Vietnamese celebrate Tet after difficult year HANOI - Vietnam will Friday celebrate the Tet Lunar New Year of the Dragon, and its welcome signs of prosperity after a difficult year marked by a fall in spending power in a country which seems to be always falling prey to economic hardships. Contrary to previous new years, Vietnamese have this year reduced their spending on food and other essential products in the country's markets, who are feeling the pinch. "We are anxious for our future, we must find ways to economise. Who knows where tomorrow?" said Ngyen Duc Doanh, an employee at an import-export company in Hanoi who survives on subsidies from the state. In Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City, the economic capital of the south, consumer products, confectionaries, alcohol, and presents fill market stalls, but the atmosphere is morose. Growth in Vietnam in 1999 and savings are at their lowest levels in 10 years making Tet celebrations almost non-existant for many state employees. "My business is down by 45 percent," complained Nyguen Thi Toan, a shopkeeper who sells liquor in the capital's main market. "Last year was an extremely difficult year," she said. The difficulties hit hardest in central Vietnam, the country's poorest region, where floods in December killed nearly 600 people and caused some 250 million dollars in damage. The government is not optimistic about the future. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai recently spoke about the economic disappointments of 1999, the Year of the Cat in Vietnam, and the risks and threats to Vietnam's growth during the Dragon's year. "The weakness came from a fall in basic developments, in savings at a base level, the drop in development, and the ineffective public sector happening jointly in the economy," warned Khai on national televsion. This has been aggravated by corruption and endemic smuggling resulting in the loss of hundreds of million of dollars to the state and favouring the entry of foreign products from countries which share Vietnam's border, China, Laos, and Combodia. The smuggling, has also suffocated exports from local Vietnamese industries resulting in several hundreds of thousands of people becoming unemployed -- between seven and 16 percent of the population in the countries largest cities in 1999, according to official statistics. To bring down the unemployment rate, encourage savings and help those living on meagre pensions, Vietnam's central bank has cut interest rates four times, recently. But the administration's cutbacks in spending on Vietnam's public enterprises has left the people struggling to meet the expensive outlays for the magnificent feasts uually associated with the Tet holiday. "The age for the use of public money like it was few years ago, has gone, to give a present and organise a meal to finish the year in style with is finished," a state employee, who asked not to be indentified, said with regret. But as a new year dawns, Vietnamese will take consolation during the Tet fireworks displays that the Year of the Dragon assures them of good economic development. Agence France Presse - February 3, 2000.