Vietnam aim to impress at first try
They are leaving no stone unturned to spruce up image for SEA Games
The road-sweeping and gardening brigades are out in force at dawn, the traffic police are practising traffic control at dusk, complete with mock jams, and male citizens have been told not to 'parade' around bare-bodied in their underwear or face a 100,000-dong fine (S$12), and litterbugs can be hauled up to pay 30,000 dong.
Inspectors from the Department of Social Reforms started raiding downtown karaoke bars and massage parlours, storming them in separate squads of 20 to weed out underaged girls, like they did in my hotel on Wednesday night; and souvenir touts bothering tourists will face a 300,000-dong fine. Vagrants and beggars sleeping in parks, on street pavements or under statues will be rounded up and confined to a centre run by the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. An official from the Department of Culture and Information has reported to the media that 'the level of uncivilised behaviour is falling'.
Thousands of plants and trees must have been brought in from the vast countryside to turn the city into green lungs from roadsides to historical sites, and I witnessed police halting cars and motorbikes with smoky exhausts, animatedly telling them to get their machines cleaned up. Phone cards for mobile phones are being introduced in the country for the first time, Intranet computer hook-ups, too, at the new eight-storey Media Centre.
At the airport, the garland squads are welcoming the arrival of foreign teams as if they were VIPs.The streets of Ho Chi Minh City have been decorated with banners, buntings and neon lights extolling all the good relationships that sports will, of course, bring. Workers are adding new coats of paint on old buildings, like the Oscar Saigon Hotel I am staying at.To suggest that Vietnam's preparations for staging their first South-east Asia Games are impressive would be an understatement, to say the least. Fabulous would be more apt a word because it is obvious the government is sparing no effort in its US$85-million (S$146-million) investment to create an excellent first impression.
A nine-day festival called the 'SEA Games Colours' kicked off last Saturday at the Youth Cultural House, where song-and-dance numbers will celebrate Vietnam hosting the Games since their return to the fold at the 15th Games in Malaysia in 1989, 14 years after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.
The best news for the country since liberation was announced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development yesterday, when it said farmers registered record annual food production figures last year, and also regained their position as the world's second-largest rice exporter, behind only Thailand.The stock of the people amid an economic resurgence has changed just as rapidly. When I first came to Ho Chi Minh City in 1992 for the Saigon Inter-port soccer tournament, bicycles were the main mode of transport, millions of them.
Today, they have been overtaken by 100cc Honda Cubs and Vespa scooters, and Mercedes-Benz cars are quite common where none was seen 11 years ago. A new, 50,000-capacity National Stadium has been built in Hanoi, the country's biggest sports complex which includes a 15,000-seat aquatic centre for the swimming competition.
And facilities in the 26 venues hosting 32 sports are reported to have been completed.
Some 7,200 volunteers have been roped in from universities, colleges and schools, specially selected because they can speak English. And cheer-leading squads of 500 for each of the 11 countries taking part are deep in training.
As Nguyen Danh Thai, the head of the organising committee, said in a recent interview: 'As the host country, Vietnam has the opportunity to showcase two distinctive aspects of the country.
'First, we want people to see that Vietnam is a country that has adopted comprehensive reforms in line with its own identity. Our nation is beautiful, hospitable and politically stable.'Second, we want people to see that Vietnam has a long sporting tradition, and I believe Vietnam will leave a beautiful imprint in the hearts of international friends by hosting the SEA Games.'
To do that, the Asia Commercial Bank will award 300 million dong for each gold medal.
The Vietnam football team will earn US$80,000 if they strike gold, with chief coach Alfred Riedl getting US$20,000 and the best player a Mercedes Kompressor saloon worth US$45,000.Indeed, Vietnam seem to have done everything possible to make the 22nd edition of the SEA Games a tremendous success, so let's just wish them the best of luck.They deserve all of it.
By Jeffrey Low - The Straits Times - November 28, 2003
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