Vietnam Is One Of The Developing Countries Tourism Essay

Vietnam Is One Of The Developing Countries Tourism Essay MGM Grand Ho Tram Beach is one of only the few large international players which are granted with permission for casino operation in Vietnam recently. In Vietnam, gambling is still a sensitive issue. On October 8 2012, Members of National Assemblys Standing Committee debated a draft decree on electronic gambling for foreigners. Mr. Vuong Dinh Due, Minister of Finance stated that this business was approved 20 years ago to entertain the demand of foreigners and attract more investment to the country. However, there are some current regulations on licensing conditions were not suitable anymore with the upcoming social-economic circumstance and some laws approved recently such as the Investment Law or Enterprise Law. Most members of the Standing Committee supported the new decree, which specify only foreigners and Vietnamese people who hold foreign passports or foreign residency permits are allowed to join the gaming function (VIETNAMNET 2012). Moreover, there was another draft decree on casino management released by Ministry of Finance stipulating that the foreign investors looking for a chance to open new casinos must inject at least US$ 4 billion to the project and they can only receive the casino operation licenses after they finish project development (Tu Giang 2012). Despite all strict rules and regulations from the government on this gaming industry, many projects are still on their way to set up or advance their scale of operations. In October 2012, Donaco Singapore which is controlled by two grandsons of Mr. Lim Goh Tong, the founder of Genting Berhad, has announced the share-sale agreement with Australian company Two Way Ltd. in the running of Lao Cai International Hotel, a premises had been licensed of gambling function and located near to the border with China. The hotel operated successfully which generated US$12.5 million of revenue and net profit after-tax was US$6.2 million in 2011 (Ngoc Linh 2012). Other large players in this sector are Silver Shores Hoang Dat Co. in Danang, Genting VinaCapital Co. in Hoi An, Royal International Co. in Lang Son and Hai Ninh Loi Lai Co. in Quang Ninh. Following a report by the Ministry of Finance, the revenue from prize electronics games has been risen gradually in recent years of around 10-15 per cent per annum and the total turnover in 2011 hit VND5 trillions (approximately US$ 240 millions) (Tran Thuy 2013). Meanwhile, ACDL started to kick off the second part of the MGM Grand Ho Tram Beach Project in October 2012 and Mr. Lloyd Nathan, CEO of ACDL, was confident to say that MGM Grand Ho Tram Beach is the only one integrated resort with a major US brand actually opens in Asia during the next five years (Linh Tu 2012). Together with the potential and economic benefits from the gaming sector, there are some social problems could be solved if the government really open the doors for the Vietnamese citizens to the casinos. In spite of the fact that gambling is illegal in Vietnam, there are many people still take participate in the underground gambling activities throughout the country. On November 29 2012, more than 200 police officers successfully caught over 100 gamblers and seized several billions Vietnamese Dong in the largest-ever gambling den in Northern Vietnam. Local residents believed that this gambling den had operated for decades and attracted gamblers from many provinces in Northern Vietnam (Nhung 2012). Besides, many Vietnamese people have crossed the border to go to Cambodia for gambling. Based on a survey by the Ministry of Public Securitys General Department of Crime Prevention and Control, it was estimated that around 3,600 Vietnamese citizens go to Cambodia on gambling purpose daily, and it could rise up to 5,000 on Saturdays (Tuoi Tre 2012). Naga Corp., the operator of a casino chain in Cambodia stated that 40% of their revenue came from Vietnamese (Tu Hoang 2012). It could be even worse if the gambler ran out of money in Cambodian gambling premises and he/she was kept by the lenders. Some of them committed suicide after that because they had mortgaged their own life for the betting money (Thanh Nien 2012). All of these issues could be dealt if the government carefully considers allowing the Vietnamese nationals come into the casino in domestic, so it is easier to control the gambler and reduce the negative impacts from illegal gambling. The next part will focus on the operation aspect of MGM Grand Ho Tram Beach to see how they are going to make profit from this project as well as the liabilities towards the society and their stakeholders. MGM Grand Ho Tram Beach, located in the Ba Ria Vung Tau province, is