VN’s first satellite ready for launch
Viet Nam’s first satellite was scheduled to go into orbit on Thursday, April 10, a week later than planned, satellite-project director Hoang Minh Thong said yesterday.
But the minor delay had nothing to do with the ongoing testing of the satellite, he told Viet Nam News.
The satellite was to have been installed at Kourou, French Guyana, yesterday but was postponed by a delay in the launch of a European satellite.
"The bad news is that we have to wait for extra days, but on the bright side we will have more time for testing," said Thong.
"All the tests so far have produced positive results."
The telecommunication satellite was built by Lockheed Martin for more than US$200 million.
The work took almost two years.
It will be carried into orbit aboard a European Union Ariane rocket.
The project director said the launch of Viet Nam’s first satellite was of great significance to national security because it would improve the stability and security of the country’s information network.
It would also put national sovereignty into celestial orbit.
Although the new satellite would mean that Viet Nam would not have to spend about $15 million each year to lease a satellite, the project director conceded that in the age of the emerging Internet-based telecommunications, satellites do not provide as much economic benefit as previously.
"Certainly, telecommunications via optical cable is more efficient than satellite," he said.
"But as we have witnessed recently, satellites are the saviour when vital telecommunications services provided through optical cable collapse."
Viet Nam’s first satellite with its 20 sets of transmitters-receivers can service 200 digital television channels or tens of thousands of telephone channels or the high-speed Internet.
It will service on a wide region of Southeast and Northeast Asia for 15-22 years.
Time on the satellite would be available to any customer willing to pay said Viet Nam International Telecommunications Company deputy director Lam Quoc Cuong.
VNS 14.2

Rubber exports may earn $1.5b
Rubber exports are expected to earn US$1.5 billion this year due to increasing world demand for and rising prices of latex, according to Viet Nam Rubber Association president Le Quang Thung.
Thung told a conference in HCM City last month that Viet Nam rubber was likely to fetch an average price of $2,250 per tonne in 2008.
The price spiked to VND41 million ($2,500) per tonne in January, the highest level ever, up from last year’s export price of VND33 million ($2,063).
The rubber industry, Thung said, was eager to grow higher-yield varieties and apply new cultivation techniques in an effort to raise output from the current average of 1.6 tonnes per hectare to 2.5 tonnes per hectare by 2015 and 3 tonnes per hectare by 2020.
Thung told the meeting that his association would focus on market research, helping domestic businesses improve product quality, and building and protecting trademarks.
The association would co-operate with foreign rubber associations and other international organisations in collecting information about the world rubber market in order to help formulate appropriate export strategies for the rubber industry.
The association also expected to hire consultants to explore the creation of a latex trading market by the second or the third quarter of this year, Thung said.
Viet Nam ranked fourth among the world’s leading rubber exporting countries in 2007, following Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, and exported 719,000 tonnes of latex last year for earnings of $1.4 billion. Last year marked the second year in which rubber joined the selective "one billion dollar club" of the nation’s most lucrative export products.
VNS 14.2

Nghe An wins world biosphere recognition
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has recognised western Nghe An Province as a world biosphere reserve, according to the Nghe An People’s Committee.
The Nghe An biosphere reserve site covers 1.3 million hectares in nine districts in the western part of the province, with the Pu Mat National Park the site’s core zone.
Pu Mat National Park contains valuable fauna and floral resources.
About 130 animal species, 295 kinds of birds, 54 amphibian species, 84 fish species, 39 different kinds of bats, 305 day butterfly species and 14 turtle species, as well as thousands of insects, are living in the reserve.
According to UNESCO, the site that borders Laos has remarkably high biodiversity, ranging from lowland monsoonal evergreen forests to elfin cloud forests.
The site could play an important role in developing the economy and raising the standard of living of ethnic minority groups including the Thai, Dan Lai, O Du, and Mong living in the area, according to the People’s Committee.
The western Nghe An site was added in the UNESCO’s world biosphere reserve network in September together with 22 other new reserve sites in 17 countries.
VNS  14.2

Vietnam is third most popular destinations for RoK investors
Vietnam ranked the third largest investment destination for companies from the Republic of Korea (RoK), according to a report by the Ministry of Finance and Economy of RoK on February 13.
With a rate of 9.2 percent, Vietnam came only after China with 23.5 percent and the US with 15.7 percent.
Under the report, RoK’s foreign investment in 2007 increased by nearly 50 percent against last year due to the government’s eased regulations that focus on promoting overseas investment. In 2007, its total overseas investment capital reached 27.64 billion USD, an increase of 49.2 percent over 2006. Of this, investments by large conglomerates jumped by 31.7 percent, and those by small and medium enterprises surged by 89.9 percent.
According to the latest statistics, in 2007, the RoK continues to lead Vietnam’s foreign investors with 403 projects and total registered capital of nearly 4.2 billion USD. This is the second successive year the RoK has taken the lead in the list.
Communist Party of Vietnam online Newspaper (CPVN) 14.2