A politically progressive step in Vietnam

Vietnamese lawmakers handed the prime minister a grudging mandate in the country's first ever confidence vote, a ballot seen as a small step toward a more pluralistic style of governance in the one-party, Communist nation.

Premier Nguyen Tan Dung is under pressure because of his mishandling of the economy, previously one of Asia's best performing but now mired in massive levels of bad debt and a lackluster investment climate. Last year, he survived a leadership challenge at a meeting of top party leaders.

Dung and 46 other ministers and top state officials faced the vote by members of the national assembly, the first in what will be an annual process aimed at showing an increasingly assertive public that its leaders are more responsive to their demands. Voting in what was a secret ballot took place on Monday. Results were announced Tuesday.

Given more than 90 percent of the 498 members of the assembly are Communist Party cardholders, no one expected any of the officials to get the kind of poor showing that could trigger resignations.

Still, more than 30 percent gave Dung a "low confidence" vote, a clear sign of the divisions within the party over his second-term in office, due to end in 2016. Analysts said this showing by itself wouldn't impact his position, but could be used by rivals in internal negotiations over his future.

Assembly members got to vote on whether they had "high confidence," ''confidence" or "low confidence" in the officials. The rules of the secret ballot state that officials with more than a 60 percent "low confidence vote" might have to resign.

Dung received 160 "low confidence" votes out of 492 ballots, the third highest number of negative votes cast. President Truong Tan Sang, the man widely thought to be his main political challenger behind the tightly closed doors of party meetings, got just 28 negative votes.

The central bank governor received 209 "low confidence" marks, presumably a reflection of his handling of the economy. The education minister got 177. Aside from the economy, concern over the poor standard of schools and universities is a major public concern.

"This really does show that the assembly delegates are doing their job," said Edmund Malesky, a Vietnam expert at Duke University in the United States. "There definitely appears to some sort of responsiveness to constituencies. The two people associated with economic performance had a lower percentage of confidence votes than the mean."

National assembly deputy Duong Trung Quoc said the voting reflected "the reality of life and pressing issues and ... partly reflect the people's grievances."

The structural problems plaguing the economy and the increasing criticism and scrutiny of the party over the Internet have triggered calls for reforms by some in the party. While still arresting dissidents, it is revising the constitution, and will possibly water down language over the state's role in the economy.

Jonathan London, a Vietnam expert at Hong Kong's City University, said the ballot showed "Vietnam was charting its own course," albeit slowly. He asserted that a similar event wouldn't happen in China, Vietnam's much larger, Communist neighbor.

"Perhaps by necessity it is going for a brand of politics that has many of the trappings of a semi-accountable system," he said. "For a party that has a tradition of assuming its leaders were pristine and of outstanding caliber, it is a change of tune."

ABC News

Trang An, one of the most wonderful nature in Vietnam

Trang An is an eco-resort located in the Trang An Ninh Binh of Vietnam that Government has vestige of special national importance.

It is also known as the ancient capital of Hoa Lu, including systems with old limestone mountains about 250 million years of geology, weathering over a long period by the transformation of the earth, the climate, sea moving, degradation of their marine brought hundreds of valleys, caves, lakes dress. In these landscapes, there are many wetland ecosystems, forests and limestone monuments linked to the history of the ancient capital of Hoa Lu.

The united landscapes zone of Trang An - Tam Coc - Hoa Lu ancient capital is planned general in Trang An Landscapes, a representative of Vietnam Heritage World Heritage candidate with the outstanding value of landscape natural, cultural history and tectonic. It is expected to become a first world heritage mixed with 2 criteria both culture and nature in Vietnam and is also the place to be invested to become a world-class resort.

Vietnam's first remote sensing satellite VNREDSat-1 successfully launched

Vietnam's earth observation optical satellite system VNREDSat-1 ( remote sensing satellite ) was launched into space on May 7th after the three-day delay. The first photo shoot will be transmitted to Vietnam on May 10th. VnEpress reported.

VEGA Rocket is launching.

The earth observation satellite was launched by a Vega lightweight rocket at 9:06 am.

The satellite, which has a life span of five years, was designed and manufactured by the French company EADS Astrium in Toulouse and it has been certified to be launched into space.

It is expected that 1 hour, 57 minutes and 24 seconds after taking off, the satellite will activate its propulsion engine to make its way to sun synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of nearly 670 km.

The VNRED Sat-1 was launched with two other space vehicles, including a 140kg Proba-V satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) to map vegetation cover, and a 1.3kg Estonian microsatellite, ESTCube-1, to test an electric solar sail.

During its operation, VNRED Sat-1 will provide high-resolution satellite images that will serve social and economic development purposes, natural resources management, environmental protection, and natural disaster detection and control.

The satellite, which measures 600 mm x 570 mm x 500 mm and weighs 115 kg, was built at a total cost of €55.8 million from the French Government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) fund and VND65 billion (around $3.2 million) from the Vietnamese Government.

It is expected that the satellite will provide 100 images a day on average.

This is very important for Vietnam, since the country currrently has to buy satellite images from foreign countries at high prices and has to wait for 1-2 months to receive such images.

In 2008 and 2012, Vietnam launched two telecommunication satellites, Vinasat 1 and Vinasat 2, both of which are operating on a geostationary orbit at an altitude of about 35,800 km.