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[Hurricane88]

Vietnam's central bank denies rumors of currency change

By VnExpress December 2, 2016 | 04:05 pm GMT+7

The State Bank has refuted rumors that the dong is to be devalued, asking people to stay vigilant against false information.
The State Bank of Vietnam has issued an official statement to the public, denying a currency change and saying such rumors were based on false information.

Rumors of the currency change have swept social media platforms in recent days with the intention of inciting people to hoard gold and foreign currencies, causing chaos and anxiety among the public, said the central bank in the statement.

“Such information is false and based on evil intentions,” it said.

The central bank has also warned people to stay vigilant against such false information to avoid personal economic losses and ensure national monetary security.

The dong has been under notable pressure since last month with global investors flocking to the greenback in the belief that President-elect Trump’s pledge to pump more money into the U.S. economy will strengthen the dollar.

The Vietnamese dong fell to a five-month low against the U.S. dollar on November 17 following 10 months of stability since the central bank decided to ease exchange rate rules, setting the official mid-point rate of the dong against the dollar on a daily basis rather than pegging the dong to a fixed rate.

On November 24, the central bank said it was ready to stabilize the Vietnamese dong/ U.S. dollar exchange rate by selling foreign currency, according to Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong.

The central bank, which does not regularly report on its foreign exchange reserves, said in October that the total had increased to a record high of $40 billion, enough to cover three months of imports.

[Hurricane88]

5 Rules Of Life As A Prostitute In Vietnam

December 3, 2016



Prostitution is illegal in most of Southeast Asia, but there’s a big ol’ set of quotation marks around the word. Thailand and Vietnam are especially notorious as destinations for sex tourists.

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And since Cracked has developed a habit of interviewing prostitutes over the last year for totally official reasons and not at all because we need somebody to hold us while we cry, we decided to speak with Diem Phu Nu. Diem was a Ho Chi Minh City moped prostitute.

1. Many Families Are Perfectly Fine With Prostitution

For poorer women like me, prostitution is seen as a fairly acceptable way to get income. I started when I was 15, not because we were starving and needed groceries (although I did help them out on expenses) —

I simply wanted some spending money, and part-time prostitution was a way to get it. I had a lot of English-speaking clients who wanted to take me to dinner as part of the escort experience, so I got free meals, too.

It may seem tragic to you, but I was OK with it, and so was my family. The street caller who got clients for me was a family friend, and he looked out for me.

An unexpected fringe benefit: Many of my clients were talkers, and that wound up helping me out a lot in school. I got top grades in English thanks to all the practice I got with clients. You can study quietly in a library, or you can study while having sex and getting paid for it. Seemed like a better deal to me.

It’s really only tourists who look down on us for it. One white woman passed me and an older guy holding hands in the street once and told us that “we should be ashamed of ourselves.” But he was satisfying his sexual desires, while I consented and was getting money to save up for a moped. I certainly didn’t feel ashamed or abused while hooking; I felt like I was 62 percent of the way to a bitchin’ scooter.

2. You Can’t Just Start Selling Your Body

You may think that starting work as a prostitute is as easy as dressing sexily and actually accepting those lewd offers the guys are yelling at you anyway. But without a “caller,” you’ll be lost.

Callers are basically those guys who twirl around big arrow signs to get people into mattress stores and pizza joints, but for sex workers.

No, they don’t dance on the street corners while spinning vagina-shaped signs — they call out to passing tourists and carefully screen prospective clients. Each one knows what the prostitutes they represent can handle.

For example: They’ll avoid pairing most of us with heavyset people. Many Vietnamese women are small, so a large, heavy man will be a problem.

If the client persists and asks for us specifically, they will have to meet us for dinner rather than riding with us straight to the destination. That’s not because we hate them — fat tourists on mopeds are more of a physics problem than a moral one.

The established callers all have their own turf, and they’ll chase away any unrepresented prostitute they see working their area. Other areas are absolutely filled with moped-straddling hookers already, and thus the market is as saturated as …

I’m not going to finish that analogy, for all our sakes.