the first phase of Ho Tram Strip complex to be managed and branded by MGM Resorts International. It consists of 541 luxury guestrooms and suites in a hotel tower and 13,600 square metres are of gaming space which lays down 90 tables and 500 electronic gaming machines. There are also a 4,000 square metres conference and convention center which features state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment and lighting facilities. In addition, MGM Grand Ho Tram Beach comfort its guests by a full range of nine world-class restaurants which serves various kinds of cuisine such as Vietnamese, Cantonese, Japanese, French and three differently designed bar, lounge and ultra-lounge. All other facilities such as spa, retail shopping areas and beach recreational activities which are expected in any destination resort are also available to entertain all visitors. The second tower of MGM Grand Ho Tram Beach contains 559 guestrooms and suite s will bring the total room complement to 1,100 (ACDL 2012). Compared to other gaming hubs in Asia such as Macau or Singapore, the unique factor of this project is the site itself. It is one of stunning beauty-2.2km of beach. So whereas there are many resorts that are looking to create artificial beaches and artificial wave pools, we actually have the real thing on our doorstep, said Mr. Nathan Lloyd, CEO of ACDL (Jalal 2012). This is the wonderful place appeal to people to take their family vacation. Although the gaming sector is expected to have higher contribution to the revenue of the resort, non-gamers are still the important target. Within around 8 million Vietnamese people visiting Ba Ria Vung Tau province annually and many people go there as a weekend getaway, MGM Grand Ho Tram Beach with excellent non-gaming amenities would be the best choice of destination (ACDL 2012). On the gaming side, premium players are expected to come from places such as Mainland China, Korea, Japa n, Thailand and India as well. There are around 6 million foreign tourists come to Vietnam annually and many expatriates living in Vietnam would be the main source markets for the casino operation. The other source could be about 3.5 million Vietnamese people oversea who hold foreign passports or foreign residency permits and tend to come back to Vietnam at the Lunar New Year (Jalal 2012). Another key factor which could attract both gaming and non-gaming visitors to MGM Grand Ho Tram beach is the well-known MGM tradition of performances and live concerts around the year. These various activities would happen in many different places inside the resort such as ballroom, bar, ultra-lounge and beachside. The Greg Norman designed 18-hole Championship golf course which is expected to be completed in this year could be also the favorite destination of many VIP guests as well as golf players in the Asia region (Van 2012). In the other hand, MGM Grand Ho Tram Beach puts a great concern to its staffs and the local community. ACDL has created around 4,000 construction jobs and hired 2,000 people to work in the first phase of the MGM Grand Ho Tram. Mr. John Shigley, President and COO of MGM Grand Ho Tram, said the training programs would focus on the local market and be ongoing for the management and staff hired. After that, all staffs would receive extensive training in computer skills, language skills, customer service and all technical aspects of their jobs (Van 2012). MGM Resorts International also offered training and curriculum to many young Vietnamese students in a number of colleges and universities in Vietnam to work and make a strong start for their career (Jalal 2012). Beside the career development, MGM has some of the most strict and rigorous regulations and standards to monitor the gambling in casinos. MGM is interested in creating a regulated, secure and safe environment for gamers. There ar e measures would be taken to ensure only persons who could properly game would be allowed to do so. Whether Vietnamese can play or not depends on the laws of Vietnam, but we only allow foreigners, said CEO Nathan Lloyd (Tu Giang 2012). Asian Coast Development Limited, the owner of this Ho Tram Strip project, has shown its social responsibilities by many activities such as donation of 10 houses to Xuyen Moc Commune to improve the life of disadvantaged people in the local community. In October 17 2009, the Company visited and aided the flood victims in Quang Ngai Province with VND360 million in funds directly to the families worst affected by the storm. Also in October 2009, ACDL held a party for Ho Chi Minh Citys Dieu Giac orphanage after funding to provide an entirely new roof to the school and supply new recreational facilities for 126 children in this centre (ACDL 2012).

