Vietnam Sets 7% Coupon Limit for $1 Billion Debt Sale

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam plans to sell $1 billion of dollar-denominated 10-year bonds at a coupon of not more than 7 percent as early as this week, according to the central bank.

The government’s second overseas sale of dollar debt comes after accelerating inflation and a widening trade deficit eroded confidence in the dong, which is trading near a record-low. Vietnam’s global offering will be the third this year by a Southeast Asian nation, with Indonesia having raised $2 billion last week and the Philippines $1.5 billion on Jan. 6. Indonesia scaled back its sale, canceling a planned issue of 30-year notes.

“The new issue should have an absolute yield of around 6.85 percent to 7 percent,” said Sergey Dergachev, who helps oversee $250 billion in assets, including $6 billion in emerging-market debt, at Frankfurt-based Union Investments. “Vietnam is economically much weaker, with significant twin deficits and a highly managed exchange rate.”

Vietnam is rated Ba3 by Moody’s Investors Service, three levels below investment grade. That’s on a par with the Philippines and one grade weaker than Indonesia. The Philippines sold $650 million of 10-year dollar debt this month to yield 5.67 percent and Indonesia sold $2 billion of similar-maturity notes to yield 6 percent.

Vietnam’s dollar bonds have returned 25 percent in the past year, according to indexes compiled by HSBC Holdings Plc. That compares with gains of 21 percent for the Philippines and 54 percent for Indonesia.



Dollar Shortage



The money raised by Vietnam will be used to finance projects of Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, Vietnam National Shipping Lines, Song Da Corp., and Vietnam Machinery Installation Corp., the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement today on its Web site.

Proceeds of the sale may also help ease a shortage of dollars in the country. The dong declined 5.4 percent against the dollar last year. It traded at 18,477 yesterday in Hanoi, having reached a record-low 18,500 in November.

Vietnam’s consumer prices rose 6.52 percent in December from the year-earlier period, compared with an inflation rate of 4.35 percent in November. The trade balance swang from a first- quarter surplus to a $12.25 billion deficit for all of 2009.

The country has about $16 billion in foreign-exchange reserves, central bank Deputy Governor Nguyen Van Binh said in Hanoi on Dec. 3. The World Bank estimates the nation’s reserves totaled $23 billion at the end of 2008.

Vietnam raised $750 million of 10-year bonds with a coupon of 7.125 percent at its first dollar-dominated bond sale in the international capital market in October 2005, the central bank said in today’s statement.


Source:businessweek.com/

Vietnam plans biggest jade Buddha

HAI DUONG, Vietnam, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A Vietnamese jewelry company said a team of 50 artisans will be employed to turn a 35-ton block into the world's largest jade statue of Buddha.

Than Chau Ngoc Viet Gemstone and Jewelry Co. held a ceremony Monday to kick off the project, with guests including Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and Thich Pho Tue, the patriarch of the Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha, Bernama reported Monday.

The Voice of Vietnam said the statue is planned to measure 9.8 feet tall and the company plans to submit the finished product as a Guinness World Record.

Triet expressed enthusiasm for the project during Monday's ceremony and thanked the family of Dao Trong Cuong, former owner of Than Chau Ngoc Viet, for purchasing the block of jade from Myanmar.

The statue is scheduled for completion in two years, officials said.

Source:upi.com/

Vietnam expects to strengthen youth exchange with China

Vietnam expects to strengthen youth exchanges with China to cement traditional friendship and advance bilateral comprehensive cooperation, said a Vietnamese party official here on Monday.

Ha Thi Khiet, a member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, made the remark when receiving a 100-member Chinese youth delegation which is in Vietnam for the 10th China-Vietnam youth friendship meeting.

Ha said Vietnam and China celebrate 60 years of diplomatic ties and Year of Friendship in 2010. The visit of the Chinese youth delegation is an important part of the celebration activities.

Ha said Vietnam always attaches great importance to the role of young people in the national construction. She expected Vietnamese and Chinese young people could continue to work closely to strengthen friendship and advance bilateral ties.

Wang Hongyan, head of the Chinese youth delegation and a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, said in the meeting with Khiet that the Chinese delegation is glad to visit Vietnam on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-Vietnam diplomatic relations.

Wang said Chinese youth league would like to continue to work with its counterpart in Vietnam to conduct youth activities in various forms to forge deep friendship among young generations of the two countries. The Chinese youth delegation arrived in Vietnam on Sunday for a 10-day visit.

