Vietnam detains two in Japanese aid graft case

HANOI, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Vietnamese police have detained two former Ho Chi Minh City officials over accusations they received bribes from Japanese contractors in an affair that has led Japan to suspend official aid.
Anti-corruption police have charged the former head of the city’s East-West Highway project, Huynh Ngoc Si, with “abuse of power” and [...]

Donors pledge $5 bln soft loans, grants to Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — International aid donors pledged $5 billion in low-interest loans and grants to Vietnam on Friday, with the total falling slightly from last year because Japan has frozen aid until the communist country takes effective measures to tackle corruption.
Last year, donors pledged $5.4 billion in official development assistance to booming Vietnam, which [...]

Corruption could hinder growth, international expert warns

Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter (L) and Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai in Hanoi Tuesday

Vietnam’s leaders need to urgently tackle corruption, which is putting economic growth at risk, an economic expert has warned.

Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter said a strong press was a key plank in exposing and preventing corruption.
“Corruption could make [...]

AFP: Vietnam court upholds blogger’s jail term

HANOI (AFP) — An appeals court in communist Vietnam on Thursday upheld a blogger’s two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for tax fraud in a case media watchdog groups have said was politically motivated.
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court confirmed the September verdict and sentencing of Nguyen Hoang Hai, who uses the weblog name Dieu Cay and [...]

Vietnam aid loans suspended

HANOI – JAPAN’S ambassador to Vietnam on Thursday said his country had suspended new aid loans to Hanoi, citing a major corruption scandal that came to light last month.
The move came after former executives of Pacific Consultants International (PCI) last month admitted in a Japanese court to paying kickbacks to a Vietnamese official overseeing a [...]

No sign that jailed blogger Dieu Cay will get fair appeal

Reporters Without Borders calls on the Vietnamese authorities to stop manipulating the legal proceedings against blogger and human rights activist Nguyen Hoang Hai, better known by the blogging name of Dieu Cay, who is serving a 30-month jail sentence on a charge of tax fraud.
Foreign journalists will not be admitted into the Ho Chi [...]

UK pledges to donate 50 million pounds to Vietnam

VietNamNet Bridge – The British government has pledged to give non-refundable aid of 50 million British pounds (roughly 74.5 million USD) to Vietnam next year in spite of global financial crisis.

Head of the UK’s Department for International Development in Vietnam Fiona Louise Lappin said on December 2 that the sum is part of a [...]

Viet slammed for jailing Chien

In May this year Chien (pictured) and another journalist were arrested, and they were convicted last month, along with their police sources, in a case that sent a chill through the country’s state-controlled media industry. –PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

HANOI – FOREIGN diplomats at a meeting on Friday criticised Vietnam for punishing graft-busting journalists and urged [...]

Vietnam still slack on anti-graft: int’l donors

International donors are concerned there’s not enough being done to fight corruption in Vietnam, a meeting on anticorruption measures in Hanoi heard Friday.
The Counselor of the Dutch Embassy, Van Loosdrecht, said despite a turn around in anti-graft in the country the fight was mostly being targeted at corruption at the grassroots level.
Donors at the meeting [...]

Foreign donors slam Vietnam for jailing graft-busting journalist

Foreign donors criticised Vietnam Friday for punishing graft-busting journalists and urged the communist government to instead go after the “big fish” in its anti-corruption drive.
Diplomats speaking at the annual Anti-Corruption Dialogue meeting focused on the jailing last month of newspaper journalist Nguyen Viet Chien who had helped uncover a major corruption scandal three years ago.
Swiss [...]