Corporate Governance Review of Vinashin Business Group

|ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET | |(to be completed by the student) | |AIB student ID number: |A12271 | | | | |Student name: |TRUONG PHUONG LY | | | | |Course name: |MBA Human Resource Management | | | | |Subject name: |Corporate Governance | | | | |Subject facilitator: |Ryan Galloway | | | | |Teaching Centre: |ERC Vietnam | | | | |No. f pages: |9 | | | | |Word count: |1721 words | | | | |DECLARATION | | | |I, the above named student, confirm that by submitting, or causing the attached assignment to be submitted, to AIB, I have not | |plagiarised any other person’s work in this assignment and except where appropriately acknowledged, this assignment is my own work,| |has been expressed in my own words, and has not previously been submitted for assessment. | ASSESSMENT SHEET | |(to be completed by the examiner) | |Student name: | | | | | |Course name: | | | | | |Subject name: | | | | | |Assessor/marker: | | | | | |COMMENTS | |Principles learnt (for example, number and understanding of principles referred to, their influence on the structure of this paper,| |number and correct citations of  references, use of appropriate jargon)      | | |/4 | | | | |Application of principles. That is, the  analysis and evaluation of the example problem based on the | | |principles, including the final recommendations and their justification | | | |/8 | | | |How well the example problem was described, including the extent and depth of information (including | | |the data) about it that was accessed | | | |/4 | | | | |Structure and presentation | | | |/2 | | | | |Style, grammar   and language | | | |/2 | | | | |Total | | |Less penalties | | |GRAND TOTAL |/20 | |General comments | | | | | | |FOR MODERATOR’S USE ONLY | | |/20 | |I agree with the assessor’s assessment | | |I disagree with the assessor’s assessment and the new mark is as follows for the following reasons: | | | | | | |Moderator: | | Title: Corporate Governan ce Review of VINASHIN Business Group Word count: 1721 words Executive Summary: VINASHIN is one of the biggest state-owned enterprises of Vietnam. This report conducts a review of the corporate governance of VINASHIN, including the analysis of its board structure and its board committees.There are three problems in VINASHIN governance: members of the board were not qualified enough for the scope of the company, Chairman and CEO was one single person (Mr Binh), audit committee was not effective. Therefore, VINASHIN should consider hiring more appropriately experienced directors, separating the role of Chairman and CEO, and improving the effectiveness of its audit committee. Table of Contents 1. Introduction5 2. Discussion5 2. 1. Board structure and its effectiveness5 2. 2. Board committee and their effectiveness6 2. 3. Recomendations7 3. Conclusion9 Reference9 1. Introduction VINASHIN Business Group (abbreviated as VINASHIN) is a Vietnamese state-owned enterprise specialized in shipbu ilding industry. Since it was found in 1996 based on the reorganization of Viet Nam Shipbuilding Corporation, VINASHIN had developed successfully.The annual growth rate in the period between 1996 and 2007 was 35%-40% and the net revenue of 2008 was 29 trillion VND (about $1. 4 billion). It was undoubtedly one of the biggest Vietnamese companies in terms of investment range and capability. However, at the beginning of 2010, VINASHIN was criticised publicly for bad business performance which caused the loss of 5 trillion VND (about $238 million). Even worse, this figure which was clarified by the state inspectors was three times bigger than the loss figure reported in 2009 annual financial statements by VINASHIN. Due to the world economic crisis, a series of shipbuilding contracts were cancelled.The company was then $4 billion in debt and sued by Elliot VIN (a Dutch hedge fund) for being unable to pay the $600 million debt. VINASHIN experienced the most difficult period of its history when the danger of debacle was very close and members of its board of directors were arrested and sued because of the severe damage they had made. The facts observed in the case of this company prove the seriously important role of corporate governance, especially in huge business corporation. This report conducts a review of the governance of VINASHIN including analysing its structure, process and effectiveness and making recommendations for appropriate improvements. 2. Discussion 1.The board structure and its effectiveness The Board of Structure of VINASHIN consisted of nine directors who were appointed by the Prime Minister. As the enterprise was found based on the shipbuilding company, most of the directors used to be the top managers of the old company. For example, the CEO – Mr Pham Thanh Binh was initially a shipbuilding engineer. After 17 years, he became the Deputy Director of Transport Design and Engineering Institute. He was then appointed to be the CEO of VINASHI N in 1996. It can be seen that the members of the Board of Directors were appointed basically because of their experience of working in the company or in the similar field.In one hand, they had the big advantage of the knowledge and networks in shipbuilding industry and they all had similar background and unique culture. This