Source:english.people.com.cn/

Vietnam vets fund mine cleanup, care for wounded

DONG HA, Vietnam – A piece of shrapnel sliced Jerry Maroney's right leg. A bullet pierced Peter Holt's neck. Les Newell took a shot in the rump.



LE QUANG NHAT/The Associated PressThese old American soldiers recovered from the physical scars of combat long ago. Holt is chairman of the San Antonio Spurs basketball team. But last week, they visited a place where people still have fresh wounds from the Vietnam War, which ended nearly 35 years ago.

They came to Quang Tri Province, which is still littered with landmines and unexploded ordnance that routinely kill and maim people working in the rice fields. Their visit was organized by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which built the Washington, D.C., monument that lists the names of the 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam.

The fund sponsors Project RENEW, a nonprofit organization that helps Quang Tri residents like Pham Quy Tuan, 41, whose left hand and right arm were blown off by a leftover American projectile he found in a rice paddy four months ago.

According to the fund, more than 350,000 tons of landmines and explosives remain scattered across the country. Quang Tri province was the most heavily bombed and shelled during the war, and 92 percent of it remains contaminated with explosives.

Since 1975, when troops from the communist north triumphed, more than 100,000 Vietnamese have been killed or injured by landmines or unexploded ordnance, according to the Vietnamese government.

When Tuan's wounds are more fully healed, Project RENEW will see if he can be fitted with a pair of prosthetic limbs.

"Nothing would make me happier than a pair of artificial hands," he said. "I'm helpless."

Source:dallasnews.com/

PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - Jan 19

HANOI, Jan 19 (Reuters) - These are some leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

FINANCIAL NEWS:

TUOI TRE

-- Listed companies will have to explain if their stock prices move either to the ceiling or the floor in 10 consecutive sessions, instead of five sessions now, the Finance Ministry said.

THANH NIEN

-- Asia Commercial Bank said service fees made up 26 percent of its 2.82 trillion dong ($153 million) gross profit last year, the largest contribution to the total, followed by gains from trading bonds that made up 25 percent, on par with another 25 percent from investment.

ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:

LAO DONG

-- Vietnam expects to attract between $22 billion and $25 billion worth of foreign direct investment pledges this year, up from more than $21 billion pledged last year, said Bui Quoc Trung, deputy head of the Planning and Investment Ministry's Foreign Investment Department.

TUOI TRE

-- Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem has asked the Japanese government to actively join the implementation of major infrastructure projects in Vietnam, such as a north-south highway and a speed train railway.

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

-- Vietnam plans to cut the number of poor households to below 9.5 percent of the population this year, from a rate of 11.3 percent in 2009, the Labour Ministry said. (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom)

Source:alertnet.org/

Tila Tequila`s bizarre bid to be ambassador for Vietnam

Grieving Tila Tequila dreams of using her new-found high profile for a bizarre new job – being an ambassador for her native Vietnam.


The pint-sized celebrity unexpectedly found herself the centre of intense scrutiny after the death of her 'wifey', troubled heiress Casey Johnson.


And even though nearly all of the coverage has slammed Tila, the girl best known as the bisexual babe on a reality TV dating show believes she is destined for diplomatic life.


'I'm trying to become the ambassador to Vietnam,' Tequila insisted. 'I know that sounds like a stretch, but everybody's dream can come true if you really believe it.'


Since Casey's death, the most headline-grabbing moment of Tila's life was when she went outside and faced photographers – wearing a skimpy outfit and laughing and joking as she put flowers in her cleavage and even bizarrely climbing a tree.


But still she insists she is a different girl than the one TV viewers saw in A Shot At Love, her 2007 reality show, which had the bisexual looking for amore among 16 men and women competing for her affection.


'I think media are confusing the Tila of 10 years ago with the Tila of today,' she insisted.


'I haven't had a major project that will make you forget about Shot At Love.'

Source:monstersandcritics.com/

Rates dip in Vietnam as demand subsides, focus on bond

Banks’ demand for Vietnamese dong and dollars eased in the past week and interbank rates on short-term loans fell, although longer-dated rates held steady, bankers said on Monday.


Dollar supply could be boosted if the government successfully sells a 10-year sovereign bond worth US$1 billion, with roadshows scheduled this week in Hong Kong, London, Boston and New York.