3. We Truly Care About The Customer Experience

In Thailand, for example, prostitution sounds like a pretty straightforward business:

Direct “tab a” into “slot b.” 2. Collect money. Like an ATM

But, at least in my city, a surprising amount of thought goes into pairing each customer with the best prostitute for his wants and needs. We’re a service industry, and just because we’re literally servicing our customers doesn’t mean we phone it in.

Say the client gets waved over to a caller. It’s not like a taxi stand, where you hop into the first available opening. The caller and the client speak for a while first. Sometimes clients have specific wants — anything from a classy escort experience to hardcore BDSM.

Then their preference is divided into age, figure, sex, and ethnicity. It’s like building your own video game character, only you get to fuck it once you’re done.

After the caller finds out exactly what the client wants, only then does he contact the most fitting available prostitute. For longer negotiations, the caller might even stop at a drink stand and treat the client to some booze.

The customer gets their free drunk on, while the street caller talks it over with the girls until a decision is reached upon who, exactly, is the best prostitute for the job at hand.

4. The Rivalry With Massage Parlors Can Get Ugly

Many massage parlors here are fronts for sex. There’s no dinner, no conversation or getting to know each other a little first — just straight to the “show.” That’s why the more traditional prostitutes in Saigon see massage girls as whores. (Ed. Note: If you’re confused by that distinction, join the club.)

Of course, I’m sure the massage girls think we’re whores because we don’t even throw a friendly massage in first.

When the caller for a moped prostitute and a pamphlet girl for a massage parlor get too close, things can explode. And not in a sexy, euphemistic way. Callers will knock the pamphlets out of the girls’ hands; the girls will kick over the bikes of a rival.

There’s a parlor very near my room, and full-on fights over clients aren’t at all uncommon. It’s like a parody porno of The Warriorsout there.

5. The Police Actually Protect The Prostitutes

Prostitution is not only an expected part of the culture here, but a huge aspect of our tourism industry. Yes, prostitutes can be arrested, but only when they are found to be part of a trafficking ring or are committing another crime while doing it.

Otherwise, it’s winked at heavily by law enforcement. In fact, the police do more than look the other way — they protect us better than any pimp could. I mean, you won’t see “Ho Chi Minh Police: Way Better Than Pimps” emblazoned on their badges or anything, but they have our backs.

We have each other’s backs, too. If someone tries to go to a moped prostitute’s apartment, they’ll find that all of the neighboring apartments are also filled with prostitutes, as well as an owner who can come and pin down the abuser. Clients who get aggressive can look forward to being dogpiled by call girls, and while that does sound like a hell of a lot of fun, I can assure you it is less so in practice.

The police have no qualms with punishing tourists caught abusing women, and they can totally be reported to American authorities. One of my customers threatened me with a pocket knife when I was 16, and after I yelled out my code word, there were police on the scene in a couple of minutes (Without so much as asking if I was a prostitute, let alone arresting me).

The man was deported the next day, and last I heard, was arrested on arrival in the United States. There’s this misconception that sex tourists can do whatever they want in other countries with impunity, as though that country wouldn’t protect its own people over a sexually-frustrated rug salesman from Albuquerque.

[Hurricane88]

Ho Chi Minh City mulls speed limit cuts to minimize road accidents

TUOI TRE NEWS
UPDATED : 12/03/2016 13:01 GMT + 7


Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City are considering lowering the maximum speed on certain routes citywide in a bid to reduce traffic accidents across the southern metropolis.

The municipal Department of Transport will carry out discussions next week to determine the new speed limits for certain streets, deputy director Tran Quang Lam said during a conference on Friday morning.

Speaking at the gathering, Ngo Hai Duong, head of the department’s Road Infrastructure Management and Exploitation Division, confirmed that the number of road crashes has increased since the implementation of Circular 91, which raised the speed limits in urban areas.

Specifically, the 60kph speed cap was applied to roadways with median strips and one-way two-lane roads, whereas the restriction for two-way roads without median strips and one-way one-lane roads was 50kph.
Both of the current limits are 10kph faster than previous levels.

After eight months of implementing the new circular, traffic accidents occurred more often on nine out of 12 streets applied with the higher speed limits, Duong underlined.

