Officials are optimistic following 11 percent growth in the first half, a feat they say that is likely to be repeated in the second.

Thai Van Re, director of the Department of Planning and Development, said the GDP has grown to VND162 trillion (US$8.5 billion) by June end, 11 percent up year on year.

It is the highest growth rate since 2008, which has prompted officials to predict growth of between 11 percent and 12 percent in the second half.

The Vietnamese economy is expected to have achieved between 6 per cent and 6.1 percent growth in the first six months, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said earlier this month the economy is likely to expand at 6.5 percent to 7 percent this year.

It grew at 5.32 percent last year.

Source:tuoitrenews

Ghana crushed American dreams and delivered African joy on Saturday when they beat the United States 2-1 after extra time of a thrilling contest to take their place in the World Cup quarter-finals.

Rising to the challenge of an emotion-charged evening, they carried their continent's hopes with pride and passion to become the third African nation ever to reach the last eight in the world's greatest soccer tournament.

Goals by thrusting midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng after just five minutes and then from striker Asamoah Gyan three minutes into added time carried them to victory after the ice-cool Landon Donovan had converted a second-half penalty to drag the spirited Americans back into a tumultuous match.

"I am the happiest man in the world," a delighted Gyan said. "We have made everyone proud -- not just Ghana, but all of Africa."

Ghana, who combined great enthusiasm with moments of sublime skill, now meet Uruguay at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg next Friday after emulating the feats of Cameroon (1990) and Senegal (2002) in reaching the quarter-finals.

Their achievement was greeted with a crescendo of blasting vuvuzuelas at the final whistle when players collapsed on the field amid wild scenes of unrestrained relief and bliss.

The sight of John Pantsil, with the flag of Ghana, and Samuel Inkoom, with that of South Africa, running laps of the stadium in front of a crowd that included former U.S. president Bill Clinton, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and South African local organizing committee chief Danny Jordaan, was a symbol of a memorable night.

Ghana’s night

The opening half, and the night, belonged to Ghana, who repeated the result of their only previous clash with the United States when they beat them by the same score in Germany four years ago.

"We gave away an early goal and put a lot into it to recover, but we were in that spot once too many times," admitted U.S. coach Bob Bradley. "Ghana are a talented team and I think that Milovan Rajevac has done a great job in organizing them."

Ghana started with steely aggression and swiftly went in front when Ricardo Clark lost possession in midfield.

Collecting in his own half, Boateng ran directly at the passive American defense, evading Clark's attempted recovery, and then turned Jay DeMerit before striking a low left-foot shot inside Tim Howard's right post.

It was a poor goal to concede and this time the Americans, who had come from behind twice in the group stage, struggled to recover.

Outnumbered in midfield, where Ghana had three central players to their two, they were swamped at times and Clark, in frustration, was cautioned before being withdrawn on the half hour.

A low shot from Robbie Findley, which Richard Kingson saved with his left leg, was their best effort in reply before Ghana, content to play on the break, went close to a second following another DeMerit error, but Howard dived to save from Kwadwo Asamoah.

Bradley reorganized his team for the second period, taking off the re-called Robbie Findley and sending on Benny Feilhaber in a switch that freed Clint Dempsey to rove behind Jozy Altidore.

This gave them parity in the tightly-contested central area and, after 47 minutes, almost an equalizer when Feilhaber's close-range shot was saved one-handed by Kingson.

Ghana began to lose their discipline and shape and it was no great surprise when Jonathan Mensah misjudged a tackle on Dempsey and brought him down to concede a penalty on the hour.

Donovan stepped up and steered his spot-kick high to Kingson's left as he went the other way. It was the first penalty they had been awarded at the World Cup since 1930.

Further chances came at both ends in normal time, when the Americans played with greater authority and Altidore, steering a low shot just wide after 80 minutes, almost snatched a winner.

Ghana hung on, but regrouped for extra time and regained the lead by punching another hole through the American defense. Chasing a clearance by Dede Ayew, Gyan shrugged off Carlos Bocanegra's challenge and ran clear of DeMerit to shoot over Howard.

The Americans refused to lie down, but it was a heavy blow to their morale and Ghana, despite looking naive and vulnerable at times, battled through as thick wisps of smoke from nearby bush-fires supplied a dramatic final backdrop.

Source:tuoitrenews

Local officials from Vietnam and South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on bilateral tourism cooperation in Seoul on Friday.

The MoU was signed by Vietnamese Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh and his Korean counterpart Yu In-chon during Anh’s working visit to the East Asian country.

Earlier, the two ministers had talks in which they discussed ways to strengthen bilateral exchanges in the fields of culture and tourism.

Yu In-chon told Anh that South Korea will send more delegations to Vietnam and work closely with Vietnam’s competent agencies to boost tourism in the coming time, helping deepen the mutual understandings between the two peoples.

Yu said he believe Vietnam, with its beauty and rich potentials in tourism, would become the top destination for Korean tourists.

For his part, Anh reckoned that Vietnam and South Korea have great potentials of tourism cooperation.

South Korea is a promising tourism market and Vietnam is making efforts to lure tourists from the country, Anh said.

On the occasion, Anh invited Yu to visit Vietnam.

It is expected that a number of delegations from South Korea will come to Vietnam for cultural events in commemoration of the 1,000th anniversary of Hanoi.

South Korea is one of the five countries posting the largest number of tourists to Vietnam, about 400,000 tourist arrivals each year.

Source:tuoitrenews

Export turnovers of farm produce, forest products and seafood increased 13.5 percent year on year to US$8.6 billion in the first half of 2010, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Though recording the lowest growth rate at just 5.8 percent, farm produce remained a leading hard currency earner with an export turnover of $4.6 billion in the period under review.

Rice earned the nation $1.87 billion from the export of 3.6 million tonnes, showing an increase of seven percent in export value although the export volume decreased 2.3 percent over the same period last year.

The Philippines is the largest importer of Vietnam ’s rice, spending $759 million to buy 50.6 percent of the total volume.

Of the top ten markets of Vietnam rice, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong made sharp rises in import volume and value.

Economists predicted a bright prospect for Vietnamese rice ahead based on a rise in both demand and price in the world market.

The exportation of rubber, tea and cashew nut showed the same promising signs. The rubber sector, for example, exported 207,000 tons of latex for $565 million.

The figures represented a decrease of 18 percent in the export volume but a surge of over 57 percent in value.

Tea exports reached 52,000 tonnes worth $70 million, showing a decrease of 1.7 percent in quantity but an increase of 6.2 percent in revenues.

Cashew-nut exports recorded an increase of over 20 percent in turnovers although the shipments abroad stayed unchanged.

Pepper export turnovers grew almost 48 percent to $234 million although the export volume climbed up just nine percent. The US kept its ranking as the biggest customer of Vietnam ’s pepper.

Coffee was the only agricultural export that suffered a drop in both turnovers and shipments. Its export turnover fell by over 16 percent to $925 million while the export volume dropped over 10 percent to 664,000 tonnes.

Economists blamed the failure to the decrease of an estimated $98 /ton in the world market in the first five months of the year and an over supply.

In regard to forest product exportation, which earned a total $1.59 billion or 29 percent increase year on year, wood and wooden furniture made a lead in growth with turnovers up almost 31 percent. The US remained the largest market, garnering almost 40 percent of Vietnam’s exports. It was followed by Japan with 12.5 percent.

Seafood exports enjoyed a growth of over 13 percent, earning $2 billion. The European Union was the largest importer of Vietnam’s seafood, generating 25.5 percent of the country’s export value at $420 million. It was followed by Japan and the US.

Source:tuoitrenews