Fixings for overnight dong loans stood at 8.23 percent on Monday, down from 8.56 percent a week ago, and two-month loans eased to 11.40 percent from 11.44 percent.

But dealers noted six-month and one-year dong rates stood unchanged at 11.94 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

The State Bank of Vietnam said the value of dong transactions on the interbank market dropped nearly 30 percent to 13.17 trillion dong per day during the week of Jan. 8-14 from 18.67 trillion dong the previous week.

“In the past week, the foreign exchange market has seen positive moves, with foreign exchange liquidity significantly improved,” the central bank’s money market review said, citing “a large volume” of dollars banks were able to buy from major state firms.

In December the government ordered seven corporations to sell dollars to banks to help ease a dollar shortage. That followed a devaluation of the dong in November.

Dollar transactions on the interbank market dropped by one-third to a daily average of $321 million in the past week from $485 million the previous week following the increase in supply, the central bank said.

Source:thanhniennews.com/

Vietnam bonds rise on bank liquidity; dong is little changed

Vietnam’s five-year bonds advanced, pushing the yield to the lowest level in a week, on speculation banks will have more cash available to purchase the securities. The dong was little changed.


A liquidity shortage at banks eased after the central bank injected between VND5 trillion ($270.6 million) and VND6 trillion a day into the money market, Dau Tu Tai Chinh newspaper reported, citing Nguyen Ngoc Bao, director of monetary policy at the central bank. Interest rates in the interbank market dropped between 0.07 and 2.23 percentage points, the paper said.

“Local banks have started purchasing bonds, pushing demand up for the securities,” said Tran Kieu Hung, a Hanoi-based trader at Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam, known as BIDV.

The yield on the benchmark five-year notes fell 12 basis points to 12.29 percent, the lowest level since Jan. 11, according to data from banks compiled by Bloomberg.

The dong was at 18,479 per dollar as of 3:21 p.m. in Hanoi Monday from 18,474 on Jan. 15, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It reached a record-low 18,500 on Nov. 26.

The currency fetched between 19,280 and 19,330 at money changers in Ho Chi Minh City today, versus 19,240 and 19,280 on Jan. 15, according to a telephone directory information service, known as 1080, run by state-owned Vietnam Posts & Telecommunications.

The State Bank of Vietnam has kept its daily reference rate for the dong at 17,941 since Dec. 10, according to its website. The currency is allowed to fluctuate by as much as 3 percent on either side of that rate.

Source: Bloomberg

Vietnam-Japan Cooperation Committee meets

The Vietnam-Japan Committee convened its third meeting in Tokyo, Japan on January 17 to seek ways to boost their cooperative relations.

The meeting was chaired by Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem and Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.

Opening the meeting, Okada stated that the current Japanese government wishes to bolster cooperation and exchange with Vietnam as strategic partners in numerous areas.

At the two-day conference, the two sides will discuss measures to strengthen their bilateral relation in such areas as economy, culture and science-technology and their cooperation under the multilateral framework, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

The trade officials from the two countries will also attend a dialogue forum, which focuses on Vietnam’s market regulation.

Established in November, 2006, the Vietnam-Japan Cooperation Committee works as a forum for the two countries to map out measures to boost their cooperative relations in all areas.

Source:isria.com/

Jetstar Detentions Raise Red Flags for Investors in Vietnam

In most places, a business deal that goes sour can get you fired. In Vietnam, it could cost you your freedom. For decades, Vietnam's economic growth has been the envy of its developing neighbors in southeast Asia. In the last 20 years, GDP growth has fallen only once below 5%, typically hovering around 8% as the single-party state has attracted tens of billions of dollars in foreign investment and seen poverty rates drop below that of India, China and the Philippines.

But Vietnam's latest debacle involving two senior Australian executives may make investors think twice before getting into business with Vietnam. Tristan Freeman and Daniela Marsilli, the chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Qantas' Vietnamese operation, Jetstar Pacific, have been stranded in Vietnam since authorities prevented them from flying home to their families for Christmas. Earlier in 2009, Vietnam launched an investigation of the high-level executives after the airline, a Vietnamese and Australian partnership, reported a $31 million loss from bad bets on fuel futures, agreements on the future price of oil that committed Jetstar Pacific to paying above market rates for their jet fuel after oil prices dropped.
(See pictures from the China-Vietnam border war.)