made strong connection among the board and lead to high agreement. In the other hand, they might not be able to manage the new company with a lot more capital and much bigger in investment range. According to Tricker (2009, pp. 122), â€Å"to formulate strategy effectively the strategic planners need to be, conceptually, above the enterprise looking down, able to see the enterprise in its strategic context†. Moreover, the strong connection might lead to the lack of objective assessment. The truth is that VINASHIN was very successful with its main function – building ship but then fell down because of 257 ineffective projects in other fields.The ne xt issue is that Mr Binh assumed the role of Chairman by 2008. He was then the Chief Executive and the Chairman of the company. Furthermore, he was also the Party Secretary of VINASHIN (the highest political position of the Party in a company). Some may say the combination has its advantage in the very distinctive leader and that it can avoid the conflicts due to spreading leadership between two people. However, this first violated Decree 101/2009/ND-CP of Vietnamese Government about state-owned business group. Second, the concentration of power in a single person would increases abuse potential and reduce the effectiveness of the only leader.In fact, Mr Binh made on his own many decision which then caused serious trouble for the company. For example, he decided to buy the Lotus Ship which cost 1. 3 trillion VND ($60 million) without calling any meeting or announcing for agreement of the board. The ship then did not work but the company had to pay $4 million interest each year for t he loan. 2. The Board Committees and their effectiveness: Another issue of VINASHIN governance is about its committees. All members of the board were appointed by the Prime Minister and their compensation was decided by the company policies which are also approved by the Prime Minister. As a result, there was no need for a nominating or remuneration committee.However, the existence of audit committee was compulsory and its formulation was regulated by the Decree of State-owned business group. The audit committee consisted of three to five members. They must be independent non-executive directors. They were required to make audit report about the company operation every month, quarter of year and year. These regulations seem very cautiously and able to ensure the independence of the audit committee. In fact, the board had strong enough power to influence the audit committee. In 2009, VINASHIN disclosed that it lost 1. 7 trillion VND ($81 million). After a lot of publicly criticism, t he state inspectors figured out that the true number was 5 trillion VND ($240 million).To explain about this issue, the chairman of VINASHIN audit committee said that the company did not have clear enough policies so he just did what the CEO (Mr Binh, also the Chairman of the Board) told him to do. The question is whether the audit committee really had no idea about their responsibility and who they are liable to and whether they were really independent. 3. Recommendations Based all these above discussions, there are three problems in VINASHIN governance: Board of Directors was not qualified for the scope of the company, Chairman and CEO was one single person (Mr Binh), audit committee was not effective. For the first issue, the company should consider to use more professional â€Å"not VINASHIN employee† directors with treasured experience from big business group.Although the current directors have advantage of the experience in shipbuilding industry and they have been worki ng for the company for many years, their capabilities are no longer enough for the new bigger enterprise. VINASHIN is no longer a simple shipbuilding company. It has became one of the biggest business group of Viet Nam with $ billion of capital. It has invested in hundred of projects in many business fields. VINASHIN really needs the board of directors who are able to â€Å"see the enterprise in its strategic context, including the industry, the market, customers and competitors, products and services, wherever the company operates and to identify the wider political, economic, social, and technological context† (Tricker, 2009).First, the â€Å"outside† directors would bring VINASHIN their broader knowledge about the big market and their experience in sufficient investment. This is what the current directors are lack of because their experience was only made in one industry. Second, the â€Å"outside† directors would challenge the board with their objective view about the company. They could push the board to improve the company under the consideration of different aspects. Finally, hiring â€Å"outsider† could help to prevent the board becoming a â€Å"cosy club† which only includes people who are well know to each other and share similar interest. Therefore, the board become more transparent and the decisions they make are less influenced by the interest of the board.For the second issue, there is no solution but separating the roles of Chairman and CEO in two persons. According to the example discussed above, there is one issue behind: the Chairman and the CEO has too much power toward the board and there are not enough control to prevent them from breaking