He proposed that the speed limits on Hanoi Highway, Vo Van Kiet and Pham Van Dong Avenues be lowered by 10kph.

Maximum velocity for motorcycles on National Highway 1 and such streets as Kinh Duong Vuong, Dong Van Cong, Mai Chi Tho, and Nguyen Van Linh should also be cut down by 10kph, he added.

Lieutenant Colonel Huynh Trung Phong, deputy chief of the traffic police department, shared a similar opinion, stating that current road infrastructure is not suitable for the corresponding velocity limits.

While the maximum speeds on most roads range from 50 to 60kph, the quality of certain streets can only ensure safety for vehicles travelling at the maximum of 30kph, Lt. Col. Phong elaborated.

However, several delegates did not agree with the proposition, asserting that adjusting the speed restriction should depend on each street and its traffic volume.

The rise of road accidents cannot be blamed solely on the high speed limits, they added.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Tuong, deputy head of the city’s Traffic Safety Committee, the current speed restrictions have received positive feedback from local citizens, thus readjusting them would require thorough consideration.

[Hurricane88]

Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News – December 3

TUOI TRE NEWS
UPDATED : 12/03/2016 08:47 GMT + 7

Here are the leading news stories about Vietnam you should not miss today, December 3

Politics

-- The Asian Development Bank is one of Vietnam's most important partners in capital, technical assistance and policy advice supports, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the bank.


Society

-- Some 1.1 million residents in four central Vietnamese cities will benefit from a US$273 million World Bank-backed project aimed to improve access to environmental sanitation services and the effectiveness of sanitation facilities there.

-- A raging blaze engulfed a 1000ha warehouse of recycled plastic in Hanoi for three hours on Friday night. There are no immediate casualty reports.
-- A man was caught red handed when he was making an explosive device inside a hotel room in the north-central province Nghe An on Friday.

-- A tornado swept through the southern province of Soc Trang on Friday, unroofing 126 houses.

-- Two were killed while two others went missing as rain and flood hit central Vietnam on Friday.


Business

-- Vietnam's foreign arrivals are expected to top 10 million in 2016, a strong rise from 7.94 million last year, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

-- Vietnam and Argentina logged two-way trade value of some $2.42 billion in the year to early November, according to data released at the fifth meeting of the Vietnam-Argentina Inter-Governmental Committee in Hanoi on Friday.

-- South Korean food company CJ CheilJedang received shareholders’ approval on Friday for its proposal to increase its stake in Vietnamese peer Cau Tre to 47.33 percent.


Lifestyle

-- Vietnamese pop singer Noo Phuoc Thinh was granted the Best Asian Artist at the Mnet Asian Music Awards 2016 (MAMA 2016) in Hong Kong on Friday.

-- The 8th annual “Sunflower Festival,” a Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper-backed charity program for children with cancer, took place today, December 3, in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, raising funds for child cancer patients.


Sports

-- Vietnam will play hosts Indonesia in their first-leg semifinal at the 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup at 7:00 pm tonight, December 3.

[Hurricane88]

The changing role of overseas remittances in Vietnam's economy

By VnExpress December 4, 2016 | 02:00 am GMT+7

Originally a main form of aid for family, these cash flows have increasingly found their way into businesses, reflecting economic shifts.

Remittances from overseas Vietnamese have always been a key source of funds for Vietnam, equivalent to about 8 to 10 percent of gross domestic product.

According to the Central Institute for Economic Management, Vietnam received a total of around $120 billion in overseas remittances during the 16-year period of 1999-2015.

But new data suggest that overseas remittances are playing a much more different and potentially more important role now: they help foster local businesses and the manufacturing sector.

Between 2010 and 2013, only 27-30 percent of remittances ended up in businesses, according the central bank's data. Last year, 70.6 percent of what Vietnamese sent home from overseas was for setting up and expanding businesses in Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s economic hub, has received $4.4 billion in overseas remittances so far this year, said Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy head of the State Bank of Vietnam's city branch.

Minh said 72 percent of the amount went to businesses while 22 percent was invested in real estate. Only 6 percent was meant as financial support for families and friends, which used to be the key purpose of remittances around two or three decades ago.