Freeman and Marsilli have not been charged with a crime yet and are officially being held "to respond to the requests from Vietnam's legal authorities in a timely manner." But Vietnam has strict laws on the books against losing state resources through economic mismanagement, potentially criminalizing the consequences of standard business risks.

News of the pair's interrogation and travel-ban was released last week, and Qantas says Vietnam's investigation into Jetstar Pacific could last months, leaving the two Qantas employees stuck in Vietnam indefinitely. One Vietnamese national, the former Jetstar Pacific general director Luong Hoai Nam, was also arrested for "irresponsibility causing serious consequences," according to state media.

The Vietnamese government's investment arm, the State Capital Investment Corporation, owns 70% of Jetstar Pacific and Qantas owns 27%, until 2007 the airline was fully owned by the Vietnamese government. In other words, Nam, Freeman and Marsilli lost the state a lot of money after investing in fuel futures when oil prices were escalating in 2008, eventually peaking at $147 a barrel in July, before oil prices slumped to a low of just over $30 in December 2008. But Jetstar Pacific wasn't alone in its fuel-hedging bets; other regional airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore airlines also reported losses from similar transactions. Airlines use fuel futures to ensure a predictable fuel price, but they can lose big if the price of oil plummets as it did at the end of 2008. The CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce, told reporters last week that Freeman and Marsilli did nothing wrong. The fuel hedging, Joyce said, was part of the "normal course of business practice."

Many analysts worry that the detention of Freeman and Marsilli signals a reversal of the Vietnamese government's widely lauded market reforms. With spiraling inflation and the global financial crisis taking a bite out of the country's crucial export sector, some say government hardliners have responded by rolling back economic and personal freedoms. Late last year, Vietnam blocked Facebook and Twitter and arrested a number of pro-democracy activists. Jetstar Pacific, as the only joint venture domestic airline in Vietnam, could have become a target for conservatives who resent giving up control to the private sector — especially as Jetstar has increased its market share at the expense of the state-run Vietnamese Airlines. Carl Thayer, a politics professor at the University of New South Wales, says the Vietnamese government is still "uncomfortable" with private competition and that its treatment of Jetstar Pacific is part of a "backlash against aspects of the globalizing economy."

This isn't the first time that Vietnam has detained staff from a foreign company after losing money. In 2006, the Vietnamese government arrested four employees of ABN AMRO, a Dutch bank, for fraud after the government lost money on a foreign currency contract. To end the dispute, ABN AMRO paid $4.5 million to a Vietnamese state-owned bank, apparently to secure the release of the four Vietnamese employees who faced the death penalty. Many investors hoped this was a small bump on the path to further economic reforms, and it didn't slow Vietnam's entry into the World Trade Organization in early 2007.

This week, however, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has drummed up new charges against Jetstar Pacific, in addition to its investigation of Darsilli and Freeman. On Wednesday, state-media reported that Jetstar Pacific had violated maintenance regulations and concealed broken aircraft parts. A Qantas spokesperson said that at all times the planes had met regulatory requirements and that the CAAV brought up only "quality, not safety concerns." Thayer, however, predicts that Vietnam will try and continue to try to find small oversights to "extort" Qantas like they did ABN AMRO more than three years ago. "They just find one little mistake and the foreigner is wrong," he says.

Still, Vietnam remains a potentially lucrative growth market that had a stronger than expected showing at the end of 2009, and it remains to be seen if the Jetstar Pacific imbroglio will significantly deter new foreign investors. Even though Communist hardliners have clamped down on some freedoms, the government nonetheless promised in November it would soon allow foreigners to own 49% of local businesses, up from 30%. As Vietnam's Communist Party encourages economic growth without wanting to let go of power, it's only setting itself up for more clashes with foreign partners.

Source:time.com/

Vietnam’s athletes expect more victories in 2010

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam’s athletes will have more opportunities to increase their status in both continental and regional events, such as the 16th Asian Games (ASIAD 16) and the National Sports Festival
Continental playground - ASIAD 16

Vietnam has set itself an ambitious target at the 16th ASIAD Games, which will take place in Guangzhou, China, in November 2010.

Vietnam’s excellent performances at the 3rd Asian Indoor Games and the 25th SEA Games brought a great deal of pride for local sports fans and supporters who showed their confidence in the country’s further successes in upcoming sports events across the continent.