the rules and making decision irresponsibly. VINASHIN should set up and apply more policies to ensure the Chairman or CEO to present the Duty of Trust and Duty of Care constantly. For instance, the CEO should be required to have discussion with all members of the board when he wants to set up new project. After reaching the agreement, he only can sign and stamp in the contract under observation of the majority of the board.Of course, the policies could reduce the potential of abusing power. However, the directors of companies, being managers of other people’s money, cannot be expected to watch over it with the same vigilance with which they watch over their own (Smith). Therefore, the policies can not control every issue in term of over use power, especially when the members of the board are very close to each other and having similar interest. In this case, the only shareholder, Government, should be able to audit the performance of the board and appropriately regulate the reward and punishment policies. For the last issue, VINASHIN needs to improve the effectiveness of its audit committee.First, the audit committee should consider carefully the qualification of its members. The mechanism should encourage the selection and retention of dil igent and knowledgeable committee members who are able to understand their important role in the board and willing to dedicate time and energy for their responsibility. Second, the audit committee should understand the role of each party participate in the auditing process, including the management, the internal auditors and external auditors, and the interaction among these parties. It should be able to communicate independently with each party and design the appropriate mechanism to ensure the accountability of these parties.Finally, it needs to have frank and candid discussion with all parties to provide the board greater insight, objective judgement and appropriate recommendation. An effective audit committee, which would strengthen the Board accountability, transparency, objectivity and effectiveness, has potential benefits: †¢ It improves the quality of financial reporting, by reviewing the financial statements on behalf of the Board; †¢ It creates a climate of disci pline, risk management awareness and control which will reduce the opportunity for fraud; †¢ It enables the non-executive directors sitting on the Audit Committee to contribute an independent judgement and play a positive role; †¢ It increases public confidence in the credibility and objectivity of financial statements and of the Board. 3. ConclusionFrom the discussion above, this report reviewed the corporate governance of VINASHIN Business Group in terms of its board structure and its board committees. Through the review, it figured out three problems: Board of Directors was not qualified for the scope of the company, Chairman and CEO was one single person (Mr Binh), audit committee was not effective. Based on this, some recommendations were given. Reference Hongkong Society of Accountant, 2001, A guide for effective audit committee, pp. 3-6 Tricker, B 2009, Corporate Governance: Principle, Policies and Practices, Oxford New York, the United State Vietnamese Government, 2009, Decree of Establishment, Organization, Operation and Management of State-owned Business Group

autism therapy Essay - 642 Words

Albert Einstein, a world genius behind the famous E=mc ², Ludwig Van Beethoven and Wolfgang Mozart, the two great maestros who altered the face of classical music, and Keanu Reeves, a versatile Hollywood actor who rose to the ranks of fame and fortune: great achievements by great people. All these men have two things in common. History, that each of them had made in their own fields, and gifts, that have driven them to their fullest. Who would have thought that their being â€Å"extraordinary† could bring them this far? Very little is known that these persons were not as â€Å"great† as the others when they were still young. Sadly, they were even less to some who consider themselves higher than the rest. Why? Because unlike others, Albert, Ludwig,†¦show more content†¦They may exhibit repeated body movements like hand flapping, rocking or unusual responses to people or attachments to objects, and resist any changes in routines. In some cases, aggressive and/o r self-injurious behavior may be even present. Certain behavioral, educational, and pharmacological interventions have been demonstrated to be helpful for many individuals with autism, however, there is currently no cure for the disorder. In this great pursuit to find a solution to the difficulty brought by Autism, both for the individual and the care givers, discoveries on symptomatic interventions for autism emerged. Some of which are sensory-motor therapies, facilitated communication, auditory integration training, and sensory integration therapy. Even those who have directly or indirectly encountered this condition were involved in this constant search for answer. Two of them were Martha Welch and Temple Grandin. Dr. Martha Welch coined that a mother’s restraint and holding of a child would lead to normal responses to maternal cues and nurturing interactions and would put an end to the child’s avoidant behavior. 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