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Communist party Congress meet
Calls for wider U.S. Trade Agreement
"Foreign investment is going up, not slowing down"
Major national Petroleum producer says oil production going up
Foreign businesses warned on tax cheating
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Communist party Congress meet

In Vietnam, a four-day congress of the country's ruling communist party opened, attended by more than one-thousand delegates and many foreign delegations. The key policy-defining eighth party congress will adopt a report that combines praise for the achievements of Vietnam's reform efforts, with some sharp criticism of what are called major mistakes.

With Vietnamese flags of red with a gold star flying around the square, a wreath was laid in front of the mausoleum containing Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body.

Then everyone walked back to the congress hall to hear communist party chief Do Muoi summarize a political report the congress will adopt after four days of discussion.

Already approved in advance secret party meetings, the report reviews 10 years of economic reforms, the renovation policies known as doi moi that began in 1986 and were accelerated by the last congress in 1991.

It says reforms brought Vietnam out of an economic crisis, with high growth, low inflation, and political stability as well as open doors to the rest of the world.
However, it also points to what it calls a number of prolonged major mistakes and errors. It lists corruption within the government and party, mis-management, and fading commitment to socialist ideals as obstacles to progress.

Communist party supremacy is reaffirmed. Without being specific, the report rejects what it calls attempts to use democracy and human rights to sabotage Vietnam's government and the ideological foundation of the party.

Political pluralism and multi-party democracy are strictly ruled out. The report says the collapse of communism in the Soviet union and East European countries had only driven socialism into what it calls, a temporary regression.
Among foreign guests sharing the stage with Vietnam's leadership were China's premier Li Peng, a key show of solidarity between the ruling parties of two of Asia's last remaining communist states. Others include Lao leader Khamtay Siphandon, representatives from Cuba and North Korea, and Chea Sim of Cambodia's formerly communist party which ruled that country during a decade of Vietnamese occupation.
While major party leadership changes will not be formally announced until Monday, party sources say Vietnam's top three leaders are likely to keep their jobs, at least for now.

However, there are strong indications that younger party figures will be brought into the central committee and the powerful politburo, both of which are expected to be expanded.

Calls for wider U.S. Trade Agreement

A senior Vietnamese official has called for faster movement toward a comprehensive trade agreement with the United States. Deputy foreign minister Vu Khoan also spoke about human rights and relations with China during a news conference held on the first day of a major congress of Vietnam's communist party.

Vietnam lists as one of its key foreign policy accomplishments the normalization of relations with the United States, a step that was formalized almost one year ago with the opening of a U.S. embassy in Hanoi.

However, progress toward a comprehensive trade agreement, and favorable treatment for Vietnamese products, has been slow.
A reporter asked deputy foreign minister Vu Khoan how the U.S. Vietnamese relationship could be put back on track. In translated remarks, he said U.S. investment in Vietnam has been increasing, and called for faster movement toward an agreement.

"Each side has provided to the other side information as far as a vision of the future trade agreement of both countries. But I think it is in the interest of the United States to have this process move forward faster. For our side, we stand ready."
In response to another question, Mr. Khoan denied allegations by human rights groups that Vietnamese authorities continue to carry out arbitrary arrests and detentions. He said only those who violate Vietnam's laws are subject to arrest.

Mr. Khoan described the visit of Chinese premier Li peng for the Vietnamese communist party congress as another sign relations are improving.
He said ties with Beijing, normalized several years ago, will be helped by Vietnam's entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and by China's growing closer to that regional grouping.

Mr. Khoan said China and Vietnam are continuing talks on territorial and maritime issues. But he repeated Hanoi's position on Vietnamese sovereignty over potentially oil-rich areas in the South China Sea.

On another issue, the deputy foreign minister also denied that relations with Germany were damaged by the recent controversy over Bonn's demand that Vietnam accept thousands of Vietnamese who have been living illegally in Germany. He said Hanoi will honor an agreement on the issue, but said some technical matters need to be addressed.

"Foreign investment is going up, not slowing down"

"Foreign investment has never declined since early this year and the quality of foreign-invested projects has been raised constantly to conform to Vietnam's strategy for socio-economic development," Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Nhac.
In its report, headlined "Foreign investment goes on without any decline", Vietnam News Agency gave figures for licensed foreign investment from the start of the year to mid-April.
It said 70 investment projects with capital totalling $1.222 billion had been approved by mid-April. An additional 28 existing projects had been granted licences to increase their investment capital by a total of $169 million.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment last week gave figures for investment approvals from January 1 to mid-May, which showed a net figure of $1.689 billion. That was a drop of nearly 42 percent from the corresponding period of 1995.

Major national Petroleum producer says oil production going up

Vietsovpetro, says it had produced 3.054 million tonnes of oil in the first five months of this year and was on track to pump 7.75 million tonnes by the year-end.
A company official told news people output estimates for the first six months of 1996 were about 3.7 million tonnes.
Figures for the same period last year were not immediately available, but the Vietnamese-Russian joint venture produced a total of 6.7 million tonnes in all of 1995.

Vietsovpetro produces the bulk of Vietnam's oil with other companies accounting for around one million tonnes of combined output last year.
The firm had discovered oil at a well drilled at the Bach Ho field with estimated daily output of 800 tonnes.

Vietsovpetro, says it had produced 3.054 million tonnes of oil in the first five months of this year and was on track to pump 7.75 million tonnes by the year-end.
A company official told news people output estimates for the first six months of 1996 were about 3.7 million tonnes.

Figures for the same period last year were not immediately available, but the Vietnamese-Russian joint venture produced a total of 6.7 million tonnes in all of 1995.
Vietsovpetro produces the bulk of Vietnam's oil with other companies accounting for around one million tonnes of combined output last year.
The firm had discovered oil at a well drilled at the Bach Ho field with estimated daily output of 800 tonnes.

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Foreign businesses warned on tax cheating

The authorities warned this week that it would suspend the operations of foreign businesses and deny exit visas for expatriate staff who fail to make a full tax declaration.
The head of Hanoi's Foreign Investment Taxation Office said that strict measures would be applied against foreign representative offices who fail to fully declare expatriate incomes. ``Some foreigners take advantage of loose management procedures by the tax department to 'forget' to register their real incomes,'' Doan Thi Kia said.
``We will take strict measures (against them),'' she added. `small group of delinquent foreigners'' had recently been caught and forced to pay nearly $300,000 in back taxes.
Tax office investigators were compiling a list of foreign individuals in Vietnam who have not paid taxes. Transgressors would have their exit visas barred. Vietnam failed to meet its tax collection goals in 1995 when government revenue reached only 91.3 percent of a previously set target.
Banking sources say a number of foreign companies have recently undergone state audits without prior notice.
There were reports that a Hongkong Co office had been raided. Hong Kong-based investment house Peregrine Investments Holdings Ltd denied newspaper reports last week that its Vietnam operation had been raided by police as part of a tax probe.
A company official said that the firm's Ho Chi Minh City office had been visited by inspectors conducting what was decribed as an administrative enquiry into compliance with business regulations, approvals and tax laws.

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