people in the Republic of Korea learning Vietnamese, a less familiar language compared to English.

 

 It opened by showing that 800 Koreans took the language proficiency test Vietnamese Oral Proficiency Interview in 2017, jumping by 15 percent from 2016. 

 

 Meanwhile, a Vietnamese language course at the Seoul-based online language education Siwon School saw a 4-percent increase in the number of students and an 11-percent increase in sales every month since it was first launched in November 2016.

 

 The article said the number of RoK people learning Vietnamese is not huge, but its growth is not a coincidence, regarding the context of the two countries fortifying their ties, particularly in trade.

 

 RoK’s exports to Vietnam rose by 46.3 percent last year, and more than doubled over the last three years. Vietnam is now expected to become RoK’s second largest export market by 2020.

 

 At the end of 2017, about 5,500 RoK firms operated in Vietnam. This makes the RoK the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam, with total direct investment reaching a record-high 7.4 billion USD in the first 11 months of 2017.

 

 The article noted Vietnam’s rapidly growing economy played an important role in the economic ties growth. It said Samsung is taking the lead of RoK investment in Vietnam, followed by other firms such as Lotte and CJ. Smaller players have also targeted the Vietnamese market. The Seoul-based general cooking and food company Ourhome has recently begun to provide Vietnamese language courses for its employees ahead of its expansion to the country.

 

 By the end of 2017, only 4.9 percent of high school students in RoK decided to take Vietnamese as a second language test for their university entrance exam, lagging behind Chinese and Japanese at 5.4 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively. However, the article said the situation might change soon.-VNA</s>BOSTON (AP) — In an April 28 story about a Boston event marking the fall of Saigon, The Associated Press reported erroneously on the title of the talk. It was “Remembering Black April,” not “Remembering Black Friday.”

A corrected version of the story is below:

Boston’s Vietnamese community is reflecting on the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War.

The nonprofit Vietnamese American Initiative for Development, or VietAID, hosted a Saturday evening talk by Bao Nguyen, the former mayor of Garden Grove, California. The Democrat was the Los Angeles-area city’s first Vietnamese American mayor from 2014 to 2016.

Nguyen’s talk at VietAID’s Dorchester headquarters was entitled “Remembering Black April,” referring to the capture of South Vietnam’s capital, Saigon, by the North Vietnamese army on April 30, 1975 and the last day American troops left Vietnam.

Saigon is now called Ho Chi Minh City and April 30 is a public holiday called “Reunification Day” in Vietnam. Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood was among the places thousands of Vietnamese refugees ultimately resettled.</s>April 30, 2018, marks the 43rd anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, to Communist North Vietnamese forces.

On Sunday, members of Orange County’s Vietnamese community gathered near the Vietnamese Boat People monument at Westminster Memorial Park to acknowledge the day and to remember the thousands of refugees lost at sea while trying to escape Vietnam. It was the end of two decades of war in Vietnam.</s>– The Department of Overseas Labour Management under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has directed the arrangement of jobs for over 160 Vietnamese workers who lost their jobs due to a blaze that broke out in a factory’s dormitory in Taoyuan city, Taiwan (China) on April 28.The department requested the Defence Economic Technical Industry Corporation under the Ministry of National Defence to closely work with Taiwanese partners to soon arrange work for these Vietnamese workers and ensure their salary.It asked the labour management department in Taipei to continuously follow the situation and report the latest developments relating to Vietnamese workers.No Vietnamese workers have been found injured or dead in the fire, according to the labour management department in Taipei, adding that it had requested Taiwanese brokerage companies to work with Chin Poon Industrial Co to arrange new jobs for the affected workers.At first, the company will allow workers to stop working for a period to repair its workshop. During that time, it still pays salary for workers and considers removing some to another factory.Chin Poon Industrial Co is a major company in Taiwan specialising in producing and assembling electronic equipment and spare parts. It recruits a lot of workers from Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. More than 1,000 Vietnamese are working for the company, including over 160 working at the factory in Pingzhen district where the fire broke out.Shortly after the accident occurred, the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei coordinated with the Taoyuan authority and the Vietnamese brides’ association to provide food and water for the affected workers. The office also asked the labour brokers, who introduced the Vietnamese workers to work in Taiwan, to work with the factory to offer them temporary accommodation.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has directed the office to continue keeping a close watch on the incident and get updates on investigation findings from the local authority. The office was also tasked to cooperate with relevant agencies and companies to help the Vietnamese workers return to normal life soon.-VNA</s>Vietnamese parents spend on average 10 hours each week helping their children with homework, only second to Indian parents who put in 12 hours, a new global survey revealed.

The Global Parents’ Survey found that half of Vietnamese parents asked said they devoted more than seven hours each week to their child’s education, more than any other country surveyed apart from India at 62 percent.

Overall, parents in emerging economies generally devoted much more time to homework than their counterparts in richer countries, Varkey Foundation, which surveyed 27,380 parents across 29 countries concluded.

In addition, Vietnamese parents are the most satisfied, joint with Mexico and Argentina, of all those surveyed with the amount of help they’re giving their children, with 67 percent saying the hours they’re putting in are about right.

The phenomenon reflects the widely known fact that most Vietnamese parents prize their children’s education, considered a ticket to a successful career, above all else.

“Vietnamese parents can sacrifice everything, sell their houses and land just to give their children an education,” Vietnam’s education minister Phung Xuan Nha said at a conference in 2016.

And the statistics are telling. Academic pressure is the top anxiety 54 percent of Vietnamese parents have about their child at school, the second highest in the world after Singapore (56 percent) and much higher than the global average (30 percent), the report said.

Other top concerns for Vietnamese parents are their children’s personal safety (43 percent) and mental wellbeing (42 percent).

But when it comes to improving Vietnamese schools, most parents, 57 percent, want additional funding directed to extra-curricular activities, the third highest in the world, followed by buildings and other facilities (49 percent).

Interestingly, while only 41 percent of Vietnamese parents would want additional funding to go to teachers’ pay, 58 percent consider quality of teaching the most important factor when choosing their child’s school, the third highest among the surveyed countries.

Overall, Vietnamese parents appear to be optimistic about their child’s future. Seventy percent of them believe their child’s school is preparing them well for the world of 2030 and beyond, well above the global average of 64 percent, the survey said.

That is in stark contrast to the bleak picture painted by the World Economic Forum, which named Vietnam among countries least prepared for Fourth Industrial Revolution as it ranks low in terms of education, among other factors like human resources, innovation and technology.</s>TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a male Vietnamese national in the theft of a high-end wristwatch from a deliveryman in Kita Ward earlier this year, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Apr. 29).

At around 7:00 p.m. on February 14, Nguyen Ngoc Son, 25, allegedly sprayed an unspecified liquid into the face of the delivery man from a takkyubin company and stole the wristwatch, valued at around 770,000 yen.

Nguyen, who has been accused of robbery, admits to the allegations, telling police that he did indeed spray the liquid. He initially denied involvement.

At the time of the incident, Nguyen lived in the residence. However, he fled the scene after taking the wristwatch, which had been ordered on a cash-on-delivery basis by another Vietnamese national also living at the residence.

On March 27, police arrested the other Vietnamese national on suspicion of robbery. On April 27, an officer apprehended Nguyen near Tokyo Metro Minowa Station.
The German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that last year’s visit of the Vietnamese public security minister and his entourage to Slovakia was used to cover for the abduction of a dissident Vietnamese entrepreneur Trịnh Xuân Thanh who had previously emigrated to Germany.