Good morning! Hello to new readers, and welcome to the latest edition of the Vietnam Weekly, written by Ho Chi Minh City-based reporter Mike Tatarski.
On Wednesday, I published an analysis of the 2023 Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index - or PAPI - for paying subscribers. The index provides a fascinating insight into public opinion that can’t be found anywhere else. To access that and all future exclusive articles, become a paid supporter of the newsletter below.
And don’t forget to check out the latest episode of The Vietnam Weekly Podcast, available wherever podcasts are found. A new show drops on Monday morning.
There won’t be a newsletter next Friday as I’ll be off for the Hùng Kings’ Festival. Speaking of holidays, the government is debating whether to turn the April 30/May 1 break into a five-day holiday - yes, that’s about two weeks away. No need to plan ahead, I guess?
On to the news.
The Vạn Thịnh Phát Verdict
To get right to it: Trương Mỹ Lan was sentenced to death yesterday as the landmark VTP trial, possibly the largest in Vietnamese history, draws to a close.
She received three separate sentences: 20 years each for bribery and violating lending regulations, and the death penalty for embezzlement, in addition to being ordered to compensate Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) to the tune of US$27 billion.
I’ve given up on understanding the various multi-billion dollar figures thrown around, as I thought they had landed on US$12.5 billion in losses.
Anyway, prosecutors had recommended capital punishment in late March, arguing that Lan needed to be “ostracized from society forever.” The likely outcome became clear yesterday morning when the court stated that she needed to be handled with the “strictest punishment.”
Lan was unrepentant throughout the trial, with detailed reporting from local media making it clear that she did not believe she had done anything criminally wrong - at least not intentionally.
As with last year’s repatriation flight and Viet A test kit trials, news outlets were given free rein to cover this event. International media is focusing on this now too - I appeared on both Al Jazeera and DW yesterday.
Other notable sentences include 17 years for Trương Huệ Vân, Lan’s niece and CEO of Windsor Group; and nine years for Erik Chu Nap-Kee, Lan’s husband and a Hong Kong national. A full list of the 86 defendants is in Vietnamese here.
Đỗ Thị Nhàn, the State Bank of Vietnam official accused of taking a US$5.2 million bribe from Lan to overlook illegal activity at SCB, was sentenced to life in prison.
I’ll cover the fallout of this trial for paying subscribers next week, and this case will reverberate for years, especially here in HCMC. Officials will now have to work through the hideously complicated task of handling the hundreds of VTP-linked properties seized from Lan and her family.
While Vietnam doesn’t publish capital punishment statistics, the death penalty is rare for financial crimes. As Bloomberg notes, the last high-profile death for corruption charges was in 2013.
For those wondering, Vietnam uses lethal injection, which replaced the firing squad in 2011.
When will HCMC’s first metro line open?
In mid-March, the HCMC Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) announced that the long-gestating first metro line would be delayed again, from July to the vague “fourth quarter.”
The agency explained that “a lot of work” remains, including a safety review, fire safety assessment, and staff training. One wonders what, exactly, they’ve been doing.
Trains are being tested frequently at the moment, which makes these delays all the more frustrating.
A few days later the Ministry of Planning and Investment ordered the city to reassess the situation and confirm a timeline to avoid further “repeat delays.”
Then, on April 1, the Urban Railway Company Limited No. 1 (which is separate from MAUR, I think) said it planned to begin running seven out of the first line’s 17 trains from July 1.
This would be followed by a second phase involving more trains from October 1, and then an undefined third (and final?) operational phase starting January 1, 2025.
To put it mildly, this confused the hell out of everyone - and the April 1 date led to plenty of obvious April Fool’s jokes.
Further announcements haven’t added much clarity. The municipal People’s Committee has demanded a detailed operational plan, while there is also discussion of a three-month ‘ticket-free’ trial period starting in July before “official” operations begin in October.
Given how poorly executed the construction of this project has been, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that announcing the opening would be bungled - but it’s concerning that something so fundamental has led to so much confusion.
At this stage, I’m fully expecting a repeat of the hilarious “opening” of the first Waterbus line back in 2017.
Meanwhile, the city government has one week left to complete a plan to build 200 km of metro lines in 10 years, as ordered by the Politburo, but the draft document is still “messy.”
Relentlessly Brutal Heat
Southeast Asia is roasting at the moment, and Vietnam is no exception. Earlier this month, Sơn La and Hòa Bình provinces up north saw temperatures as high as 41 C, heat usually not seen until mid-May.
The surface of an expressway in central Vietnam was so hot that the tires blew out on multiple vehicles - though this might be more related to poorly maintained tires.
Here in the south, however, we’ve experienced exceptionally high temperatures for well over a month, with no relief in sight - it also hasn’t rained since 2023. April 7th was the hottest day of the year in HCMC, only for the 10th to quickly surpass it.
Biên Hòa in Đồng Nai Province hit 40 C on Tuesday, and temperatures are flirting with records not seen since 1998 - to quote Thanh Nien, the entire southern region is a ‘pan of fire,’ and at street level, it feels even hotter than those official readings.
The Mekong Delta, as covered previously, faces severe heat- and drought-related impacts. The government of Tiền Giang Province declared a state of emergency last weekend due to a critical shortage of fresh water. Residents of the province’s coastal areas have to wait in line to receive trucked-in fresh water for daily use.
In Cà Mau, bone-dry conditions have sparked forest fires.
El Niño is the most immediate cause of this intense heat, though there is little doubt that climate change plays a role as well and that this is a preview of future decades.
These temperatures are driving record electricity consumption, with HCMC breaking a mark set last year on March 26 - this month will surely set new benchmarks. This holds true up north as well, further raising the specter of widespread power outages in the coming weeks.
We’re in for a rough stretch here.
Extra Links:
Dinh Q. Lê, Artist Who Charted Vietnam’s Fractured Past and Present, Dies at 56 (ARTnews)
Island-building and overfishing wreak destruction of South China Sea reefs (Mongabay)
Vietnam’s Politics are Increasingly Fractious and Corrupt (World Politics Review)
Mekong Delta river market struggles to stay afloat (Mekong Eye)
Making HCMC my city (Val Thinks)
Have a great weekend!
"We had to say goodbye to Vi this week at the far-too-young age of 5." I got sad reading this.
So sorry for your loss. Vi looks like a charmer. ❤️