Sports-lovers have pinned their hopes on the country’s performance in numerous events at ASIAD and the Olympic games, including track-and-field events, swimming, shooting, judo, taekwondo, karate, and billiards & snooker. According to Vu Ngoc Anh, deputy head of the High-Achievement Sports Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, if Vietnamese athletes maintain their current training programmes, they could take the lead at ASIAD 16.

Vietnam registered for 17 out of a total of 25 events at the 25th SEA Games, which were held in Laos in December 2009. It won 83 gold medals, coming second after Thailand (86).

The High-Achievement Sports Department liaised with sports federations, national sports unions and coaching boards to make detailed plans for future investment, coaching and competitions. Vietnam will prepare thoroughly for athletes to compete at regional and international events, particularly in the qualifying rounds for the next Olympics games. The country will also invest more in upgrading its training facilities and procure better medical support for athletes prior to the forthcoming ASIDAD 16 in China.

Vietnam aims to win more than four gold medals in the ASIAD 16, higher than in the previous games. There are many outstanding athletes who have performed well at continental events, such as Vu Thi Huong and Truong Thanh Hang (track-and-field), Duong Anh Vu and Dang Dinh Tien (billiards & snooker) and others in shooting and boxing events. Furthermore, the country also hopes to take home medals from several martial arts events.

However, with some positive results recorded in 2009, Vietnam’s sports sector is expected to raise its global standing in the future by winning more gold medals in a series of events.

Home playground - National Sports Festival

The 2010 National Sports Festival, scheduled to take place in central Da Nang city, will be a major event for Vietnamese athletes in their backyard. Local authorities have invested large amounts of money in training athletes and upgrading sports facilities to achieve better results than in previous festivals. The event will provide a good opportunity for athletes in every province and city nationwide to show their talent and claim victory through some tough competitions.

Source:vietnamnet.vn/

Vietnam-UK economic ties look good for 2010

Despite the devastating impact of the global economic crisis, economic and trade ties between Vietnam and the UK have remained steady, even growing in 2009, and look likely to continue healthily in 2010.

In its latest report, the UK Department of Trade and Investment (UKTI) regards Vietnam as one of the 17 major markets to be approached by UK businesspeople.

The UKTI also surveyed the markets that UK businesses will invest in the future and Vietnam was named among the top 15.

According to the UK Statistics Authority, by the end of October this year the UK had imported 893 million GBP worth of commodities from Vietnam, a year on year rise of 7.4 percent while it exported goods worth 171 million GBP to Vietnam, a year on year increase of 12 percent.

With an average monthly trade value of 120 million GBP recorded over the last few months, two way-trade turnover between Vietnam and the UK is likely to meet this year’s target of 1.8 billion USD (over 1.1 billion GBP). This was confirmed by Vietnam’s trade counselor in the UK An The Dung.

Dung also said that UK investments in Vietnam have currently reached two billion USD in 126 projects, making the country one of the largest European investors in the Southeast Asian country.

Globally famous companies such as BP, Shell, BAT, GlaxoSmithKline, Tate & Lyle, Prudential, HSBC, and Standard Chartered Bank have been established in Vietnam for a long time now while other companies are planning to expand their operations in the country.

The Vietnamese trade official predicted that bilateral trade would become brisker in 2010 as the UK’s economy has shown signs of recovery and economic analysts have said its darkest period was over.

Dung attributed the improved image of Vietnamese products and businesses in the world and UK market to trade promotions conducted by businesses themselves and by Vietnamese State agencies. In 2009, almost 60 Vietnamese delegations traveled to the UK for trade promotions.

He said that the exporters of farm products and foodstuffs to the UK should maintain their export rate in 2010 but need to take part in trade fairs for agricultural products, food and beverages in the UK to explore future potential deals.

Dung forecast that purchases of footwear and garments will rise in the UK, two of Vietnam’s main exports to the UK.

The counselor also gave a positive projection for Vietnamese plastic products as the demand in the UK market has risen to 69kg per person a year.

Shrugging off 2009’s economic challenges, the UK’s economy will start to grow again in 2010, which will create a “win-win situation” for both the UK and Vietnam

Source:saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/

Findings point new path for dealing with Vietnam War's poisonous legacy

Tran Huynh Thuong Sinh, who was born without eyes, is examined by a nurse at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Many children at the facility are from areas once heavily sprayed by U.S. forces with the defoliant Agent Orange. (Kuni Takahashi / Chicago Tribune / July 8, 2009)





Reporting from Da Nang, Vietnam - When a small Canadian environmental firm started collecting soil samples on a former U.S. air base in a remote Vietnamese valley, Thomas Boivin and other scientists were skeptical that they would find evidence proving herbicides used there by the American military decades ago still posed a health threat.