The city is expected to receive about $5.8 billion in overseas remittances this year, equivalent to 45-55 percent of the country’s total.

A Vietnamese-American, who immigrated to the U.S. 10 years ago, told Thanh Nien newspaper that she has sent her savings back home to invest in family-run businesses.

“My sisters in Vietnam have their own companies," she said. "I'm sending money home to help them expand their businesses without having to borrow from banks at high interest rates."

More than half of Vietnam's remittances come from the U.S.

Vietnam recorded $12.25 billion in overseas remittances last year, slightly up from $12 billion in 2014, according to data from the central bank.

Remittances are viewed as more vital considering that Vietnam has been increasingly burdened with mounting public debt, which nearly doubled to $116 billion over the past five years, and with rapidly falling loans from international partners.

But some experts have warned that, with Federal Reserve officials in the U.S. tipped to raise interest rates and the presumed demise of the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, Vietnamese overeases in the U.S. may have fewer incentives to send money home for investment in the coming time.

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by KangTuo

Senior SS08, I will be going HCM in mid Dec alone for about 6 days.
newbie in cheonging scene in HCM. Can you show me where are the ca phe om, bia om, bom bom shops and where to tabao vb back to ks? (but I staying in a girl un-friendly ks)

Why leh??? Why you go alone but never jio any of us leh???

Faster buy ticket for me, I be your personal guide

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

haha...by then i may not be around anymore...

You are Transcended leh, you live on a higher plane of existence than normal peasants like me leh so in another 200 years you will still be around somewhere......

Cheerios.....SS08 ^_^

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

what kind of being also ordinary human being...

Bo siang lah, "Transcended" already means different from normal humans liao, in hokkien called "Mmm Si Lang".......kekekekeke

Cheerios.....SS08 ^_^

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

haha...my Americano friend this morning flew in from USA after half a year...he was a Democrat...he was totally flabbergasted becos Clinton lost and back in Feb, he was so sure Clinton will win...but I told him the result will be a Republican President...

Thats becos most of them missed out those young newly "first-timers" able to vote, those internet-savvy young generations whom eagerly lapped up whatever nonsense that clown spouts during the presidential campaign period, these are the generation that are not really bothered with what will be the subsequent consequences of their actions or else why you think nowadays posting their own naked pictures or their own porn weedios on the internet is no longer a big thing

Cheerios.....SS08 ^_^

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

new word "loctor"...from SGM...

Silly Gross Man mah, thats why tok like machiam hokkien peng

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

5 Rules Of Life As A Prostitute In Vietnam

December 3, 2016


Prostitution is illegal in most of Southeast Asia, but there’s a big ol’ set of quotation marks around the word. Thailand and Vietnam are especially notorious as destinations for sex tourists.

Follow HanoiJack on Facebook for all Vietnam/Asia related

Frankly I dun quite agree with this bugger's way of posting the VBs pictures openly on the internet and openly naming them prostitutes

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Why leh??? Why you go alone but never jio any of us leh???

Faster buy ticket for me, I be your personal guide

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

Ya lor...why bro KT allowed to go alone...must be school holidays...the wifey and kids in Wetnam holiday....he just go there alone to join them...

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

You are Transcended leh, you live on a higher plane of existence than normal peasants like me leh so in another 200 years you will still be around somewhere......

Cheerios.....SS08 ^_^

so chim...how to live another 200 years...

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Bo siang lah, "Transcended" already means different from normal humans liao, in hokkien called "Mmm Si Lang".......kekekekeke

Cheerios.....SS08 ^_^

si lang means die die people...how to be "Transcended" when si lang...

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Thats becos most of them missed out those young newly "first-timers" able to vote, those internet-savvy young generations whom eagerly lapped up whatever nonsense that clown spouts during the presidential campaign period, these are the generation that are not really bothered with what will be the subsequent consequences of their actions or else why you think nowadays posting their own naked pictures or their own porn weedios on the internet is no longer a big thing

Cheerios.....SS08 ^_^

really chim...some how you always have your own ideas and comments...