But results showed that levels of the cancer-causing poison dioxin were far greater than guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for residential areas.

That's when Boivin, now president of the firm, says he had his "eureka moment." Vancouver-based Hatfield Consultants Ltd. began tracing the toxin through the food chain, from the soil and sediment of nearby ponds to the fat of ducks and fish to the blood and breast milk of villagers living on the contaminated site.

The breast milk of one woman in the study contained dioxin levels six times higher than what the World Health Organization deems safe. She also had a 2-year-old child with spina bifida, one of the birth defects for which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs compensates the children of U.S. veterans.

Since then, Hatfield and Vietnamese scientists have taken samples from nearly 3,000 former U.S. military installations scattered throughout former South Vietnam and have identified 28 "hot spots," including three highly contaminated sites around populated areas in Da Nang, Bien Hoa and Phu Cat.

Their findings offered a way to recast the legacy in Vietnam of Agent Orange and related defoliants as a solvable, though urgent, issue. Instead of a messy controversy over birth defects and other complex health issues, the discovery of persistent contamination focused attention on a measurable, present-day problem that could be addressed.

Yet since the first Hatfield study was published in 2000, the U.S. government has done little to help clean up the sites it contaminated during the Vietnam War, providing just $6 million to tackle both the serious health issues related to the contamination and the significant environmental damage caused by the defoliants.

Boivin and others who have worked on the issue say that since the first studies came out, there has been more cooperation between the U.S. and Vietnam. Hatfield started working in Vietnam pro bono in hopes of landing Canadian government subsidies, but the firm later became committed to studying the problem, donating hundreds of hours and resources.

"During the past few years in particular, there's been huge movement on the U.S. and Vietnamese sides," Boivin said. "It's very encouraging to see."

Yet the United States' overall pace of action on polluted former military bases in Vietnam has been slow. Officials in Vietnam and the U.S. have not settled on an exact cost, but the price tag to clean up Vietnam War-era hot spots would run into the tens of millions of dollars.

"There's no question that there are levels of dioxin in Vietnam that are harmful, and there is no doubt that U.S. and South Vietnamese forces storing it there has had a cause and effect," said Michael Marine, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam from 2004 to 2007.

"It's a relatively easy argument to make that the U.S. should help to address this issue."

The impact of Agent Orange isn't felt only by soldiers and civilians who were directly sprayed. The chemical has had a lasting effect in and around the bases where it was stored -- and spilled.

When Nguyen Van Dung took a job cleaning sewers at the Da Nang airport in 1996, he didn't know that U.S. forces had stored hundreds of thousands of gallons of herbicides there during the Vietnam War or that those herbicides contained a highly toxic compound linked to more than a dozen illnesses. He didn't know that the compound had soaked into the soil and remained there at dangerously high levels.

Dung moved with his wife, Thu, and their healthy infant daughter into a one-room cinder-block house next door to the former U.S. air base. During the next 13 years, Dung and Thu, who also works at the airport, had two children with devastating illnesses, including rare blood and bone diseases, that the couple suspect were caused by contamination at the airport.

Their second daughter died when she was 7, and now their 10-month-old son, who suffers from the same ailments, requires painful blood transfusions every month to stay alive.

"I am a man, and men seldom cry," said Dung, 41, who sat cross-legged on the floor in his home, tears welling in his eyes as Thu cradled the frail infant in her lap. "But every time my son has a blood transfusion, I cry."

During the last three years, Hatfield and Vietnamese scientists measured levels of dioxin in the blood and breast milk of workers at the Da Nang airport that were as much as 100 times higher than WHO safety guidelines.

Dioxin is considered the most persistent toxin known. In the environment, its half-life can be decades, meaning it takes that long for the chemical contamination to diminish by half. In the human body, the half-life of dioxin is about 7 1/2 years. That means that, not even a decade ago, some residents tested by Hatfield could have had even higher levels of the toxin.

The contamination at Da Nang isn't confined to the air base. Scientists also found that dioxin from the herbicides had seeped into nearby Sen Lake, where for decades residents bought and sold fish.

Source:latimes.com/

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